We welcome both compliments and complaints as valuable opportunities to learn, improve and strengthen the services we provide. Your feedback helps us understand what we’re doing well and where we need to do better.
If you have any complaints, compliments or general feedback for us, please contact us first. We’re always listening and committed to resolving any concerns as quickly as possible.
Complaints should be raised within 12 months of the incident or issue occurring. This helps us understand what happened and put things right without delay.
How should I get in touch?
- In person: you can speak to any of our staff
- Telephone: 0800 5870211
- Email: feedback@jrht.org.uk
- Letter: Complaints Officer, JRHT, The Garth, White Rose Avenue, New Earswick, York, YO32 4TZ
- Online: through your My JRHT account
Complaints
Who can make a complaint?
- anyone who currently has, or previously had, a direct landlord-customer relationship with JRHT — this includes individuals named on a tenancy or lease agreement, or those living at the property at the time the issue occurred
- anyone who has used or accessed one of our services
- someone acting on behalf of a resident or service user (with their written consent)
- if a service user does not have the capacity to make their own decisions, a friend or relative may make a complaint on their behalf.
What can I complain about?
A complaint is an "expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual resident or group of residents" (Housing Ombudsman, 2024).
Below are some examples of when a person may make a complaint to JRHT:
- a resident has been in receipt of a service which they consider is poor quality. This service may have been delivered by JRHT or a third party acting on the organisation’s behalf
- a member of JRHT staff has displayed behaviour that is not in line with our values and behaviours
- JRHT has failed to follow our own policies or procedures
- a resident has received poor or no communication regarding the progress of a repair to their home
- JRHT has failed to follow Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulations or other legal obligations
- negative experience of our care delivery in our care sites.
Can I get help to make a complaint?
You can ask a friend or relative, an advocate, a support agency, a local Councillor or an MP to speak to us on your behalf. If you want to complain in person but have a disability that prevents you from doing so, we can arrange a visit to gather the details of your complaint or can telephone you to talk about the best way we can help you make your complaint.
What are unacceptable complaints?
There may be times when we consider a complaint to be unacceptable. By unacceptable, we mean the way the complaint is made, such as:
- using threatening, offensive, or abusive language on the phone or in person
- sending multiple threatening or offensive emails
- leaving repeated threatening or offensive voicemails
- posting threatening or offensive content on social media.
We do not tolerate intimidating, abusive, or threatening behaviour towards our colleagues. If a complaint is made in a way we consider unacceptable, we will take appropriate action to protect our colleagues. Read our Unacceptable behaviour policy.
What can I expect when I make a complaint?
JRHT has an internal complaints process which involves 2 stages. Find out more below.
Complaints process
When you make a complaint, we will make every effort to resolve the matter straight away.
Request for service
Sometimes you may need us to put something right without making a complaint. This is called a service request. It could be a repair, a report of anti-social behaviour, or a request for information or clarification.
If you’re not satisfied with our response or the outcome, you will have the option to make a formal complaint.
But if this is not possible, we will proceed with our formal complaints process. We have a two-stage complaints process.
Stage One: Initial complaint investigation and response
If we can’t resolve the issue straight away, we’ll record it as a Stage One formal complaint.
We’ll acknowledge your complaint within five working days. Once it’s logged, we aim to provide a full response within 10 working days. During this time, we’ll investigate what’s happened and contact you to discuss how we can resolve the issue.
Stage Two: Review of initial investigation
If you’re unhappy with our response at Stage One, you can ask for your complaint to move to Stage Two. At this stage, we consider what you feel hasn’t been properly addressed and work with you to understand the outcome you’re looking for. We acknowledge Stage Two complaints within 5 working days.
After investigating your concerns, we write to you with the outcome and any proposed solutions within twenty working days of acknowledging your complaint.
As with Stage One, you can request more time if you need it. If we need more time, we let you know. We also keep your complaint open until any agreed actions have been completed. Stage Two is the end of our complaint process and the response provided will be the final response from JRHT to a complaint.
Care complaints
We have learnt that complaints relating to care services are often more complex.
Investigating a care complaint can also be more difficult, due to the need to speak to staff who work shifts and / or relatives who may not live locally.
As a result, the target response rate for Stage One and Stage Two complaints has been extended to 28 days.
Putting things right
There are several ways we can put things right if we have got something wrong.
We can:
- say sorry
- provide an explanation or more information
- take any necessary action to remedy the situation
- use lessons learned to improve our services
- arrange training or guidance for staff.
Where can I find more information if I would like to take my complaint further?
Housing Ombudsman
If you remain dissatisfied after our full complaints process has been completed, you may refer your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman for independent review Housing Ombudsman Service.
The Housing Ombudsman is an independent, impartial, and free service that investigates complaints from social housing residents about their landlords. The Ombudsman can only consider your case once you have completed all stages of our complaints process. However, you can contact them at any time for general advice about the complaints process, even before your complaint becomes eligible for a formal investigation.
The Housing Ombudsman has advised that, from 13 January 2026, they will no longer accept new case enquiries sent to them via email. Complainants should now use their online complaints form, which can be accessed via the link below:
Housing ombudsman complaint form
You can find more information, including how to contact the Housing Ombudsman, on their website. The Housing Ombudsman service can be contacted by telephone on 0300 111 3000.
The Energy Ombudsman (heat network complaints)
The Energy Ombudsman provides a free and impartial service that aims to resolve disputes between consumers and suppliers in the energy sector. If a complainant remains dissatisfied with JRHT’s final stage two response to a heat network specific complaint, they can contact the Energy Ombudsman directly via the details below:
Telephone: 0330 440 1624
Website: https://www.energyombudsman.org/
Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman (care complaints)
The Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman service is a free, independent and impartial service which can investigate complaints about councils, all adult social care providers (including care homes and home care agencies) and some other public service organisations.
The Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman can be contacted at:
Telephone: 0300 061 0614
Website: https://www.lgo.org.uk/
Care Quality Commission
Our service is registered with and regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC cannot get involved in individual complaints about providers but can receive information about our care services.
Telephone: 03000 616 161
Website: https://www.cqc.org.uk/contact-us
Independent Advice and Support
Website: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing
Compliments
It is important for us to gather as much feedback as possible about our services. Compliments can be as helpful as complaints to show us where services are working well and where we need to make changes to further improve. Compliments can be made by emailing feedback@jrht.org.uk.
Annual complaints performance and service improvement report
We carry out an annual self-assessment against the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaints Handling Code.
This self-assessment is reported to the Board and an annual complaints performance and service improvement report is published on this website.
Learning from complaints
At JRHT, we want every resident to have a positive experience with our services. Your feedback is important to us because it helps us understand what we’re doing well and where we can make improvements.
We’re committed to handling complaints fairly and responding in a way that helps us learn and get better. To support this, we’ll share regular updates about the feedback we receive from residents and colleagues, the actions we’ve taken, and the difference these actions have made.