Complaints Procedure

REPORTING AN ISSUE

Although we hope you will not have any problems after you move into your new home, our commitment continues after your sale has completed.

If you consider that we have:

• Failed to do something we should have done
• Done something badly
• Treated you unfairly or discourteously;

then please contact us and allow us the opportunity to put it right. For non-emergencies, this starts with you contacting our dedicated customer service team at your local divisional office.

Contact details for our divisional offices and customer service departments can be found in this guide and on our website: www.crestnicholson.com/contact

When contacting us, please provide us with your full contact details and as much information about the issue as possible. This will ensure that we are able to respond to you quickly and fairly. Please refer to our privacy policy to understand how we manage your information: www.crestnicholson.com/privacypolicy

INFORMAL ISSUES

If you can resolve any issue informally with the divisional customer service team and are happy with the outcome, then you need not use our formal complaints procedures. If, however, you are not satisfied that the issue has been resolved or handled to your satisfaction, you may wish to make a formal complaint. You can do this by using our formal complaints procedure set out below.

FORMAL COMPLAINTS PROCESS

We have a robust process to ensure that your complaint is properly investigated and responded to:

Please raise your complaint to the relevant customer service team in the division that you purchased your home from either by completing an online complaints form which is available on the Contact page of our website or emailing your local customer service team. The divisional customer service director will be responsible for overseeing your complaint.

Our teams will follow the process below and most complaints can be dealt with by contacting our dedicated customer service team at the relevant divisional office.

If during this process you’re not satisfied that the matter is being resolved, then we request that you escalate your complaint to the divisional managing director for further review. They will continue to deal with your complaint in line with this process:

• We will acknowledge all complaints within 5 calendar days of the “Complaint Start Date”. The Complaints Start Date is the first business day after the Complaint is received.
• Within 10 calendar days of the Complaint Start Date we will send a response which details our pathway to resolution and explains how we plan to investigate and resolve your Complaint. We will also notify you if the Complaint may be subject to any resolution service.
• We will send a full complaint assessment response by no later than 30 calendar days from the Complaint Start Date. If the complaint has been resolved, this will confirm what steps were taken. If a Complaint is not accepted, we will make this clear with an explanation for the decision. If the complaint is still being looked into, the response will explain what further steps are required to look into your complaint and why, and the estimated time for making a decision.
• If the Complaint has not been resolved by the time of the complaint assessment response, we will confirm in writing when it has been resolved and confirm what action has been taken.
• In the unlikely event that the complaint remains unresolved after 56 calendar days of the Complaint Start Date, we will send a further response to provide information on what has caused the delay, what are the next steps and the anticipated date for resolution. We will also keep you updated no less than every 28 days until the matter is resolved.
• For the avoidance of doubt, using this Complaints Procedure, or the New Homes Ombudsman Service, will not affect any other legal rights you may have

We hope we can resolve most matters without the need for further escalation. However, if you are unhappy with how we have dealt with your complaint, once 56 days have passed from the Complaints Start Date you may be able to refer it for dispute resolution by your home warranty provider. Alternatively, where appropriate, you may refer it for independent resolution.

If you reserved your home:

• before 7th February 2023 you may refer it to the Consumer Code for Home Builders save where you are purchasing an ex-show home which has already been subject to a sale to an investor.
• on or after 7th February 2023 you may refer it to the New Homes Ombudsman Service (NHOS) at www.nhos.org.uk.

Both organisations will ask for evidence from you and us to reach an adjudication.