Customer complaints policy

We aim to give our customers the best possible service, first time, every time. Sometimes, things go wrong, and customers don’t get the service they expect, or we fall short of the standards we have promised. When that happens, the way we manage, resolve and learn from complaints is key to helping us improve our services and provide a great customer experience. We aim to do all we can to resolve the issue as  quickly as possible and learn from it.

This policy explains how we’ll make it easy for our customers to tell us when things have gone wrong, how we’ll try to find a resolution and our approach to compensation.

When a complaint is made, customers can expect us to:

• Listen and make sure we understand their concerns.
• Confirm what we’re investigating and what they want to happen.
• Explain our decision clearly and what happens next.

Who this policy applies to and what it covers

This policy and process applies to:

• All Magna customers, former customers, leaseholders, and members of the public affected by our services. Members of the public don’t have access to the Housing Ombudsman Service. Any reference to the Housing Ombudsman Service in this policy is only in relation to complaints which are within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

We accept complaints made by advocates authorised to act on a customer’s behalf and we’ll record and respond to these in the same way as a complaint made directly by a customer.

We expect all of our colleagues to make every effort to resolve customer issues and to fix problems quickly and efficiently. Personal contact with customers and early ownership of problems is important to us and the way we manage complaints. We’ll give customers the choice to make a complaint if they are expressing dissatisfaction.

This policy complies with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code effective from April 2024. Our latest self-assessment against the Code as part of the annual complaint performance and service improvement report and our Strategic Board’s response to the report is published on our complaints page.

Definition of a complaint

We use the Housing Ombudsman’s definition of a complaint:

‘An expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, our actions or lack of action, our own staff, or those acting on our behalf, affecting a resident or group of residents.’

Customers don’t have to use the word ‘complaint’ for it to be treated as such.

• Confirm when a service request has become a formal complaint.
• Make it easy for customers to tell us if they’re unhappy at any stage.

Service requests are recorded, monitored and reviewed regularly through our housing management system and associated reports. Complaints are recorded and managed separately in line with our complaints process.

The safety of our customers is important to us. If we receive a complaint concerning the safety of a customer or their home, we’ll treat it as a priority and clearly explain what we’re doing and when.

If we decide not to accept a complaint, we’ll explain our reasons to the complainant and advise them of the right to take the decision to the Ombudsman. We will not consider a matter as a complaint where:

• There is already an alternative, appropriate appeal procedure available, such as in the allocation of properties or the first-tier tribunal service. However, we will accept a complaint about our handling of the matter.
• Legal proceedings have been started. These are defined as details of the claim such as the Claim Form and Particulars of claim, having been filed at court. Legal proceedings exclude the pre-action protocol or mediation stage.
• It has already been considered under our customer complaints policy.
• The issue happened over 12 months ago, or the customer should reasonably have been aware of the issue over 12 months ago (except where complaints concern safeguarding or health and safety issues), unless there are good reasons why the complaint was made outside this time limit.

If the problem is recurring, we’ll consider any older reports as part of the background to the complaint if this helps to resolve the issue.

Building Safety Complaints

• An agreement can’t be reached between the PAP and the AP.
• There is no satisfactory outcome after a final response is given.
• The complainant is not satisfied with the outcome.

Customers can contact the Building Safety Regulator using the following details:

• 0300 790 6787.
• hse.gov.uk/building-safety/regulator.htm.

All relevant building safety complaints will stay on file for seven years. This information will be retained in accordance with our internal complaints and data retention policies and processed in compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. 

Data Protection complaints

We will always aim to resolve concerns first, but customers have the right to contact the ICO at any time. If a customer is unhappy with how we have handles their personal information, they have the right to raise their concerns with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The ICO is the UK's independent authority for data protection. 

• ico.org.uk
• 0303 123 1113

Access to information (social tenant access to information requirements) complaints

If a customer feels we haven’t published information or responded to their request for information appropriately in line with the expectations of our Access to information (social tenant access to information requirements) policy, or they’re dissatisfied with our handling of their request, they can request a review. A request for a review should generally be made within three months of receipt of the original decision and is considered separately to a formal complaint.

The review is separate to our formal complaints process outlined in this policy and is a one-stage review process only, with customers able to ask The Housing Ombudsman Service to investigate if they remain dissatisfied after our review.

Full details of how we manage review requests can be found in our Access to information (social tenant access to information requirements) policy.

Unreasonable or vexatious complaints

If a customer makes the same, or similar, complaint repeatedly without good reason, or appears to be raising a complaint with no grounds in order to cause disruption, annoyance or harassment, we reserve the right to close the complaint or refuse to investigate it.

We have an unacceptable customer behaviour policy and procedure in place for managing unacceptable behaviour from customers and/or their representatives. Any restrictions placed on contact due to unacceptable behaviour is proportionate and kept under regular review.

Our customer complaints policy

We accept complaints in a variety of ways, including:

• On our website: magna.org.uk/contact-us/complaints.
• By post: Customer complaints team, Magna Housing, Everdene House, Railway Triangle Industrial Estate, Poundbury Road, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 2PJ.
• By email: customer.complaints@magna.org.uk.
• By phone: 0800 358 6025.
• In-person or when speaking with any of our colleagues.

If customers prefer to speak to someone, we’ll support them.

When complaints are made publicly on our social media channels, we respond in a private chat or offline to maintain privacy and confidentiality.

Our dedicated complaints handlers will receive nationally recognised disputes resolution training to support them to:

• Deal with complaints fairly.
• Act independently and with an open mind.
• Deal with conflicts of interest.
• Give the customer a fair chance to explain their position.
• Support relevant colleagues to gather information needed to investigate and resolve the complaint.
• Consider evidence and information carefully.
• Keep the complaint confidential as far as possible.
• Put things right for customers and monitor outstanding actions.
• Ensure there is learning from complaints and service improvements are made.

Acknowledgement

Complaints will be logged and acknowledged by email or in writing within five working days of receipt. If any part of the complaint is unclear, we’ll ask the complainant for clarification. We’ll set out our understanding of the complaint, recognise the impact of the situation and the outcomes the customer is seeking in the acknowledgement.

The acknowledgement will give a target date for a response, the name of the complaints advisor and, if agreed with the customer at this stage, any other methods or frequency of contact.

Stage one

Complaints will be fully investigated with relevant colleagues and, where necessary, the complainant.

If the complaint is about a member of the complaints team it will be investigated independently by the Complaints Resolution Lead, Head of Customer Contact and Community Support or another head of service.

Any escalated complaints (including, but not limited to, serious injury, data protection/legal matters, health and safety, racism or discrimination and any complaints involving a minor or vulnerable person) will be investigated by the relevant head of service/director.

If the complaint is about the head of service/director, it will be investigated independently by another head of service/director.

The complaint will be responded to by email or in writing, within 10 working days of the acknowledgement, by which time the answer to the complaint should be known. If it's not known, and in exceptional circumstances, we may need more time. This will be no more than 10 days without good reason. We’ll deal with any outstanding actions as quickly as possible, keep track of them, and update the complainant. In circumstances where the complaint response can’t be issued within the initial or extended timescale, we’ll agree a new time with the customer.

If a customer raises additional points that are relevant to the investigation, they may be included in the stage one investigation if the response hasn’t been issued. Where the stage one response has been issued, or it would unreasonably delay the response, the complaint will be logged as a new complaint.

If a customer is unhappy with our response, they can ask us to review the complaint at stage two.

Stage two

• What we’re looking into (the complaint definition).
• The decision on the complaint. The reasons for any decisions made.
• The details of any remedy offered to put things right.
• Details of any outstanding actions.
• What happens next.
• If this is at stage one, details of how to escalate to stage two or at stage two, how to escalate to the Housing Ombudsman if the complainant remains dissatisfied.

If we need more time at either stage, we'll provide the customer with the Housing Ombudsman's contact details so that they can challenge our response.

If a customer is unhappy with our response, they can contact the Housing Ombudsman Service.

We’ll publicise the Housing Ombudsman Service and inform the customer that they have the right to refer the complaint to this service.

Putting things right

• Apologising.
• Acting if there has been a delay.
• Reconsidering or changing a decision.
• Amending a record.
• Providing a financial remedy.
• Changing policies, procedures or practices.

We aim to treat customers fairly in circumstances where compensation may be appropriate. Levels of compensation or other payments may be determined by law, tenancy agreements or by the individual set of circumstances, as detailed in our Compensation policyCompensation Policy.

Learning and improving from complaints

To understand the areas of our services where customers are dissatisfied, learn from complaints and improve our services, we will:

• Contact every customer who makes a complaint to ask them how we dealt with it. This helps us improve the way we manage and resolve complaints.
• Involve relevant colleagues in a lessons learnt process with changes made where necessary. When we carry out this review we will also try to identify if there are any underlying reasons for things going wrong.
• Make sure that learnings and changes made as a result of complaints are recorded formally and reviewed for themes, which will be discussed at Leadership level. The Strategic Board will review complaint trends and their outcomes at least once a year.
• Make sure that insight from complaints themes and service failures are considered when developing the annual internal audit programme. Any structural or process changes (if not urgent) will be considered at budget setting time and when agreeing the future year’s projects and plans.

Responsibilities

Managers are responsible for ensuring their teams understand the importance and value of customer feedback, for cooperating fully with complaints investigations, learning from complaints and implementing changes identified as a result.

Every year, we agree key performance indicators which will be used to monitor complaints. We'll report complaints performance annually to the Regulator of Social Housing as part of the Tenant Satisfaction Measures.

We’ll publish this policy, our self-assessment against the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code and our annual complaints report annually. You can view the self-assessment and annual complaints report here. 

Customers can discuss their complaints with the Housing Ombudsman Service at any stage and refer their complaint to be investigated by the Housing Ombudsman Service after receiving their stage two complaint response. Their contact details are: 

• 0300 111 3000.
• housing-ombudsman.org.uk.
• Housing Ombudsman Service, PO Box 1484, Unit D, Preston, PR2 0ET.