Guidance

RSH service standards 2019

Updated 30 October 2020

Applies to England

© Crown copyright 2020

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standards-of-service/rsh-service-standards-2019

Services we provide

We provide a range of statutory processes and services to the regulated social housing sector and its stakeholders.

Our Referrals and Regulatory Enquiries team provides information, advice and guidance. The most common enquiry topics and statutory processes are listed below:

  • Statutory register and notifications
  • Current list of registered providers (RPs)
  • Information required of RPs (including NROSH+)
  • Registration/ de-registration
  • Regulatory framework requirements
  • Regulatory judgements and notices

When dealing with enquiries and information provision, we measure ourselves against the following service standards:

For general enquiries:

Within 5 working days we will either

  • send a final response; or
  • send a holding response stating that we will provide a response within 15 working days of receipt of the initial enquiry.

For NROSH+ queries:

We aim to resolve all queries within 5 working days.

If we are unable to resolve the query within this timeframe we will contact the enquirer within 1 working day to inform them of this.

For Consumer standards referrals:

Stage 1 – Within 5 working days we will either

  • send a final response where no potential breach of standards is evident or
  • send a holding response,= stating that we will provide a response within 15 working days of receipt of the initial referral (Stage 2).

Stage 2 – Within 15 working days of the initial referral we will either:

  • send a final response where there is no breach of standard or where there is a breach of the standards but there is no serious detriment (Stage 2 closed) or
  • send a notification letter that we will be conducting further investigations requiring up to a further 20 working days (Stage 2 investigation).

Stage 3 – Within 20 working days of the notification letter (and 35 working days of receipt of the initial referral) we will:

  • provide a substantive response to the complaint or,
  • in complex cases, we will issue a further holding response advising what the status of the complaint is.

For Statutory referrals:

We will follow the same service standard as Consumer standards referrals.

For Economic standards investigations:

Within 5 working days we will either:

  • send a final response; or
  • send a holding response indicating that we will respond within 20 working days from receipt of the initial investigation request.

Within 20 working days from receipt of the investigation request we will send a substantive response based on the outcome of the decision, either:

  • Notification of no further action to be taken; or
  • Notification that there will be further investigations; or
  • Notification that the request will be escalated through our reactive engagement process.

Please note - for all standards, if we request further information from the enquirer to be able to process the enquiry appropriately, we may reset the start date to the point at which the required information is provided.

Publication of service standard performance information

The regulator reviewed its standards of service in 2018/19. We will publish our performance against the service standards on an annual basis following each year end.

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