Make a complaint
We're committed to high standards of customer service — but there are occasions when we don't meet the standards we set for ourselves. We welcome your feedback and take every complaint seriously. Working with your local housing manager, we'll do whatever we can to put things right, as quickly as possible.
Make a complaint Find your development, then complain online, by phone or by post.Our complaints process
We define a complaint as an expression of dissatisfaction about the standard of service, action or lack of action by us, our staff, or those acting on our behalf. Every complaint is recorded and managed in line with the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code, following the two-stage process below.
Initial investigation
We acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and give a full response within 10 working days. We aim to resolve every complaint at this stage.
Review & escalation
If you remain dissatisfied, we escalate to a senior review and issue a final response within 20 working days.
Housing Ombudsman
If your complaint remains unresolved, you can contact the Housing Ombudsman Service for independent advice at any stage. www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk · 0300 111 3000
Oversight
Board review & self-assessment
Listening & acting
You said, we did
Residents told us where we needed to do better. Here's what we changed in response.
New-build properties had too many defects, and fixing them was slow and unclear.
- Strengthened contract terms with developers and a zero-defects policy at handover
- Improved contracts to ensure developers complete works on time
- Introduced monthly reviews with agents and developers to track defects
The initial complaint handling at Stage 1 needed to be more effective.
- Regular review meetings with managing agents
- A focus on resolving Stage 1 issues first time
- An AI tool for more efficient complaint review
Communication during the complaints process needed improvement.
- Added more staff to the complaints team
- Required more frequent updates from managing agents
- Improved our monitoring system
Board chair's statement
Annual Complaints Performance & Service Improvement Report 2025
I am pleased to present this statement on behalf of the Board of Habitare Homes, reflecting our collective oversight of performance across the complaints function during 2025.
The Board has maintained close scrutiny of both the challenges and the improvements that have characterised this year across the services delivered on our behalf by our three managing agents: Amplius Living, Raven Housing Trust, and Touchstone Property Management.
Our portfolio grew substantially during 2025 — by 80% — and yet total complaints reduced from 44 to 38, with complaints per 1,000 homes falling from 17.0 to 7.9. The Board regards this as a genuinely positive result, reflecting the hard work of our executive team and managing agents in improving how complaints are handled and how underlying issues are addressed. We recognise, however, that as a fast-growing provider delivering new homes and onboarding new partners, we will continue to encounter challenges — particularly around the resident move-in experience and new-build defects. Importantly, the Board has ensured that lessons learned from earlier schemes, including Lewes, have been applied to strengthen the quality, defects, and snagging processes at new sites. This more robust approach has already shown encouraging results at Aldershot. The Board has asked the executive team to keep service delivery in these areas under constant review.
The Board is not complacent about the scale of what remains to be done. New-build defects continue to be the leading driver of complaints, representing 55% of all complaints in 2025. The concentration of complaints at our Grantham and Lewes schemes — accounting for 68% of all complaints — has been of particular concern to the Board throughout the year. Where developer insolvency has complicated resolution, the Board has been keen to ensure that residents are not left without recourse, and that Habitare and its managing agents and wider partners are doing everything possible to progress these cases.
The Board was pleased to see the Stage 2 escalation rate fall from 42% to 31%, indicating that more complaints are being resolved effectively at the first stage. The introduction of enhanced processes to improve the consistency and quality of complaint responses is one of several improvements the Board has encouraged the executive team to implement and embed. The Board has also pressed for stronger oversight of managing agent performance, more frequent resident updates, and clearer accountability across all parties involved in defect resolution.
Looking ahead to 2026, the Board's focus is to ensure that the improvements made this year are sustained and built upon — particularly in resolving outstanding defects, improving resident communication, and driving consistent complaint handling standards across all our managing agents.
This Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report, together with the Self-Assessment against the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code, has been reviewed, scrutinised, and formally approved by the Board. The Board is satisfied that this report accurately reflects Habitare Homes' performance, learning, and compliance with the Code, and confirms its ongoing oversight of the actions set out within it.
Chair, Habitare Homes Board