Karen Bright from ALEP member Bishop & Sewell provides her top tips on how to deal with complaints.
Many people have experienced occasions where they are not happy with a service or goods they have received and it is important to have a system in place to deal with such complaints. The failure to properly deal with a complaint may result in the situation becoming far more heated and a total breakdown of trust between the parties. There are fewer situations where the impact could be felt more than when a tenant complains to its landlord or managing agent. The absence of the tenant’s complaint being dealt with appropriately may lead not only to a large amount of ill feeling and loss of trust but also the issue of court or tribunal proceedings which are likely to be very expensive for both parties.
Often an aggrieved party wants to have the opportunity of raising their concerns, feeling that their complaint has been listened to, independently considered and responded to. It is therefore important to have a clear complaints procedure in place, which can be referred to in such circumstances.
In the relationship between landlord and tenant, there is often a managing agent in place who acts as a go-between between the parties. Complaints can sometimes arise due to a breakdown in communication between the three parties. It is very important for a landlord to keep in regular contact with its managing agent and ensure that it regularly updates it with all complaints received. Any information or complaints made to a managing agent will be deemed to have been made to the landlord. If a managing agent fails to pass on the complaints, this can put the landlord in a difficult position as a landlord will be deemed to have knowledge of everything that the agent has knowledge of.
If, as a tenant you feel that your complaints are not being taken seriously by the managing agent, then you may wish to attempt to contact the landlord direct to bring to their attention the complaints which have been made to the managing agents and which may not have been passed on. It would not be appropriate to do this with all correspondence and only as a last resort before issuing proceedings.
When receiving a complaint it is important to acknowledge the complaint promptly and tell the complainant how the complaint will be dealt with, when and how you will be responding. It goes without saying that you should stick to the times indicated and if, for any reason you are unable to meet them, then you should notify the complainant as soon as possible.
It is important in dealing with any complaint to ensure that any response cannot be construed as an admission of liability, if it is not intended to be so, however, it is still possible to express empathy for the complainant’s feelings with a statement such as “I am sorry that you feel that your email of … has not been responded to”.
Nipping a complaint in the bud can avoid spending lengthy time in dealing with an aggrieved party and possibly tribunal or court proceedings. Often matters are far more difficult to resolve once proceedings have been issued as there may well be additional issues such as who is going to pay the legal fees. Where the complaint is from a tenant about a number of issues it is often very useful for an early meeting to take place between the tenant and managing agent/ landlord to fully understand the issues. It is not uncommon for there to be one main issue bothering the tenant but because he/she does not feel they are being listened to suddenly there become a number of other issues listed, which are often not that important to the tenant. The best way of discovering what the key issue or issues are is often by discussing matters face to face with the tenant.
If it is not possible to resolve matters then the tenant may feel that his/her only option is to issue proceedings to resolve the underlying issue they are complaining about; whether this is a failure to repair, a challenge to the reasonableness of the service charge or to appoint a manager, in any event dealing with the proceedings will be time consuming and expensive for all involved.
About ALEP
Formed in 2007 and now with 227 member organisations, ALEP is a not-for-profit association that brings together barristers, managing agents, project managers, solicitors and valuers working in the residential leasehold sector.
ALEP promotes best practice by vetting individual barristers and organisations to ensure they have significant expertise in leasehold enfranchisement. Membership of ALEP acts as a badge of assurance so that flat owners and freeholders can be confident that they are employing professionals with the right level of expertise in handling potentially complex transactions.
For further information about ALEP please visit alep.org.uk
Karen Bright is a partner at Bishop & Sewell LLP and head of the Dispute Resolution Team. She has been a litigation solicitor for over 16 years with a particular specialism in Property and insolvency litigation.
