Landlord services are the housing services that we provide to you because you are a council tenant(s) or leaseholder(s).
These services include:
Complaints about landlord services are treated slightly differently from complaints about other council services, including other Housing Services like homelessness and general housing advice.
This factsheet:
We always aim to provide the best possible landlord services to you. However, we know that from time-to-time things do go wrong. When this happens we would like to know – your feedback helps us to improve our services.
If you are dissatisfied because:
… please tell us as soon as possible.
The easiest and quickest way for you to let us know there is a problem is to talk to your Housing Officer or their manager.
We will work with you to try to:
We aim to resolve most complaints informally within 5 working days.
If you have discussed the issues but couldn’t agree a way forward through the informal complaints process please call the Council’s Customer Contact Centre to make a formal complaint.
How to complain:
It is helpful if you can provide as much detail as possible about your experience and an outline of an outcome you think would be reasonable and appropriate.
We aim to complete this stage within 20 working days. We will keep you informed of any delays.
If we cannot reach an agreement and you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the investigation you can ask for a review – you must do this in writing within 14 working days of receiving your letter.
Your letter should say why you feel we haven’t dealt with your complaint fairly, and what outcomes you wish to achieve as a result of having your complaint investigated further.
We aim to complete this stage within 30 working days and will keep you informed of any delays.
This is the end of the council’s internal complaint procedure.
4. Taking your complaint further
You have the right, at any point during the Council’s Complaints process, to contact the Housing Ombudsman, who is independent of the Council, regarding your complaint. However, the Housing Ombudsman will usually only investigate a complaint If you have exhausted the council’s complaints process. If you contact them in between stages of the Complaints process, they will usually refer the case back to the Council to complete any remaining stages. However, there are exceptions to this, and each case is looked at individually by the Housing Ombudsman.
The Housing Ombudsman’s contact details are as follows:
The Housing Ombudsman Service
PO Box 152
Liverpool
L33 7WQ
Tel: 0300 111 3000 (9.15am-5.15pm: Monday to Friday)
E-mail: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk
0118 937 3787
customer.relations@reading.gov.uk
Customer Relations Team, Floor 2, South Read, Civic Offices, Bridge Street, Reading RG1 2LU
0118 937 2730
tenant.participation@reading.gov.uk
0300 111 3000
www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk
03444 111 306
rcab.org.uk