Our complaints process

What a complaint is

Camden Council’s definition of a complaint is: an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the landlord, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting a resident or group of residents.

In simple terms, a complaint is when you tell us you’re unhappy about a council service, or about something the council (or someone working for us) has done or not done.

You can make a complaint to us in a few ways. Find out how to make a complaint to us.

Our process

Here is our complaints process. You can also find a PDF of the full complaints process and find an Easy Read version our complaint process.

Stage 1

We receive the complaint

Once you’ve made a complaint, you’ll be given a reference number. Use this reference number if you contact us after making your complaint – it will help us find the right information quickly.

We’ll let you know within 5 working days that we’ve received your complaint and we’re reviewing it – this is called an acknowledgement. We’ll explain what will happen next and when you can expect to get a response.

We investigate the complaint

An investigating officer will be given your complaint. They’ll try to understand:

what the complaint is about
the outcomes or actions you want
what we might not be responsible for

You’ll be told the name of the investigating officer, or the team, dealing with your complaint.

They may also ask you for more information. Anything relevant you tell them will be included in the full response. If you tell them about any other issues, you’ll need to make a new complaint.

We’ll keep you informed throughout the investigation and tell you when you can expect our full response. We’ll tell you if there will be any delays.

Tenant Management Organisation (TMO)

Some properties are managed by Tenant Management Organisations (TMO), including:

Abbey Road Community Housing Ltd
Agar Grove Housing Group Ltd
Carol Street Tenant Managed Co-operative Ltd
Chalk Farm Housing Group Ltd
Godwin and Crowndale Tenant Managed Co-operative Ltd

If you have a complaint relating to one of these areas, the TMO will investigate and respond to your complaint. The TMO will follow our complaints policy and the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.

We decide what action to take

If we find that we were in the wrong, we’ll try to find a solution. This is known as a remedy and could include:

recognising what we did wrong
apologising
improving procedures so similar problems do not happen again
reviewing a decision
carrying out an assessment
offering compensation

The investigating officer will decide what remedies are needed. They’ll make their decision based on:

amount of time you spent trying to resolve the issue
difficulty you experienced trying to resolve the issue
distress caused to you and others
risk of harm to you and others
actual harm caused
previous responses sent to you
any other attempts to address the issue
administrative costs, such as travel and cost of phone calls

We give you our full response

We’ll give you our full response within 10 working days from acknowledging your complaint. If it’s a complex complaint, such as in adult and social care cases, we may need to extend this by another 10 working days. We’ll always let you know if we need to extend the deadline and the reasons why.

In our response, we’ll let you know what actions will be taken, why we’ve decided on them, and when they’ll happen. We’ll give you updates on the actions we take.

We learn from what has happened

We want to keep improving our services, so we use complaints to learn. We use them to:

make improvements to services
identify relevant training for staff
review and make changes to policies and procedures where needed

Housing complaints panel

The Housing Customer Experience Oversight Panel meets to discuss complaints and feedback about housing management and repairs. The panel:

invites managers and contractors to explain what steps they’re taking to prevent recurring complaints
make constructive suggestions about how to improve things so that residents do not need to complain in the future
holds us to account

Find out more about the Housing Customer Experience Oversight Panel.

If you need reasonable adjustments

Everyone should be able to use our complaints process, no matter their circumstances.

We’ll make reasonable adjustments (or changes) when they’re requested, including if you’re disabled, neurodiverse, or have a long-term health condition. This could include large print or Easy Read documents, having longer to respond, and communicating over the phone rather than email.

If the complaint involves a child or young person, we can appoint an advocate for them. This is an independent person who can support them through the process and help them understand what’s happening.

If English is not your first language or you use British Sign Language (BSL), we can arrange a translator or interpreter. If you’re D/deaf, hard of hearing or use BSL, you can call us for free using SignVideo.

You can ask for a reasonable adjustment at any point in the process.

If you’re unhappy with our response

We’ll always try to reach a resolution with you in a timely way.

But if you’re unhappy with our decisions, there are 2 more stages in the complaints process.

You can also find a PDF of the full complaints process and find an Easy Read version our complaint process.

Stage 2: Ask for a review or appeal our response

If you’re unhappy with our decision, you can ask us to review. Another investigating officer who has not been involved can look at the decisions we made to see if we made the right ones.

If you’re unhappy with the response from a TMO, your complaint will be passed to our central complaints team to be reviewed. If you do not get a response from a TMO, let us know.

If your complaint involves adult or child social care, an independent investigator will review.

We’ll aim to respond to you fully within 20 working days, but if we need to extend this then we’ll tell you. This can be extended up to 65 days.

You need to ask for a review within 1 calendar month after the agreed actions are due to be taken or within 1 calendar month of receiving our response, whichever is later.

Stage 3: Ask for an independent review

If you’ve asked for a review and you’re still unhappy with our response, you can ask for a free and independent review from an ombudsman. An ombudsman is an independent person or organisation who investigates complaints and can make final decisions.

You usually need to have gone through our full complaints process before the ombudsman will start a review.

You can also contact the ombudsman for free advice at any point in the complaints process, including before you’ve made a complaint.

There are 3 ombudsman who can review your complaint:

How long this review takes will depend on the ombudsman’s own timeline. We’ll respond to any findings with 15 working days of receiving them.

Children’s social care complaints

If your complaint is about children’s social care, stage 3 has an independent review panel before going to the ombudsman. The panel will review the complaint and respond with their findings in 5 working days. If you’re unhappy with this response, you can then contact the ombudsman.

When we cannot investigate a complaint

There are some occasions when we cannot investigate a complaint. This includes:

if legal proceedings have started that relate to the complaint
where a court decision has been made relating to the complaint
when the complaint is not about Camden Council or someone working for us

If we cannot investigate your complaint, we’ll let you know why.

There are also some issues that have their own process, separate to this complaints process.

Get in touch

If you have any questions about our complaints process or you want support, get in touch with us by:

email at [email protected]
phone on 0207 974 5644, Monday to Friday (except bank holidays), 9am to 5pm
SignVideo, for British Sign Language (BSL) users

You can also find a PDF of the full complaints process and find an Easy Read version our complaint process.

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Our complaints process

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