Rosherville Limited and its subsidiaries, are wholly-owned by Gravesham Borough Council and as such, follow a similar complaints process as that of the council.  A complaint can be registered if you feel that the company, or its subsidiaries, has failed to meet expected standards or if something has gone wrong.

Whilst it is preferred that complaints are in writing, this is not necessary and can be orally communicated to a company officer.  It is important that as much information as possible is provided to support the complaint as possible to aide effective review and resolution.

What is a complaint

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of the company’s services, actions or lack of actions by the company, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting a resident or individual, or group of residents or individuals

Complaints arise when somebody feels the company has done something wrong, or has not provided the quality of service they expected.

The following are examples of complaints:

  • did not deliver the quality of service expected
  • did not follow our own procedures or timescales
  • gave the wrong information
  • did not return telephone calls or written communications
  • sent unclear communication
  • conduct or behaviour of a member of staff was unsatisfactory

Complaints process

Rosherville will receive complaints in a variety of ways – in person, by letter or on-line. While it is preferred that you put your complaint in writing (for reasons of clarity and record) this may not always be possible or you may prefer to give you account directly to a company employee.

Complaints must be in writing and submitted either through the contact us form or by writing to:

Company Secretary
Rosherville Limited
Civic Centre
Windmill Street
Gravesend
DA12 1AU

We deal with all complaints professionally and in a courteous and timely manner.  If you put in a formal complaint this is how we will deal with it.

Stage One

In the first instance, complaints will be recorded centrally by the Company Secretary and allocated to the most appropriate operational officer i.e. a complaint in relation to servicing activities will be referred to the Fleet Manager in the first instance.

Where this is not possible or the complaint is more wide-ranging, the Company Secretary will review the complaint.  As necessary, information will be sought to fully investigate the complaint.  Every effort will be made to get the matter resolved at stage one.

Stage Two

If it has not been possible to resolve the complaint at stage one or the you are not satisfied with the response, the complaint will be escalated to Stage 2. At this stage, the Chair of the relevant company Board will be responsible for reviewing the complaint and action taken in Stage 1.

A Stage 2 response is the company’s final response and will be based on a review of the adequacy of the Stage 1 response, as well as any new and relevant information not previously considered.

For any complaint made, you will receive an acknowledgement within five working days. Our standard procedure is to investigate and send a full response as follows:

  • Stage one complaints to be investigated and replied to within 10 working days from the date of acknowledgement.
  • Stage two complaints to be investigated and replied to within 20 working days from the date of acknowledgement

On some occasions, when the complaint is of a complex nature for example, it is not possible to give a full response within the timescale of ten or twenty working days, depending on which stage the complaint is at. In these circumstances, the deadline needs to be extended.  Further communication will be sent advising the reason for the delayed response and the date by which a full reply will be received.

Further information

If, after following the complaint process detailed above, you are still unhappy with the outcome, you may wish to refer your problem to an arbiter depending on the nature of the problem. The relevant ombudsman or use an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme.

If the complaint is about a service that Rosherville Limited (or its subsidiaries) provides on behalf of the Council then the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman can investigate the complaint. You can write to:

Local Government Ombudsman

PO Box 4771,

Coventry,

CV4 0EH

Tel: 0300 061 0614

Or visit the Local Ombudsman website.

This course of action can only be taken if Rosherville Limited (or its subsidiaries) provide services directly on behalf of Gravesham Borough Council.  For example, if Rosherville provided repairs and maintenance services and GBC contracted them to undertake repairs on council housing, the complainant would have recourse to the LGO.

Examples of complaints investigated by the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman, in relation to services relating to GBC, specific to Rosherville are as follows:

  • Property condition – repairs and improvements
  • Repair responsibilities under the lease
  • Condition of the property when first let (eg void works)
  • Responsive repairs
  • Planned maintenance or cyclical works
  • Improvement works carried out by landlord or tenant
  • Rechargeable repairs
  • Disabled adaptations
  • Estate management
  • Cleaning or repairs of communal areas
  • Grounds maintenance

If the complaint is about a service provided directly by Rosherville Limited (or its subsidiaries), and is not linked to the delivery of council services, the relevant ombudsman or regulatory body can be contacted.

Unreasonable, vexatious or persistent complaints

Rosherville will treat every complaint with consideration based on severity and impact, responding to the complainant to seek an agreeable and fair resolution.  Complaints that are considered to be unreasonable, vexatious or persistent will, if required, be treated as nuisance and passed to a regulatory authority.