Customer compliments and complaints
We will always try and give you the very best customer service. We know sometimes things go well and sometimes we make mistakes. Your feedback helps us to improve our services.
We can often resolve any problems you might have by you simply getting in touch and explaining the problem. This is usually the quickest way to get issues sorted. If you are still not happy with the way we have dealt with your enquiry, you can raise a formal complaint. You will receive a letter of acknowledgement within 5 working days, and we aim to resolve complaints within 10 working days. We have a compliments and complaints policy which goes into further detail about how we will deal with your complaint and what you can expect from us.
What is a complaint?
An expression of dissatisfaction, made in any way, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by Connect, a member of our staff, or those acting on our behalf, which affects an individual resident or group of residents.
How to make a complaint
To make a formal complaint you can write to us, email us at complaints@connecthousing.org.uk, fill out the form on this page, or call us on 0300 5000 600. You can also make a complaint via your online account. Please provide plenty of detail on:
- What your complaint is about.
- What you feel Connect has done wrong.
- What you would like Connect to do.
Please note that we have no relationship with any external third-party complaint websites, and they are not linked to our complaints process. The only way we can guarantee your complaint will be addressed is if you submit it to us directly, via one of the channels listed above.
The Housing Ombudsman Scheme
The Housing Ombudsman Service is set up by law to look at complaints about the housing organisations that are registered with them. Their service is free, independent and impartial.
They resolve disputes involving the tenants and leaseholders of social landlords (housing associations and local authorities) and voluntary members. Residents and landlords can contact the Ombudsman at any time for support in helping to resolve a dispute. The service is funded through annual landlord subscription fees.
The Housing Ombudsman publishes a Complaint Handling Code, setting out good practice on resolving complaints, As members, we are required to assess how compliant we are with the code. You can view the Complaint Handing Code on the Housing Ombudsman’s website, and you can view our latest self-assessment here.
Annual Complaints Review and Service Improvement Report
The new statutory Housing Ombudsman (HOS) Code requires landlords to publish an Annual Complaint Performance and Service Improvement Report on their website. Our report for 2024-2025 is available to read now.
Board member Claire McManus said:
“As Connect Housing’s Member Responsible for Complaints, my role is to support Connect’s adherence with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code and confirm that our Self-Assessment and Annual Report have gone through appropriate scrutiny and review.
“Connect and its Board continue to build a positive complaints culture, listening to and supporting our customers to improve our service. We are committed to addressing feedback and identifying root causes where possible to take preventative measures.”
In 2025, the Housing Ombudsman published their Annual Complaints Review for 2024-25. The full report can be found on their website.
Our process for dealing with complaints
Our process for dealing with your complaint is broken up into two stages.
At Stage 1, we will acknowledge your complaint in five working days.
Your complaint will be assigned to a Complaints Resolution Officer or a service manager who will investigate your complaint. We will contact you to discuss your complaint in more detail. We will respond in full to your complaint within 10 working days.
We may need to extend this timescale depending on the complexity of the complaint. If we do, we will inform you of this. Any extension will not be more than 10 working days, unless in exceptional circumstances which will be agreed with you.
If you think our response does not fully resolve your complaint, please tell us what the remaining problem is. At this point, you can request that your complaint is moved to Stage 2.
If all or part of the complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction at Stage 1, it must be progressed to Stage 2. Stage 2 is Connect’s final response.
At Stage 2, we will escalate and acknowledge your complaint in five working days. Your complaint will be assigned to a Head of Service or a member of our Leadership team to investigate.
We will contact you to discuss your complaint in more detail.
We will issue a final response to the Stage 2 within 20 working days of the complaint being acknowledged.
Where we are unable to provide a full response within 20 working days, we may need to extend this timescale depending on the complexity of the complaint and will inform you of this. Any extension will not be more than 20 working days, unless in exceptional circumstances which will be agreed with you.
If you think that our Stage 2 response has still not resolved your complaint and you are a tenant, leaseholder or housing applicant of Connect, you can refer your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman. This can only be done after you have received our final response to your complaint and have therefore fully exhausted our complaints process.
Once your complaint has gone through our two-stage complaint process, and you’re a tenant, leaseholder or housing applicant of Connect Housing you can refer the matter to the Housing Ombudsman if you are still not satisfied.
The Ombudsman provides a free and independent service to tenants and will investigate your complaint. The service is entirely independent of Connect. However, the Ombudsman will not consider your complaint until you have completed both stages of our complaints process.
Our complaints performance in Quarter Four
Key themes identified from complaints in January – March 2026.
We received 71 stage 1 complaints this quarter. This is on par with the same period in the previous year.
Property services and contractor-related complaints were the most common this quarter. The shared themes across these complaints included poor communication and issues around the quality of work. There were also complaints around contractors failing to attend appointments.
To combat this, priority improvements have been agreed such as strengthening communication, spot checks on work quality and issues with contractors being flagged and escalated.
In this period, Neighbourhoods also saw 13 complaints, largely around ASB case handling and communication. January saw a significant reduction in complaints following the launch of the new Community Housing team, but this improvement wasn’t sustained across the quarter.
The focus now is on finalising and implementing outstanding policies, particularly to support new Community Housing Officers, strengthening case review arrangements, and clarifying ownership and communication responsibilities during the legal stages of ASB cases.
Over this quarter, we saw 12 complaints progress through to Stage 2.
Property services and Neighbourhoods were the service areas with most escalations to Stage 2 with five each, followed closely by Contractors with four.
Six out of the 12 complaints were not upheld. One related to a mistake by a contractor, two were fully upheld, and three partially upheld. The key issues across all service areas continues to be around poor communication, along with actions not being completed in a timely manner or with poor workmanship.
A review of the complaint process will be carried out to consider what improvements can be made in terms of ensuring good communication.
Quarterly performance archive
Key themes identified from complaints in October - December 2025.
This quarter we received 58 stage one complaints. This is on par with the same period in the previous year.
Contractor-related complaints were the most common this quarter. Issues centred on missed appointments, poor communication, lack of engineer consideration for vulnerable tenants, and failures to share key information with Connect.
Priority improvements for Q4 have been agreed around communication, appointment management, and escalation protocols, with further reviews scheduled.
Neighbourhoods saw 17 complaints, with improvement noted in December following the introduction of Community
Housing Assistants and additional resources. Complaints training has now been embedded into induction for new staff, with a focus on progressing actions to avoid Stage 2 escalation.Property Services received 12 complaints in Q3. Themes included communication failures, particularly around complex repairs involving surveyors and contractors. Communication gaps between surveyors and contractors have been addressed, and improvements introduced through streamlined processes and training.
11 complaints progressed through to stage two. Neighbourhoods remained the service area with most escalations, continuing the trend from the previous quarter.
Following the service restructure, stronger emphasis is now being placed on prioritising complaint actions across the team. A monthly reminder is now being sent directly from the Complaints team to any person with an action logged, to ensure regular contact is being made to keep tenants informed.
The introduction of the Community Housing Assistant role, has had a significant positive impact on tenant communication. We are hopeful that escalations in this area will reduce in the coming quarter.
Across the association, the primary driver of complaints escalating to Stage 2 continues to be poor communication, particularly in relation to delayed actions and repairs. While communication within the Neighbourhoods team improved during Q3, further training has now been delivered to improve this further.
Key themes identified from complaints in July - September 2025.
This quarter, we received 56 Stage One complaints and seven Stage Two complaints.
This is a 30% rise
in Stage One complaints from the previous quarter, though a decline in complaints escalating to Stage Two.Neighbourhoods was the service area which received the most complaints this quarter with 21 in total. This was followed by property services with 15.
Complaints around neighbourhoods had two themes: lack of actions/communication during active ASB cases, and perceptions around staff behaviour.
New ASB policies were launched in July 2025. This led to some minor failings in following the new process, but we expect performance to improve as the new ways of working bed in. We have also refocussed on the importance of ensuring our communication to residents is clear and precise, while not rushing conversations and leaving people feeling that they've not been heard
Communication is also a theme in complaints around property services, along with quality of works. We are going through a 'repairs reset' with staff to address some of the issues highlighted, including around technology and communication.
Seven complaints escalated to Stage Two this quarter. The root causes of the complaints that have escalated are poor communication and the quality of response letters at Stage One. In these cases, we have not done enough to manage expectations, nor been clear and precise with our advice, and/or kept the tenant informed.
We have introduced a new Complaints Resolution Officer role, which will mean that we have increased capacity to deliver a consistent and robust Stage One process. On this basis, we hope to see a decrease in the number of complaints escalating to Stage Two due to the complaint handling element.
Key themes identified from complaints in April - June 2025.
This quarter saw a significant drop in complaints relating to Contractors. Regular meetings and monitoring of the service improvement plan has helped to reduce issues with this area, but we are still experiencing some issues outside of the norm.
The most common category of complaints for this quarter was Property Services. Some complaints related to damp, mould and condensation, and the process for that is now being reviewed. Other issues highlighted within these complaints included dissatisfaction due to lack of action and poor communication.
Poor communication was also highlighted in complaints relating to Neighbourhoods, however the common theme throughout all Neighbourhoods complaints was a perceived lack of response to reports of anti-social behaviour (ASB). New ASB and conflict resolution policies were implemented at the end of the quarter.
12 complaints escalated to stage two this quarter. The root causes for these escalating were a lack of actions/improvements following the stage one response, and poor response letters.
As a result, we'll be contacting tenants who have gone through the complaint process to get more feedback, including what we can improve to ensure our complaints are being dealt with more effectively at stage one.
