Complaints, compliments and feedback on housing services

If you are one of our tenants (you live in a house owned by Uttlesford District Council) we want to hear from you. You can tell us if you have a complaint, a compliment or you just want to give us feedback about our housing service or any repairs we've carried out.

What a complaint is

The Housing Ombudsman defines a complaint as:

An expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual resident or group of residents.
 

If you have a compliment or feedback

Use our general feedback form to tell us your experience of Uttlesford District Council so that we know what we've done right or how we need to improve in the future. Alternatively you can call us on 01799 510510 or email uconnect@uttlesford.gov.uk. You can also get in touch with us using alternative methods via our contact us page.

If you have a complaint

Find out how to make a complaint and what to do at the different stages.

Stage 1: make a complaint

You can make a complaint by email, letter or through the online form on our website. We will also accept a complaint over the telephone.

Make a complaint

By email

Send your compliant by email to: housingcomplaints@uttlesford.gov.uk

In writing

Complain by writing a letter to: Housing, Uttlesford District Council, London Road, Saffron Walden CB11 4ER

By telephone

Complain by calling us on 01799 510510

Online

Complain by using our online form.

Complain about housing
 

• We will log your complaint and send you an acknowledgement that we have received your complaint within 5 working days (not including weekends and bank holidays).
   
• We will investigate and always aim to respond to your complaint in writing within 10 working days of the complaint being logged.
  ⚠ Note that complex complaints may take longer to investigate.
  Should this be the case, we will keep you informed of the likely timescale for fully resolving your complaint. If we need more than the 10 working days to resolve your complaint, we will discuss this with you first and provide clear reasons why we need to extend the timescale for a further period of time.
   
• If you ask us to deal with an issue that does not fall within our complaint's procedure, we will let you know what other options may be available to you. For example, by asking other council services or outside organisations.
   
• We will also let you know how to move your complaint to Stage 2 of the procedure if you are not happy with the response at Stage 1, you should contact us ideally within 10 working days to escalate your complaint to Stage 2.

Stage 2: ask for a review of your complaint

• Once the manager has responded at Stage 1, if you are unhappy with the way your complaint has been dealt with, you should ideally contact us within 10 working days, and we will escalate your complaint to the relevant service head or equivalent. The officer reviewing the complaint at Stage 2 will be more senior than the officer who investigated at Stage 1.
   
• For complaints which relate to the conduct of a Director these will be reviewed by a Director of another council service or the Chief Executive. Complaints relating to the Chief Executive will be reviewed by the Leader of the Council.

• We will log your complaint and send you an acknowledgement that we have received your Stage 2 complaint within 5 working days.
   
• The Stage 2 investigating officer will investigate your complaint further and aim to respond within 20 working days of the complaint being logged.
   
• The purpose of Stage 2 is to ensure that everything you raised in your original complaint has been looked at in detail and correctly addressed and, if not, to make sure that this now happens.

Refer to the Ombudsman

If you remain dissatisfied after your stage 2 response you can escalate your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman. The Ombudsman is an independent public body who can investigate how the council has handled your complaint.

Please note you can contact the Housing Ombudsman Service at any point during the complaint process at info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk

They cannot investigate your complaint whilst your complaint is going through our internal complaints procedure however the Ombudsman may be able to help you and your landlord reach a resolution.

The Housing Ombudsman has a Complaints Handling Code that sets out good practice for all social housing landlords, including Uttlesford District Council. The code helps us respond to complaints effectively and fairly.

You can find out more about Ombudsman services on the Local Government Ombudsman website and the Housing Ombudsman Service website.

Our complaints policy

Find information about what we do at each stage in our Housing Complaints Policy.

Our Managing unacceptable behaviour policy defines what we consider to be unacceptable behaviour.