Delivering excellent services matters to our customers, and it matters to us too. Your complaints, compliments and feedback are important to us, as they help to shape the services we provide and put customers at the heart of everything we do.

We’d love to hear your thoughts, whether you’ve had a positive experience, or if you think there are areas where we could improve.

Complaints

We are committed to providing a high-quality service to the customers and communities we serve. We don’t always get things right first time and if you do have any problems, please get in touch to let us know as soon as you can. We’ll do our best to rectify the problem during the initial enquiry.

If you feel our services haven’t been up to standard and you wish to make a complaint, please take a look at our frequently asked questions. You can also use the button below to share a complaint with us.

Make a complaint
  • We haven’t met our service standards
  • We have done something we shouldn’t have done
  • You are unhappy with how something has been dealt with
  • We have taken too long to respond to you
  • You are unhappy with how a colleague, contractor, or representative of Onward has treated you
  • We have not met the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code

Some things are not complaints, such as:

  • Asking for information about one of our services
  • Asking us to deal with the actions of others, for example letting us know about antisocial behaviour for the first time
  • Something that is already in court or being heard by a court or tribunal
  • Asking for information under the Data Protection Act
  • If you are unhappy with a decision where there is already a process for challenging that decision or an appeals process already in place

We want to work with you to find a solution and won’t be able to investigate your complaint if it is made anonymously.

Under normal circumstances you must make your complaint within 12 months of the event you want to complain about. In some cases, we may be able to accept a complaint outside of these timescales, but you will need to provide a reason as to why within your complaint.

If you need to report a repair, damp and mould or antisocial behaviour, you can do this by:

You can also find further advice by clicking on the links below.

If we think your enquiry meets the definition of a complaint as defined by the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code, or if you ask us to log your enquiry as a complaint, we will record this on our system. There are two stages to our complaint handling process as set out below.

Stage one

When you contact us, a member of our Customer Resolutions Team will get in touch within five working days. Once your complaint has been received, your Resolutions Specialist will send an acknowledgement.

Within two working days of sending the acknowledgement, your Resolutions Specialist will contact you to:

  • discuss your complaint in more detail;
  • ensure we fully understand the issues you have raised; and
  • agree the next steps and how we will keep you updated.

Stage two

If you’re still unhappy after stage one, you can ask for a review by a Director. This is stage two of our complaints process.

We will investigate to understand why you remain unhappy and to identify what you would like to happen next to resolve your complaint. When you ask for a review, a Director or representative will:

  • introduce themselves;
  • explain the stage two complaints process;
  • ask questions to help them understand the complaint;
  • agree with you how we will update you on progress;
  • and if we need more time, will let you know and agree when we will respond.

We will write to you within 20 working days to explain our understanding of your complaint, our findings and what we will do to make this right. We will only close the complaint when all actions are done. This is the final stage in our complaint handling process.

For further information, please visit our Complaint Resolutions Policy. An easy-read version is also available.

For more information and guidance regarding our remedies and financial redress, please visit our guide on compensation.

You can also view our self-assessment of the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.

Anyone that already gets a service from Onward, asks for one, or is affected by what we do can make a complaint. You can do this for someone, for example if you’re a family member, friend, advocate, or adviser.

You can make a complaint by:

To help us investigate your complaint as quickly as possible, please provide as much information as you can. This includes:

  • Your full name, full address including postcode, and date of birth or contact number
  • What happened and when
  • If you’ve already spoken to an Onward colleague, who this was
  • What impact this has had on you and/or your household
  • What you would like us to do to put things right
  • Any relevant dates, reference numbers, photographs or other evidence you would like us to look at

Don’t worry if you haven’t got all this information, you can still make a complaint and we’ll get in touch if we need any further information.

If you send a complaint to our Chief Executive or the Chair of the Board this will be sent to our Customer Resolutions Team.

If you need help making a complaint, please get in touch with us by:

If you would like to discuss your concerns with someone impartial, or if you need help with making a complaint, you can speak to a Member of Parliament, your local councillor or an advocate of your choice. You can also contact the Housing Ombudsman for help and support at any point during your complaint by:

The Housing Ombudsman is an independent organisation that investigates complaints. You can get in touch with them at any stage for help. They can look at your complaint if:

  • You have been through every stage of our complaints process
  • It’s less than 12 months after you first knew about what you wanted to complain about
  • The issue hasn’t or isn’t being looked at by a court
  • You will be asked to fill out a complaint form and give a copy of our response

You can get in touch with the Housing Ombudsman by visiting housing-ombudsman.org.uk, calling their freephone number 0300 111 3000 or writing to The Housing Ombudsman Service, PO Box 1484, Unit D, Preston, PR2 0ET.

Some of our customers receive gas and electricity services from Onward. If you have complained about the gas or electricity services that we provide to you and are not happy with the outcome you can contact the Energy Ombudsman.

The Energy Ombudsman is approved by Ofgem as an independent dispute resolution service which aims to impartially and independently resolve disputes between energy suppliers and their customers. You can ask the Energy Ombudsman to investigate your complaint if:

  • You have fully exhausted our complaint handling procedure
  • We notify you that we have been unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction within eight weeks and/or have issued you with a deadlock letter
  • You feel that you have encountered sustained difficulty in raising your complaint with us

You can get in touch with the Energy Ombudsman by visiting energyombudsman.org, emailing enquiry@energyombudsman.org, calling 0330 440 1624, or writing to The Energy Ombudsman, PO Box 966, Warrington WA4 9DF.

Compliments

Have you received great customer service from one of our employees or contractors? If you’d like to give them a compliment and recognise them for going above and beyond, you can do so by:

 

Feedback

We are always looking to improve our services with the help of satisfaction surveys, customer feedback, inspections and learning from complaints. We also have a Customer Resolution Forum that independently reviews our complaint handling process to ensure effective and efficient resolutions are given to customers. They also identify areas where we can improve our services and customer experience.

If you have any feedback about your experience of our services, suggestions for improvement, or would like to join our Forum, please get in touch with our Customer Involvement Team by filling in our online form, emailing customerengagement@onward.co.uk or giving us a call.

News

Our latest complaints results, what we’ve learned and how we’ve worked with customers to improve.

Support for customers

We also offer a range of additional support for customers, from advice on your finances to help with repairs.