Making a Complaint

At WHS, we always try our best to do the right thing. Sometimes you may feel we haven’t succeeded.
If that happens, please tell us, so we can try to put it right.

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 any individual resident or group of residents.” If you have something like this that you want to tell us about, this page of our website sets out a summary of what you should do.  If you would like to read the full detail of our Complaints Policy you can find it on this link.  Here is our summary:

Stage One

Approach the Society’s Chief Executive/Secretary. You can do this by ringing 01962 841545, or by emailing, or in writing to The Chief Executive (CEO), Winchester Housing Society, 6a Ronald Bowker Court, Greenhill Road, SO22 5EA.
We will ask you for full information about the matter and we may ask you to put it in writing (we can help you with that if you need assistance), or to meet with you. We will respond in writing within 10 working days, as well as explaining how our complaints process works. This is called Stage One of your complaint, and all Stage One matters will be added to the Society’s complaints log. Most matters can be dealt with fully at Stage One without moving to Stage Two. But if you are not satisfied at the end of Stage One, your complaint can be moved on to Stage Two.

Stage Two

We will make sure there is a written summary of your complaint that both you and the Society agree about factually (we will write this for you and ask you to review  – if you do not agree with the facts, you will be able to make this clear on the summary). The summary will be passed to the Society’s Chairman who will either deal with it him/herself or arrange for a Committee colleague(s) to do so; whoever carries out the task will be known as the Complaint Reviewer. The Complaint Reviewer will offer to speak or meet confidentially with the person who raised the complaint, at a suitable place such as their home, the Society office, or at another convenient venue. The Complaint Reviewer will respond to you in writing within 20 working days, and the Society’s complaints log will be updated with any new findings and conclusions.

Please remember

Remember we will probably need to ring/write back to you, and possibly meet, in order to look into your complaint properly and get the information we need. We cannot do that unless you give us your name and contact details. You can ask someone else to help you complain, but we will still need to have enough information to be able to investigate the facts and communicate with you.

The complaint log is always available for anyone on the Society’s Committee to examine, and summaries of everything in the Log are brought to each Committee Meeting to ensure that committee members are aware of the matters arising and how they have been addressed.

The Ombudsman

If you have been completely through Stage One and Stage Two, and are still not satisfied, you have the right to contact the Housing Ombudsman. At the end of Stage Two we will remind you about this, and make sure you have up to date details to contact the Ombudsman if you wish to:

The Housing Ombudsman Service
PO Box 1484, Unit D

Preston PR2 0ET
Tel: 0300 111 3000

Checking our complaints process

All registered social landlords like WHS must carry out an annual self-assessment against the Complaint Handling Code published by the Housing Ombudsman. We use the Code to tell us what the Ombudsman expects us to do if we receive a complaint about our services. The Code is also useful for tenants and residents, giving information about how complaints help to raise standards and give support.

Self assessment by WHS

Download

Annual report to the Committee of Management about complaints, with the Committee's Response 2025

Download

FAQs

What is not covered by the WHS complaints process?

Anti social behaviour, problems with neighbours, things that happened in the past (eg: more than 12 months ago), matters that have already gone through the complaints process, some types of legal proceedings, other things that it is “fair and reasonable” not to treat as a complaint). We will always discuss with you and explain if we are not able to accept a complaint into Stage One or Two, and we will try to help you find the right way to deal with the problem you are experiencing.

What if I just want to tell WHS that a repair or replacement has gone wrong or hasn’t been done yet?

This wouldn’t be a complaint to be dealt with under this Complaints Process, as repairs are routine service requests. Please raise the matter with the Society’s Property Manager or Chief Executive in the usual way. If it doesn’t get resolved properly you can bring it to Stage One if you wish.

Should we still give routine feedback about repairs and other matters?

Yes, feedback of all kinds (good, bad or neutral) is always useful to us. Sometimes we may suggest that your feedback should also be put into Stage One, and follow the complaints process. But please also tell us when things go well, and what you would like to see more of.

Who can I speak to if I am not sure whether I should make a complaint?

The quickest way to get an answer is to contact the Chief Executive, but please speak with any Society staff you are comfortable approaching (they will seek advice from the Chief Executive if its needed).

Remedies and putting things right

At WHS, we always try our best to do the right thing.  We also expect our repair contractors (and other partners working on our behalf) to do the same.  Sometimes things may go wrong, and WHS may take a remedy action to help put things right.  That might happen whether or not the complaints process has been used.  When we consider making a remedy, we always look at the details of each case individually, while being fair and consistent in our approach.  We have to take care in how we use our charitable resources and funds, and we act reasonably and flexibly.

Remedies might be saying sorry and giving an apology, help with decorating,  showing goodwill by making a discretionary gift like flowers or chocolates, reimbursing reasonable costs, or making changes to our service.

What about Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB)?

Anti- Social Behaviour is not a complaint about the Society, but our tenants and their households are welcome to seek our advice about ASB or similar matters, and we will try to help or refer you to other agencies or specialists.  If you are unhappy about how we try to deal with your ASB problem, you can then take a complaint about this to Stage One.

Have an Enquiry?

Need to get in touch? Got an idea for how we can improve our services? Want find out more information about Winchester Housing Society? Contact us we will get back to you as soon as possible.

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Submit a Repair Request

Do you have a maintenance issue you wish to submit? Use the repair request form to submit details of your issue so we can make sure the right person is sent to deal with the problem.

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