Following a complaints escalation to the Housing Ombudsman, it was concluded that Thrive did not mishandle the complaint being investigated.
The Thrive team has worked hard to develop a thorough complaints process that ensures customers’ voices are listened to and heard. It operates a two-stage process and once this has been exhausted, customers have the right to refer their complaint onto the Housing Ombudsman for them to review and determine whether Thrive has upheld its processes and if there is cause for investigation.
The news of the complaint outcome followed shortly after an independent audit of Thrive’s complaints process, which confirmed full compliance with the Housing Ombudsman Complaints Code. Details about the audit findings can be found here.
As detailed in its Annual Report for Tenants, Thrive is proud to report 0 complaints were determined as requiring further investigation by the Housing Ombudsman in 2019-20. Whilst these occurrences are rare for Thrive, an ongoing complaint, with matters a customer believed to be related to anti-social behaviour (ASB), reached the Housing Ombudsman in 2020/21 and was concluded in May 2021.
The key issues noted in the complaint included:
- noise level coming from a neighbour above such as chairs being scraped on the floor and bouncing a rubber ball
- the watering of plants on the above balcony, causing water to drip onto the complainant’s balcony and windows.
Thrive wants customers to enjoy where they live and encourages neighbours to settle small disputes between themselves. A step to support this includes using Thrive’s Dear Neighbour cards to anonymously let other neighbours know how their behaviour is causing an impact.
Behaviour which results from different lifestyles or which would not be considered unreasonable by most people is not anti-social behaviour. Thrive has limited powers and actions except in cases where allegations are considered to be serious anti-social behaviour as defined here.
In the case of this escalated complaint, Thrive took steps to work with both the complainant and their neighbour including:
- speaking with both parties
- offering mediation to both parties
- making arrangements with the neighbour to water their plants at a set time/and or avoid it all together if possible
- making the neighbour aware of the possible noise they were creating
- installing noise detection equipment at the complainant’s property
- setting up a good neighbour agreement, whereby the neighbour would water their plants inside.
Trinder Panesar, Customer Relations in Sustainment and Intervention said:
“If there’s something we can do to support our customers, we will always try our best. We encourage customers to be considerate to their neighbours, and where matters exceed general living noise or relate to serious matters involving for example violence, harassment or drug abuse – we will always work with our community partnerships to crack down on the issues”.
Throughout this particular complaint, Thrive kept the complainant up to date and informed in line with its complaints process. In doing so, the Housing Ombudsman concluded that Thrive did not mishandle the complainant’s nuisance reports.
Thrive’s anti-social behaviour policy along with a definition, a list of actions customers may wish to take and how Thrive can support them is available here.