The Ombudsman Services

If you remain dissatisfied with our final complaint response, you may be able to escalate to an ombudsman. Below are the Ombudsman relevant to our Compliments, Comments and Complaints policy.

• The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman – for complaints relating to Council services or members of staff
• The Housing Ombudsman – for complaints relating to Social Housing
• The Property Redress Scheme – for complaints relating to Private Rental Services
• The New Homes Ombudsman Service – for complaints relating to the Property Sales process or the property.

All Ombudsman will usually expect you to have taken your complaint through all stages of our complaints procedure before you contact them. For Council Services and Rental Properties (all tenures), in accordance with the Ombudsman’s guidance, if a complaint does not fall under a statutory service or process, there may be occasions when our stage one response is our final response. If this occurs, we will inform you of your rights and direct you to the relevant Ombudsman.

For property sales, it is within the New Homes Ombudsman Service’s discretion to decide if or when to accept a complaint, in accordance with the scheme rules. The New Homes Ombudsman Service can accept complaints that have arisen within two years of legal completion. After this, disputes within the structural warranty period may be referred to the New Homes Warranty Provider, NHBC, if relevant. Using our formal complaints process, the Independent Dispute Resolution Scheme or New Homes Ombudsman Service does not affect your normal legal rights.

If you decide to take your complaint to an Ombudsman due to a delay, they will assess whether they believe the reasons for the delay are reasonable and whether to take your complaint forward.

More information about the Ombudsman services can be found by selecting one of the images below.