How do I make a complaint?

The Crown Estate Complaints Procedure

The Crown Estate has a formal procedure for dealing with complaints from tenants, leaseholders or anyone else that uses our services or is affected by our decisions.

If you have a complaint:

STEP 1

You should discuss the matter with your Estate Manager or, if you are not a tenant, the Deputy Head of Housing. Most complaints can be dealt with at this stage on an informal basis. A record will be made of your complaint and any action agreed. You will be asked to sign this record — a copy will be given to you and the original kept on your file.

STEP 2

If your complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction by your Estate Manager, you can ask for it to be referred to the Deputy Head of Housing. You will be asked to put your complaint in writing on a form — we can assist if you have difficulty in filling it out.

We will send you an acknowledgement within 2 working days of receiving your form. The matter will be investigated by the Deputy Head of Housing who will then tell you how we propose to resolve your complaint. You will normally be invited to discuss the matter with us in person.

We will tell you what action we are taking within 10 working days — if the matter is complicated it may take longer but we will keep you updated on progress.

STEP 3

If your complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction by the Deputy Head of Housing, you can ask for it to be referred to Head of Housing. You must put your request to us within 28 days of receiving the Deputy Head of Housing’s response. You will need to confirm in writing why you are unhappy with the action taken or proposed by the Deputy Head of Housing to resolve your complaint.

We will send you an acknowledgement within 2 working days of receiving your request. The matter will be investigated by the Head of Housing who will then tell you how we propose to resolve your complaint. You will normally be invited to discuss the matter with us in person. We will tell you what action we are taking within 10 working days — if the matter is complicated it may take longer but we will keep you updated on progress

STEP 4

If you are still not satisfied with our response, you can ask for your complaint to be heard by a Complaints Panel. You must put your request in writing within 28 days of receiving the Head of Housing’s letter.

The panel will include members from The Crown Estate’s Senior Managers’ Team; Housing and (where possible) a representative from one of The Crown Estate’s Residents Associations. No-one on the panel will have previously been involved in considering your complaint. You are welcome to bring a friend or representative with you to the meeting.

You will receive a written record of the meeting which should be signed by all parties confirming agreement / satisfaction with the outcome.

STEP 5

If you are not satisfied with the Complaints Panel’s response you can ask the Housing Ombudsman Service to investigate your complaint. You will need to contact them direct at:

Housing Ombudsman Service
Norman House
105-109 Strand
London WC2R 0AA

telephone 020 7836 3630
   Housing Ombudsman Service

Policy Statement – Complaints that are Pursued Unreasonably

We want to make sure that none of our residents, stakeholders or Crown Estate staff suffer as a result of anyone making persistent complaints, pursuing matters in an unreasonable manner or by anyone behaving in a threatening way or causing harassment to staff.

Whilst we are happy to investigate complaints about the services we provide or other matters in which we are involved, and we have a formal complaints procedure to deal with these situations, we occasionally face a situation where a resident makes persistent or repetitive complaints that we may have already answered, are unable to take action on, or which fall outside our remit. Such cases may be typified by frequent correspondence or emails, phone calls or visits to the office, the complainant approaching several people in the organisation at once or making threats to staff. This can leave staff feeling frustrated, take up valuable time thus reducing the level of service given to other people or even result in harassment of staff.

As an employer we have a duty to protect staff from harassment in their work and this will override the obligation to comply with our usual complaints procedure.

We define a complaint to be unreasonably pursued where a complainant:

• Repeatedly and obsessively makes an unreasonable complaint or expects an unrealistic outcome; or
• Makes persistent or repetitive complaints that we may have already answered; or
• Makes a reasonable complaint in an unreasonable way (for example, making threats)
• Causes staff to feel harassed.

If you pursue your complaint in an unreasonable manner, the Head of Housing or Legal Adviser will send you a letter to explain that:

• If you are a tenant, we will put in place new procedures for dealing with your tenancy
• You should contact only the person or contact named in the letter
• You can contact that person only in specific ways (for example, only by letter)
• We will inform you of our response timetable for dealing with future enquiries
• We will no longer deal with any issues we believe have already been addressed and inform you of this.

This policy will only be activated in exceptional circumstances and following due consideration by the Head of Housing and Legal Adviser.