Did we get it wrong?

CHS always aims to provide a good service, however sometimes things go wrong. When that happens we will do all we can to put it right, as quickly and effectively as possible. We learn from complaints and feedback, and complaints give us valuable information about how to improve services and we take them seriously.

As a member of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, we follow the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code. We have produced an Annual Complaint Handling Report 2024-25 which includes the number and outcomes of complaints we have handled, and also our Housing Ombudsman Code Self-Assessment September 2025.

On 2nd September 2025 the CHS Board responded to the annual complaints report:

‘Here at CHS, we continue to take our responsibilities to our tenants’ satisfaction with the utmost importance. We spend a lot of time supporting staff to recognise and respond to complaints; ensuring we clearly capture where we don’t get things right and resolving them at the earliest opportunity. This is underpinned by our commitment to learning from complaints through listening, understanding, reflecting and improving.

The Member Responsible for Complaints and the Board as a whole are proud to have overseen the excellent work done in this area and are confident handing the baton onto a new Board member that we will redouble our efforts and maintain a keen focus on our performance.

The Board would also like to express its gratitude to the tenants who give their time as members of the Customer Complaints Panel to help CHS to learn from its complaints and to continually improve complaint handling.’

Making a complaint

You can make a complaint in whatever way suits you, including:

Call us on 0300 111 3555 or Minicom

Email us info@chsgroup.org.uk

Complete our online Complaints Form

Write to us – CHS Group, Endurance House, Chivers Way, Histon, Cambridge CB24 9ZR

Speak to us in person to a CHS employee

As a CHS resident, you can also contact The Housing Ombudsman for advice at any stage if your complaint is about housing and if your complaint is about our care provision, please contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Tel: 0300 061 0614 (Mon-Fri 10 am – 1pm, apart from Weds: 1 pm – 4pm) or write to Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, PO Box 4771, Coventry CV4 0EH – Sign language: https://www.interpreterslive.co.uk/app/local-government-social-care-ombudsman/

Customer Complaints Panel

This Panel, made up of our customers, helps CHS maintain high standards in complaint handling by reality checking a sample of closed complaints to check the quality of CHS’s complaint responses. This learning is then fed back into the continuous training programme for complaint handlers. The Customer Complaints Panel also review complaint themes to identify trends and monitor complaint handling performance. They review CHS’s Complaints and Compensation Policies, and co-create an annual self-assessment against the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.

Key information – How we deal with your complaint

Stage 1 Complaints

We’ll take any problem you raise seriously and try to resolve it when you first contact us.  If your initial contact with us doesn’t resolve the issue to your satisfaction, we will open a stage 1 complaint, we’ll acknowledge in writing within 1 week and send a full reply within a further 2 weeks. (or let you know if we need some more time to gather information).

Stage 2 Complaints

If you are not satisfied you can make a stage 2 complaint which will be handled by a senior manager or Director. The stage 2 complaint will take up to 4 weeks (or we’ll let you know the reason if it will take longer). This is as far as your complaint can go with CHS, after which you can refer it to The Housing Ombudsman (www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk or 0300 1113000)

You can also seek advice from The Housing Ombudsman at any stage and they can advise you on how the would expect CHS to handle your complaint or offer support to help us find a resolution with you.

Complaints Policy

Click here to view our Complaints Policy May 2025

Compensation Policy

Read our Compensation Policy here

Housing Ombudsman

CHS is a member of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk) and we follow the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code. Our customers can seek advice from the Ombudsman at any stage during the course of a complaint, or ask the Ombudsman to investigate if you are not satisfied with the final outcome of your complaint. Click here to find out more

Unreasonable Complaints

The ability to use our complaints process is important however occasionally we may consider it is being used unreasonably – if so we would explain why we will not further consider the complaint.

Unreasonable Customer Behaviour Policy May 2021

Complaints Performance

We received 35 stage one complaints during 2023/24. Five of these complaints were escalated to stage two and were all property related. Of the 35 complaints, 28 were made by tenants and 7 were made by Shared Owners. From the complaints that were closed at the year-end, 12 were fully upheld, 16 were partially upheld and 4 were not upheld.

Each time we complete a complaint we note the learning from it and any steps we need to take to improve services for customers.