What can be done about your complaint
" The association will not tolerate anti-social behaviour and will take appropriate action as quickly as possible. "
Twin Valley Homes' approach
What can be done about my complaint – the first stage?
This depends on what is happening, but the first stage is usually to let the person know that their behaviour is affecting you. Their way of life may be completely different to yours and they may not realise that their behaviour is unreasonable.
It is important that you tell them as politely as possible that their behaviour is affecting you. An aggressive or confrontational approach is likely to make matters worse. If you take a positive approach, you may find the difficulties can be resolved quite quickly.
When you have spoken to them, make a note of the date and time you spoke to them and what both of you said and agreed.
If you are concerned about approaching the person, please speak to the ASB team for advice.
What can be done if the problem continues?
Contact the Anti-Social Behaviour Team. We will ask for full details of the problem and any evidence you have.
What happens when I report Anti-Social Behaviour?
When you report anti-social behaviour to Twin Valley Homes, we will:
> Acknowledge your complaint in writing and forward you a ‘witness support pack’ which includes incident report sheets and useful contact numbers.
> Enter your complaint onto our computer system and give it a reference number which you can quote when you contact us.
> Give you a ‘receipt’ letter which confirms your complaint is received and contains your ‘call reference number’.
> Arrange to interview you in private and take details of your complaint.
> Give you advice on our policies and procedures.
> Provide you with information on other people who may be able to help you. For example, SMILE mediation who offer free and impartial mediation service to help people resolve conflicts.
> In serious cases, where a violent or hate motivated incident (i.e. racial) has occurred, we will act immediately and ensure that appropriate action is taken.
The Anti-Social Behaviour Officer or Early Intervention Officer (Case Officer) will assess how serious the complaint is and take whatever action is considered necessary. To help us provide a better service we have a grading system to categorise your complaints of ASB. This means that when you tell us about a problem, we will give it a grade between 1 and 4.
Grade 1 complaints being the most serious cases and Grade 4 complaints being lifestyle/tolerance related.
Twin Valley Homes aims to make contact with the complainant / witness within our service standard.
Grade 1 – To contact the complainant within 1 working day
Grade 2 – To contact the complainant with 3 working days
Grade 3 – To contact the complainant within 5 working days
Grade 4 – To contact the complainant within 7 working days
Please remember that the association and other relevant agencies will need to see evidence of the anti-social behaviour. It may be necessary for you to gather evidence, for example you may be asked to complete incident report sheets to record the problem.
What can the ASB Team do?
Twin Valley Homes is committed to tackling ASB fairly and consistently and we will take appropriate action against people who commit acts of anti-social behaviour. We will also work with perpetrators of ASB and customers who are identified as being at risk of perpetrating ASB to seek to challenge, change and modify their behaviours.
All reports of anti-social behaviour are taken seriously. However, there are some situations when we may be unable to help, for example, sometimes difficulties between neighbours are due to a difference in lifestyle or a disagreement. In these cases we will take no further action, but would encourage you to reconcile the difference yourselves or consider our mediation service.
Dealing with your complaint
We will:
> Deal with your complaint as quickly as possible
> Aim to resolve the situation without moving anyone or taking legal action
> Contact the person(s) you complained about. We will work with them to resolve the problem, issue appropriate warnings and take any necessary action
> Work with other agencies (e.g. the Police, Environmental Protection Service and Children and Family Services) to try and resolve the problem
> Keep any information you give us strictly confidential
> Ask your permission if we need to share your information with another agency
> If legal action is required we may need to disclose information to the defendant or their solicitor. We will only do this with your permission
> Keep you informed of progress
> Contact you on a regular basis until your complaint has been closed
Closing your complaint
If we have resolved your complaint or after completing our investigation we cannot take the case any further, we will:
Contact you to explain why we are unable to take any further action on this complaint.
> Confirm in writing fully our reasons for doing this.
> Give you advice on what to do next.
> We will send you a customer survey asking for your feedback on our handling of the complaint.
