Customer feedback: Make a complaint (or a comment or a compliment)

See also:

Customer feedback

We value your feedback on our services, so letting us know about your customer experience is important to us:

Compliments: Compliments are a good way of letting someone or a service know what they have done well and when they have got it right. Compliments Will be brought to the attention of the relevant manager and the officer involved.
Formal complaints: A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual resident or group of residents.

If you are not happy, we want to hear about it. There are two stages to our complaints process:

Stage 1: The relevant service manager will receive and review the details of your complaint. They will respond to your complaint and take any appropriate action.
Stage 2: If you are not happy with the Stage 1 response, you can ask a senior officer who did not respond at Stage 1 to review your complaint.

At each stage a written acknowledgement will be sent to you within five working days with contact details of the person who will investigate the complaint.

We will try to reply fully in writing within 10 working days for Stage 1, and within 15 working days for Stage 2. If we are unable to do so, we will contact you to explain the delay and how long it will take to respond.

If you remain dissatisfied with our response at Stage 2, you can escalate your complaint to either the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) or the Housing Ombudsman Service (HO) depending on which council service your complaint relates to. In our response, we will advise you which ombudsman to contact. See also:

Escalating to the Ombudsman

How to send us your feedback

If you want to report a missed council service or a fault, please refer to the reporting a missed service or fault section below.

If you would like to give a compliment about our services, or make a formal complaint about a Council service, please use the online form below:

Send a comment, compliment or complaint to the Councils (online eform)

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Report a missed service or fault

If you are reporting a missed Council service or a fault (such as a street light that isn't working), please use the relevant link below and choose the appropriate service:

Adur & Worthing Councils Services (residents):

Housing and Adur homes
Council Tax and Benefits services
Household recycling and waste collection
Parking services: permits and Penalty Charge Notices (PCN, also known as parking tickets)
Environmental Health
Planning applications
Building Control
Community & Wellbeing Services
See: Submit a compliment or complaint

Adur & Worthing Councils Services (businesses):

Business Rates
Licensing and permits
Public Health & Regulation
See: Submit a compliment or complaint

West Sussex County Council Services (WSCC):

Social care, health and education
West Sussex highways (road maintenance, transport & traffic)
Street lighting, public paths and countryside
Waste and recycling centres (tips) - also known as Household Waste Recycling Sites (HWRS)
Parking - Blue Badge scheme, road works and road closures
Births, marriages and deaths registration
Trading Standards
See: WSCC section below

However, if you wish to make a formal comment, complaint or compliment please read the customer feedback section above.

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Make a comment, compliment or complaint about West Sussex County Council

West Sussex County Council - WSCC - small West Sussex County Council (WSCC) has its own complaints procedure. If you need to complain to WSCC please get in touch with them as soon as you can.

To find out more about WSCC's complaints procedure see:

Comments, compliments and complaints - on the West Sussex County Council website

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Escalating to the ombudsman

The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) and Housing Ombudsman (HO) are a free service provided to individuals who wish to complain about their council. They investigate complaints in a fair and independent way - they do not take sides.

Each ombudsman handles different types of service complaints:

Local Government Ombudsman (LGO)

Also referred to as LGO and they will investigate the following council services - their fact advice sheets are available via the links below:

Local Government Ombudsman (non-housing complaints)

The normal practice of the LGO is not to begin an investigation until the council has had the opportunity to try to resolve the complaint. It is important, therefore, that you contact us first. See:

How to make a complaint - on the LGO website
see also the Adur Homes feedback and complaints section below

Adur Homes feedback and complaints

Adur Homes logo (145)

As members of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (see section below), we have additional requirements in housing to adhere to.

Our housing feedback and complaints policy & procedure explains what you can expect from us when making a complaint:

We are also required to complete an annual self assessment against their code of practice which you can view below to see how we are doing.

In addition to the Housing Ombudsman's code of practice, we must also comply with the:

Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard - on the GOV.UK website

Landlords are required to produce an annual complaints performance and service improvement report for submission to the Housing Ombudsman. A copy of the report can be found here:

Housing Ombudsman (HO)

The Housing Ombudsman, also referred to as HO, will investigate the following housing complaints:

disputes involving the tenants and leaseholders of social landlords (housing associations and local authorities)
leasehold services
rent / service charges
moving to a property - tenancy / transfer / mutual exchange
tenant behaviour
repairs / housing standards
environmental health issues of property
complaints about housing staff
councils' handling of the complaints process

Housing Ombudsman (housing complaints)

You can refer your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman at any stage of the process and request their intervention. See: