How to make a complaint

We aim to provide excellent service, but if something goes wrong, we want to hear about it. We treat all complaints seriously and investigate them fairly.

This page covers everything from what a complaint is to how to make a complaint, our complaints process and the role of the Housing Ombudsman. If there's anything extra you'd like to know, please get in touch.

What counts as a complaint?

What’s not a complaint?

Not every issue is a complaint. If it’s the first time we’re hearing about a problem, it’s considered a request - not a complaint. Examples include:

Your first request for a repair
Asking for info or clarification
Reporting anti-social behaviour (ASB) - we handle that under a separate ASB policy

Queries about the amount of service charge or rent increase set in line with policy are not considered to be a complaint under our Complaints Policy.

And if something happened over a year ago and you haven’t raised it before, we can’t accept it as a complaint.

How to complain

We’ve made it easy to get in touch. Choose what works for you:

Log in to MyHomeOnline
Fill out our complaints form
Email us at complaints@tch.org.uk
Use the web chat (bottom right of our site)
Call our Customer Service team: 01892 501480
Write to: Town & Country Housing, Monson House, Monson Way, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 1LQ.

Need help making a complaint? You can contact your local Citizens Advice at 020 7833 2181 or visit citizensadvice.org.uk.

Complaints policies and procedure

What happens next

In line with the Housing Ombudsman’s guidance, we have a two stage complaints process.

Stage 1

We’ll log and acknowledge your complaint within five working days of receipt
We’ll contact you to understand what went wrong
Our goal is to respond to it within 10 working days of the acknowledgement. If it’s a more complex problem, we’ll let you know and give a new response date (max 10 extra working days).
Once we’ve got answers and a where appropriate, a resolution, we’ll send you a response. If there’s follow-up work (like a repair), we’ll keep you updated until any agreed actions are completed.

Stage 2

Not satisfied with our Stage 1 response? You can escalate to Stage 2.

Submit your request within 20 working days of our Stage 1 reply. In exceptional cases, we may allow complaints to be escalated after the 20 day deadline
If we don’t escalate, we’ll explain why and point you to the Housing Ombudsman Service for further advice

When escalating, please tell us why you’re still unhappy. If it’s about something new, we’ll log it as a fresh Stage 1 complaint and explain the process

We’ll acknowledge your request within five working days of receipt
A Stage 2 handler will investigate and respond within 20 working of the acknowledgment. If it’s more complex, we’ll let you know and give a new timeline (max 20 extra working days).

The Housing Ombudsman

The Housing Ombudsman is an independent, impartial, and free service for social housing residents who can review complaints once they have completed our internal process.

You can speak to the Housing Ombudsman at any point during your complaint.

However, they won’t make a decision about how we handled your complaint until you’ve finished our full complaints process.

How to contact them

Address:
Housing Ombudsman Service
PO Box 1484, Unit D
Preston, PR2 0ET
Phone: 0300 111 3000
On-line complaints form
Website

Complaint Handling Code

The Housing Ombudsman created a Complaint Handling Code in 2020 to set out best practices for dealing with complaints. As a member, we’re expected to follow the code and annually review how we handle complaints.

What we do

As part of the annual review we will:

Carry out a self-assessment against the Complaint Handling Code
Write a Complaints and Service Improvement Report reflecting on complaint handling for the financial year
Submit the report to our governing body for approval and comment
Publish the self-assessment, report and board response on our website.

You can read our board’s comments and our latest Self-Assessment and Improvement Report below. We’ll update these documents every year - or sooner if the Ombudsman or regulations require it.

Town & Country Housing Board statement on the Annual Complaints and Service Improvement Report for 2024/25

The Town & Country Housing Board has reviewed the Annual Complaints and Service Improvement Report as well as its self-assessment in relation to the The Housing Ombudsman's complaint handling code 2024.

The Board is pleased to report that Town & Country Housing (TCH) demonstrates full compliance with all provisions of the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code and has established an accessible, transparent, and resident-focused complaints process.

We note significant progress in complaint handling processes, with streamlined procedures for complaint definition, acknowledgement, and resolution that improve clarity and transparency for residents. Our dedicated Complaints and Feedback Team now oversees quality assurance and compliance monitoring, while the Member Responsible for Complaints receives regular reporting and plays an active role in ensuring Board visibility.

We are committed to a learning culture where complaint outcomes and lessons learned are systematically recorded and shared with colleagues, residents, and governance committees. Service improvements have been implemented based on recurring complaint themes, demonstrating our commitment to using resident feedback to enhance service delivery.

Moving forward, the Board recognises the need to continue reviewing complaint closure times, escalation rates, and customer satisfaction metrics to demonstrate operational effectiveness. We will strengthen resident feedback loops to ensure that learning from complaints is clearly communicated to those affected.

The Board takes its responsibility for championing a positive complaint handling culture seriously and is confident that TCH's approach demonstrates both regulatory compliance and a genuine commitment to using complaints as a driver for service improvement and enhanced resident experience.

This statement has been agreed in conjunction with the Member Responsible for Complaints, on behalf of the Town & Country Housing Board.

Town & Country Housing Board Statement on the Annual Complaints and Service Improvement Report for 2023/24

Managing complaints in a way that promotes resident service improvement is a priority for the Board, and we acknowledge that resident satisfaction with the complaint handling process and the complaints performance for 2023–2024 is not to the performance standard we want.

We need to foster more effective communication and accountability throughout the organisation and maintain consistently good record-keeping to reduce complaints. Our new Customer Experience Strategy has been developed to drive a culture of delivering a great customer experience, including in relation to mitigating complaints and complaints handling.

We also need to enhance our repairs service response times and improve communication, transparency, accountability, and resident satisfaction. In the meantime additional resources have been deployed to meet the immediate challenges around complaints.

The Board has strengthened governance arrangements to ensure effective oversight of complaints. Board level reporting considers the root causes of complaints and the actions being taken to address these. The Board takes its role in championing a positive complaint handling culture seriously and is supported in this by the Resident Experience Committee and the Member Responsible for Complaints.

This statement has been agreed in conjunction with the Member Responsible for Complaints, on behalf of the Town & Country Housing Board.