Customer Service Statement & Complaints Procedure

Customer Service Statement

Neil Douglas aims to provide a high-quality and professional service at all times..

As a customer of Neil Douglas, you can expect us:

Treat all customers courteously; being fair, polite, respectful and professional, regardless of age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or disability.
Consult our customers regularly to obtain feedback on our services and to use that feedback positively.
Act promptly and efficiently in our dealings with customers, being clear about what action will be taken and when.
Adhere to quality and procedural guidelines - they exist to ensure good practice and are for the benefit of both customers and employees.
Ensure our employees are skilled, motivated and have at their disposal the resources to work to a high standard.

We ask Neil Douglas customers to:

Treat employees courteously at all times; being fair, polite and respectful, regardless of age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or disability.
Give us honest feedback and inform us of any difficulties they experience when they arise.
Use plain language in their communication and avoid using AI to draft complaint communications, which often include unrelated or misleading information.
Avoid making irrelevant statutory requests as part of a complaint when they are unconnected - for example, making a Subject Access Request when complaining about a service charge. This can distract from the main problem and delay its resolution.
Remember that Neil Douglas will not accept abusive language or threats against its employees and will take appropriate action when they occur in line with our unreasonable behaviour policy

How to provide feedback or raise a maintenance or administrative issue

Reports of maintenance or administrative issues, and feedback on our service, can be provided to the development-specific email address you have been provided with. This will be displayed on internal notice boards (if applicable) and in communications from us regarding service charge, accounts, meetings etc.

If you can’t find your development-specific email address, you can contact us via block@neildouglas.co.uk or by phone on 01296 429055.

We will always try to resolve any issues or complaints informally in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, please ask the person you are dealing with to escalate it to their manager. We will typically only address the matter under our formal complaints procedure when attempts to resolve it informally have been unsuccessful.

How we deal with complaints

How we will deal with your complaint will depend on the details of the matter you are concerned about.
As Managing Agent, we act on behalf of our clients, who are mostly leaseholder-owned Resident Management Companies. It is our clients who are the decision-makers for the level of service or maintenance charge, the appointment of contractors, and the authorisation of most maintenance works.

Our clients have responsibility for the maintenance of the communal areas of the development, but neither they nor Neil Douglas has the ability to control the behaviour of other residents. Whilst we will endeavour to support and advise in situations of anti-social behaviour or civil disputes between neighbours, such as when a leak occurs from flat to flat, it is not our role to resolve them.

Where your complaint concerns a shortfall in the service provided by the team at Neil Douglas we will investigate the matter in full and provide you with a written response. Where the matter relates to decisions made by our client, we will also respond, but this response will be outside our formal complaints procedure.

Formal Complaints Procedure

Neil Douglas is a Member of The Property Ombudsman, which is a redress scheme for Leasehold Property Management, and our complaints procedure aligns with their guidance. They provide a useful consumer guide called Dispute Resolution for Block and Estate Management, which outlines the different avenues for resolving complaints.

If you have attempted to resolve the issue with us informally, and believe that your complaint meets the criteria for a complaint about the actions of a property managing agent, your formal complaint can be sent to us in writing to:

Email: complaint@neildouglas.co.uk
Post: Louisa Myatt, Director, Neil Douglas Block Management Limited, Portland House, Westfield Road, Pitstone, Leighton Buzzard LU7 9GU.

We will:

Acknowledge your formal complaint promptly, usually within 24 hours, but no later than three working days of receipt.
Assign your complaint to a senior manager for investigation and response.
We will normally deal with your complaint and provide a written response under this complaints process within 15 days of receipt.
We will keep you informed by email or letter if we need more time, with an explanation and a timescale.
We will liaise, at your request, with anyone acting formally on your behalf.

If at the end of this process you remain dissatisfied with our response, you may appeal in writing using the same contact details above. The case will be reviewed by Louisa Myatt or another senior manager.

We will:

Provide a separate and detached review of the complaint by someone not directly involved in the provision of the service.
Review your complaint and our internal investigation and will respond to you with a final written statement within 8 weeks of your initial complaint.

In the event that the final written statement still fails to satisfy you, then you may refer the matter to The Property Ombudsman.

We will submit our file to the Ombudsman on request. You are also entitled to have your complaint referred to the Ombudsman should we fail to deal with matters promptly or do not comply with our in-house complaints procedure within 8 weeks from the date we received your notification.

You must refer the matter to the Ombudsman within six months of the date of our final written statement.

You can log a complaint on their website at www.tpos.co.uk or write to them at:

The Property Ombudsman
Unit 159756
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL