A-Z of Services

Housing Complaints & Comments

Wrexham County Borough Council is committed to Customer Care. As part of our effort to provide efficient and effective services, we need to know when you have a problem.

We would also like to hear from you if you have any suggestions on how we can improve our services, or if you have any difficulty using any services or if you require any information on how we can help.

Housing Comments and Complaints Procedure

The Complaints Procedure deals with all complaints and commendations.

The department wishes to ensure that all customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction shall be recorded and communicated to the relevant officer responsible for the aspect of the service in question.

A commendation is any expression of satisfaction or praise from a customer about the service or their treatment by a member of staff which a customer feels should be recorded. This will usually entail more than a customer just acknowledging the service received by saying thank you.

What is a complaint?

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about:

The behaviour/actions of members of staff
The standard of service provided or the manner in which it was provided
A failure to deliver a service within agreed and defined timescales
Lack of action

The above would include:

Failure to provide a service which the Council is required to, or has decided to, deliver
Neglect or delay in responding to a request within appropriate timescales
Failure to follow agreed policies, rules or procedures
Failure to fulfil statutory responsibilities
Unhelpful attitude of an employee
Malice, bias or discrimination

A complaint is not:

The first reporting of a fault, for example, a broken piece of equipment
A first request for information or an explanation of a Council policy or practice
A matter for which there is a right of appeal or legal remedy, for example a statutory appeal board e.g. a school admission or exclusion appeal; an insurance claim
A disagreement with the Council’s policies or application of enforcement regulations or with a decision properly considered in accordance with policies, procedures or the Law.

The department recognises that commendations and complaints are a management tool to measure our customers’ satisfaction with the service we provide. The communications are reality checks, which we must consider and act upon. This information is an opportunity for us to review our systems, prevent reoccurrence of poor service and improve the service we provide.

What is the Housing Complaints Procedure?

All initial complaints received will be registered by the Complaints Officer.

We want our response to you to be quick, fair, courteous and helpful. We will acknowledge your comment, compliment or complaint within five working days.

We will aim to investigate the matter and provide you with a full written response within 20 working days. (If the matter is complicated and will take longer than 20 days you will receive an interim reply within that period explaining how the matter will proceed).

How to complain to Housing

Representations and Complaints Officer
Housing Services
Ruthin Road
Wrexham
LL13 7TU

Tel: 01978 315300
Email: housing@wrexham.gov.uk

Council’s Corporate Complaints Officer

If you are still not happy with this response or with the way your complaint has been dealt with you may ask us to look at our decision again. This Review will be independent of the Housing department.

Please contact the Council’s Corporate Complaints Officer on 01978 292201, who will be happy to advise you further. To access the RNID Typetalk Service telephone users should dial 18001 01978 292201.