Make a complaint
Our complaints process is designed to be clear, simple and accessible to all residents.
If you're not happy with a part of our service, please let us know. We’re here to put things right. Tell us what happened and we’ll work with you to resolve it quickly and fairly.
We accept complaints in any of the following ways:
- By completing our complaints webform
- By email to complaintsandresponses@gatewayhousing.org.uk
- By telephone on 0208 709 4300
- By letter to Gateway Housing Association, 409-413 Mile End Road, London, E3 4PB
- By visiting in-person 409-413 Mile End Road, London, E3 4PB.
Another person can make a complaint on your behalf with your permission.
If you need help to make a complaint, information in another format or a reasonable adjustment, please tell us. We will work with you to make the process accessible.
What is a complaint?
A complaint is when you tell us that you’re unhappy with:
- The standard of our service
- Something we did
- Something we didn't do.
- It can also be about someone providing a service on our behalf.
What we do when you make a complaint
When you tell us you're not happy, we will try and solve issues as soon as possible. We will:
Stage 1
- You tell us what went wrong and what you would like us to do
- We acknowledge your complaint within five working days
- We investigate your concerns
- We send our Stage 1 response within 10 working days.
Stage 2
- If you are unhappy with our Stage 1 response, you can ask us to review it
- A Head of Service reviews your complaint
- We send our Stage 2 response within 20 working days
- This is our final response
- If you're still unhappy, you can contact the Housing Ombudsman.
If you're not happy with our response - Housing Ombudsman
If you're not happy with how we responded to your complaint, you can ask the Housing Ombudsman Service for independent help and advice. When you have received our final response, you can ask it to investigate your complaint.
The Housing Ombudsman Service is an independent, free and impartial body that makes final decisions on disputes between social housing residents and their landlords. All registered social housing providers (including Gateway) are members of the scheme. This means every customer has access to a third party to help with complaints. Its aim is to resolve disputes fairly, improve complaint handling, and help landlords learn from issues to prevent repeat service failures.
You can refer your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman if you're not happy with our final response. The Housing Ombudsman considers issues such as:
- Repairs
- Communication failures
- Service standards
- Tenancy matters
- Broader complaints handling concerns.
See how to make a Housing Ombudsman complaint on their website, here.
Housing Ombudsman and the Regulator of Social Housing
The Housing Ombudsman works with the Regulator of Social Housing. They work together but do different things:
- The Housing Ombudsman focuses on resolving individual tenant and landlord disputes
- The Regulator of Social Housing focuses on whether landlords meet required consumer and governance standards
- This is set in a government factsheet outlining their respective roles and responsibilities.
The Housing Ombudsman sets standards that all social landlords must follow when handling complaints. Since 1 April 2024, these standards have been a legal requirement. This helps make sure complaints are handled fairly, clearly and within set timescales.
If you're still not happy after completing our complaints process, you can ask the Housing Ombudsman Service to independently review your complaint.
Since 13 January 2026, the quickest way to ask the Housing Ombudsman to investigate is through its online complaint form. If you cannot use the online form, visit the Housing Ombudsman website for information about other ways to get help. You can fill in the online complaint form, here.
The complaint process
We have policies, procedures and processes in place to make sure complaints are handled fairly and in line with the Housing Ombudsman Service's Complaint Handling Code.
These documents explain how we manage complaints, learn from feedback and improve our services.
You can view the following documents:
Read our Complaints Policy, here.
This explains how we handle complaints, the timescales we work to and what you can expect from us.
Read our Compensation Policy, here.
This explains when compensation or goodwill gestures may be offered, the types of situations where this may apply, and how compensation is assessed and awarded.
Read our statement from the Member Responsible for Complaints (MRC) 2026, here.
This is our yearly statement showing how we meet the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code.
Read our Housing Ombudsman Self-Assessment 2025/26, here
This explains how we meet the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code and where we are trying to improve.
Our complaints performance
We are committed to being open about our performance and using complaints and resident feedback to improve our services.
Read our Complaints Improvement Plan 2025 - 2026, here.
Read our Complaints Improvement Plan 2024 - 2025, here.
This sets out the actions we are taking to improve complaint handling and resident experience.
Read our Landlord Performance Report 2025/2026, here.
This report gives information about our service performance, including how we are performing for customers and where we are working to improve.
View our Tenant Satisfaction Measure results, here
These results show us how happy you are with different areas of our service including complaints. The results help us see where we need to improve.
We publish this information to be open and honest about our performance and to show how resident feedback, complaints and learning help us improve our services.