Defects and aftercare
In April 2023 we received a determination report from the Housing Ombudsman following their review of a complaint relating to a customer’s dissatisfaction with our handling of defects in their home. The Ombudsman is an independent and impartial service set up by law to look at complaints about housing organisations such as CHP. Further information can be found on their website here.
As part of their review, the Ombudsman recommended that we share with customers the outcome of a commitment made by the appeal panel at the second and final stage of our complaints process. In reviewing the complaint, the panel shared CHP’s commitment as part of our newly published Corporate Strategy, to review and improve our defects and aftercare service. This review aimed to provide a more customer-focused approach, which includes implementing new systems and processes. This will help us work more proactively, regardless of who built the home and the problems we may be facing with getting the aftercare service we expect from the developer.
We’re committed to ensuring that we’re operating an effective defects and aftercare service for our customers who have moved into their new homes. In recognition of this, we have strengthened our New Homes Team by introducing a new role, Defects Co-ordinator. They
will be the first point of contact for customers and stakeholders to assist in resolving defect related queries. This will include monitoring outstanding defects logged during the 12-month contractual defect liability period and working closely with developers and contractors to resolve issues as quickly as possible for our customers.
In addition, we are currently reviewing the systems and processes we have in place to help improve defects reporting. Our New Homes Team are working collaboratively with our Digital & Transformation Team to consider potential options around automating our defect and repairs processes to improve the customer experience.
Customer feedback is extremely important to us and allows us to shape the services we provide using the voice of the customer to drive this change. Any customer that has moved into a new build CHP managed home will receive two surveys from us, which ask them to rate their satisfaction with their new home, as well as how easy it was to work with us. The team will continue to utilise this feedback we receive from customer feedback surveys too.
We have also committed to actively promoting our complaints process with our customers via an awareness campaign. This includes regularly sharing with our customers their right to complain and how they can do this, publishing regular complaint data and sharing examples where we have used your feedback to improve the services we provide. This will be completed via all contact methods including social media, within our quarterly customer magazine YourHome and our website.
If you have any questions in relation to our complaints or defects process, we would welcome this. You can share your feedback by calling 0300 555 0500 or emailing feedback@chp.org.uk.