SHAL aims to provide high quality services. However, there will be times when we make mistakes and we can’t always get things right. When that happens we want our customers to feel comfortable in letting us know. If you are unhappy about SHAL’s services you can make a complaint by following this process. You can also read our Complaints Policy here.
Stage 1 – Contact any member of staff
This can be done in person, in writing, by telephone, by email, by completing our complaint form below, or in any other way that suits your needs. If the staff member can’t resolve your complaint themselves, they will pass it to someone who can. You should normally get a full response within 10 working days.
If you’re not happy with the resolution you can take it to Stage 2.
Stage 2 – A member of the Executive team and the Complaints Officer
The Director and the Complaints Officer will investigate the complaint – and how it was resolved at Stage 1. You should normally get a full response within 20 working days.
If the complaint is about the Complaints Officer then a member of the Management team will investigate the complaint with the Director.
Exclusions
The following are acceptable exclusions from the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.
- The issue giving rise to the complaint occurred over twelve months ago
- Legal proceedings have started. This is defined as details of the claim, such as Claim Form and Particulars of Claim, having been filed at court
- Matter that have previously been considered under the complaints policy
General Information
SHAL will happily deal with another person if they are helping you to make your complaint but we will normally ask for evidence that they have your permission to do so.
Although we know you might be upset about the issue you are complaining about we still expect you to pursue your complaint in a reasonable manner. We may refuse to deal with a complaint, or may deal with it in a different way, if it is pursued unreasonably or behaviours are unacceptable.
Self-assessment and review by the Board
We have completed a self-assessment of our Complaint process in line with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code published in April 2024.
Our Board reviews all complaints annually, most recently in May 2025. You can see the report here. The Board’s response to the complaints report was ‘In 2024/25 the number of complaints fell by 42% which is the lowest number since 2020/21 when we received 31 complaints on a service restricted by Covid.
SHAL’ s Board regards complaints as useful feedback providing valuable learning opportunities. We aim to ensure that our complaints process is easy, clear, accessible and well-advertised and encourage residents to let us know if they are dissatisfied with the home we provide or our services.
This year the Housing Ombudsman undertook 6 investigations as a result of referrals from residents. We received 3 Orders from the Ombudsman which we fulfilled and learned from.
We have improved the monitoring and evaluation systems for complaints and are looking to make further improvements in the coming year via the housing management system this year. The Board ordered an internal audit of the Complaints Handling system this year which reported that we could have substantial assurance in the policies and processes in place to manage and monitor complaints. We are particularly pleased that all complaints have been dealt with within deadlines this year as a result of the improvements we have put in place and with the fact that people who have complained to us have been invited to join the focus groups reviewing our work in maintenance and how we respond to people with disabilities. This is in line with SHAL’s values of relationship and community building which supports all the work we do.’
We’ve also published our Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) for 2023/24 which include measures on how we’ve responded to complaints.
The Complaints Officer
Our Complaints Officer is our Housing Manager.
Housing Ombudsman
If you remain unhappy after receiving the resolution you can take your complaint to the independent Housing Ombudsman Service. We will send you more details of how to do this at the time but if you wish to contact the Ombudsman’s office for advice you can:
• call them on: 0300 111 3000
• email them at info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk or
• write to Housing Ombudsman Service, 81 Aldwych, London WC2B 4HN
The Regulator for Social Housing
The Regulator for Social Housing publishes Standards they expect providers like SHAL to meet. The Economic Standards are about ho we work and perform as an organisation and the Consumer Standards are about the services we provide to our tenants and customers.