Complaints procedure

We welcome all feedback so we can improve our services for customers and residents.

How to make a complaint

Anyone can make a complaint to us, including a representative of someone who is not happy with our service. You can also seek advice from external agencies such as your local Citizens Advice, Housing Advice Centre or the Housing Ombudsman Service throughout your complaint with Gentoo. We treat all complaints very seriously and if you do make a complaint, we promise that we will never treat you less favourably in the future.

You can:

visit your local office and speak to a member of staff
email feedback@
gentoogroup.com
fill in the enquiry form
send us a message on Facebook or X with your address and details of the complaint
write a letter to Customer Voice Team, Gentoo Group Limited, Emperor House, 2 Emperor Way, Doxford International Business Park, Sunderland, SR3 3XR

If you would like to speak to someone in relation to a new development or new build homes, you can complete our contact form or email customercare@
gentoohomes.com

Our complaints process

If you want to make a complaint, tell us as much as you can so we can fully investigate. Tell us if:

we have done something incorrectly
we have not done something we said we would do
you are not happy with our service or standards

We initially try to solve any problems informally within the department that is responsible. If a complaint needs to be investigated, we will make this a stage one formal complaint.

Stage one formal complaint

We will assign your complaint to a Customer Voice Partner who will contact you within five working day to let you know they are investigating your complaint. They may contact you for further information and give you updates.

Stage one formal complaints should be resolved within 10 working days.

If the complaint cannot be resolved within 10 working days, they will agree a date with you for when the complaint can be resolved.

If you are unsatisfied with the response to your stage one formal complaint, you can appeal the decision within 15 working days. Your complaint will then become a stage two formal complaint.

Stage two formal complaint

A senior manager will contact you within five working day to acknowledge your complaint and to let you know they are investigating your complaint. After 20 working days they will provide you with either a:

response to your complaint
timescale of when we will send a response

This is our final response to your complaint and the end of our complaints process.

If you are unsatisfied with the response to your stage two formal complaint, you have the right to go to the Housing Ombudsman Service.

Sending your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service

The Housing Ombudsman Service is an independent, impartial, and free service that considers complaints from residents living in social housing. You can contact the Ombudsman for help with your complaint if we have failed to provide a response within our complaint policy timescales or if you are still unhappy after completing both stages of Gentoo’s complaint procedure.

The Housing Ombudsman Service can only consider a complaint for investigation once Gentoo has provided a stage two response; this is sometimes referred to as a ‘final response’. We will give you their contact details in the final response letter.

You can contact the Housing Ombudsman Service about your complaint online.