If you are a tenant or leaseholder of Dover District council and are unhappy with the service you have received, in the first instance you must raise your complaint to the housing department. Please complete our complaints form.
If you prefer you can contact our team and contact them directly. Further details about how to contact the housing team and repairs service click here.
Stage 1 - to the Department
The people who can best deal with any problems you have are those who directly provide the service. If you are not happy with the way you have been treated by the Council, you should contact the Department concerned who will write to you and tell you what action we have taken or explain the position.
You are entitled to a reply within 10 working days. If the matter cannot be resolved in that time, you should get a letter explaining why not and giving you a new deadline.
What to do next...
Stage 2 - to the Corporate Services Officer
If you are unhappy with the outcome of Stage 1, you can take the matter further and ask that a member of the Council’s Corporate Services Team consider the matter. They will aim to respond within 20 working days. You can contact the Corporate Services team on email here.
Please make your stage 2 complaint within 20 working days of receiving the outcome of your stage 1 complaint. If this would be a problem, please get in touch with us.
The Housing Ombudsman
If you remain unhappy with how the Housing Department have resolved your complaint, you may escalate your complaint to the Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman will work with you and the housing service at Dover District Council to resolve the dispute under their early resolution procedure. The Ombudsman may decide to carry out an investigation; however they only do this for those complaints where they decide an investigation is proportionate to the circumstances and evidence, for example complex complaints involving many issues.
You can fill in the form on their website, or contact them using the following contact details:
Call: 0300 111 3000
Write: Complaint correspondence: Housing Ombudsman Service, PO Box 152, Liverpool L33 7WQ
Other correspondence: Housing Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, Harbour Exchange Square, London E14 9GE
Website: https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk
Complaint Handling Self-Assessment
All social housing landlord must assess themselves every year against the Ombudsman's guidelines. You can read Dover District Council's self-assessment form here.
How we learn from complaints
We process and analyse our complaints and use them as a tool to improve our service. Find out how we learn from complaints.