Tenant Annual Report 2025

Compliments & Complaints

Complaints made to us – You said we did

You said how we communicate with you was the main reason for complaining to us.

In 2024/25, were received 115 complaints. The most complaints we received were about communication. This included things like:

  • not being clear about when we would be attending
  • not updating people if appointments were changed
  • not getting back to people quickly enough

We did / responded:

  • restructured our customer service and repairs teams to provide better communication
  • reviewed the policies on mutual exchanges and no access to make them clearer
  • set up a process to follow up on actions from complaints

We will continue to learn from complaints received and already have plans to improve the information that we hold to help us respond.

Services complained about

46 – Repairs

22 – Housing / letting / rent / parking

13 – Developing new home

7 – Building improvements & customer safety

11 – Customer services / communications / complaints

3 – Anti-social behaviour

3 – Communal and grounds maintenance

3 – Finance / Service Charge / Subject access request

In 2024/2025 we had 42 compliments recorded thanking various staff for the hard work they do everyday for our residents.

Thanks so much for help with Damp and mould, getting dehumidifier in. It made a huge difference to my health already. The humidity is down from 70 to 59 in one morning.
Thank you, Justin, for your assistance and communication regarding the issue with my boiler.
Clear and efficient when going through tenancy documents at sign up. Very professional with a personal touch.
This is a Compliment and a BIG thank you for helping and maintaining the Housing Benefit and UC.

Stage one – 86 complaints

  • 62.6 stage one complaints were received per 1000 homes
  • 76.7% of these were responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaints Handling Code timescales

Stage two – 16 complaints

  • 11.7 stage two complaints were received during the year per 1000 homes
  • 87.5 % of these were responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s complaint Handling code timescales

How to make a complaint

We have various ways to make a complaint:

  • Telephone: 01392 273462
  • Email: mail@cornerstonehousing.net
  • Via our website: www.cornerstonehousing.net
  • Via social media by private messages: we will deal with complaints on social media privately, not publicly.
  • Write to us: Cornerstone House, Western Way, Exeter, EX1 1AL

We want to ensure that our complaints procedure is easy to access, inclusive and does not discriminate or disadvantage anyone. We are happy to consider making adjustments to help you engage with us.

For example:

  • You can make a complaint via a third party, a friend, family member or your MP
  • Ask us for information in a different format to suit you
  • Ask us for more time to provide or consider any information if you need it
  • Ask us for help and support throughout your complaint, such as having an interpreter

We will make reasonable adjustments to ensure that our complaints policy and process are accessible and inclusive. Please let us know if you need us to make adjustments for you.

Click here to report a complaint

Stage one: complaint

If an initial attempt to resolve the issue is unsuccessful, a formal complaint will be recorded, and we will:

  • log and acknowledge the complaint within five working days of it being received;
  • tell the person who will be dealing with their complaint and how to contact them;
  • aim to resolve the complaint within ten working days from the date of acknowledgement
  • provide the person with a written response to their complaint which confirms the complaint stage, definition, decision, reason for decision, any remedy being offered, any outstanding actions and how to escalate to stage two if they are not satisfied with the response.

Complaints at this stage will usually be dealt with by a senior member of staff, such as a supervisor or manager. Where a complaint is made by a third party on behalf of a customer, the third party and the customer will receive a copy of the response.

Stage two: review

A customer can request a review or an escalation of their complaint once stage one has been completed. We will:

  • acknowledge the complaint has progressed to this stage within 5 working days of the escalation request being received;
  • tell customers who will be dealing with their complaint and how to contact them;
  • aim to resolve the complaint within 20 working days from the date of acknowledgement;
  • allow customers to comment on any adverse findings before a final decision is made
  • provide the customer with a written response to their complaint which confirms the complaint stage, definition, decision, reason for decision, any remedy being offered, any outstanding actions and how to escalate to the Housing Ombudsman if they are not satisfied with the response.

Complaints at this stage will usually be dealt with by a member of our Executive Team, that person will have had no involvement in stage one of the complaints process so that the review can be independent. We may involve Board Members as part of the review and customers can ask for our Resident Engagement Panel to be involved.

If we’re not able to resolve your complaint within the timeframe set out, we will:

  • Explain the reasons why
  • Provide a revised timescale
  • Keep you informed

Taking your complaint further

The Housing Ombudsman Service is set up by law to look at complaints about housing organisations that are registered with them (which Cornerstone is), including housing associations and local authorities. Click here for more information about how they can help or to contact them about a complaint.

You can make a complaint via the Housing ombudsman website