If something has gone wrong, here’s what we’ll do about it.

Who can complain

Anyone who deals with us, whether or not you are a paying client:

• landlords, including prospective landlords who have had a valuation or a proposal from us
• contract-holders (tenants), former contract-holders, and anyone who has applied for or viewed a property through us
• leaseholders, residents and residents’ management companies where we carry out block management
• contractors, suppliers and other agents
• neighbours and anyone else affected by a property we let or manage

A complaint is anything you tell us we have got wrong, done badly, or failed to do — whether that is about our service, our charges, our communication, our decisions, or the conduct of anyone acting for us.

Stage 1 — tell us

Most problems are quickest to fix by simply saying so. Email us at hello@cardiffmodernliving.co.uk, call us on 029 2169 0515, or reply to whoever you have been dealing with, and we will try to sort it out straight away. If we agree a way forward, we will confirm it to you in writing so there is a record on both sides.

You do not have to try this first. If you would rather go straight to a formal complaint, or you have already raised it informally and it is still not right, go to Stage 2.

Stage 2 — make a formal complaint

Put your complaint in writing and send it to us by email or post. If you would rather not put it in writing yourself, call us and we will take the details over the phone, write them up, and send them to you to check before we start.

So that we can deal with it properly first time, it helps if you tell us:

• your name, your address and how you would like us to reply
• the property the complaint relates to
• what happened and when, with dates where you have them
• who you dealt with, if you know
• copies of anything relevant — emails, letters, photographs, statements
• what you would like us to do to put it right

None of that is a condition. If you can only give us part of it, send what you have and we will ask if we need more.

What we do, and by when

What happens	When
We write to acknowledge your complaint, confirm what we understand it to be, and tell you who is dealing with it.	Within 3 working days of receiving it
We investigate every point you have raised and send you our full response in writing.	Within 10 working days of that acknowledgement
If the investigation genuinely needs longer — for example we are waiting on a contractor or a third party — we write to you before that deadline, explain why, and give you a date. We then update you at least every 10 working days until it is resolved.	Before the 10-working-day deadline passes

Our response will go through each point you raised and tell you what we found, whether we agree with you, what we are going to do about it, and what we are changing so it does not happen again. Where we have got something wrong we will say so plainly and apologise.

We aim to finish our internal procedure well inside eight weeks of receiving your written complaint. If we have not resolved it by then, you can take it to the Property Redress Scheme whether or not we have replied — see Stage 4.

Stage 3 — ask for a review

If our response does not settle it, write and tell us within 10 working days, saying which parts you disagree with and why. If you need longer than that, ask and we will agree a date with you.

We will look at the complaint again with your reply in front of us and send you our final viewpoint within 10 working days of your request. If you have shown us something we got wrong, we will change our position.

We are a small business, and we will not pretend otherwise. Complaints are handled by Paul Bailey, the director, and the review is carried out by the same person. That is exactly why the independent route in Stage 4 exists, and you are free to use it instead of asking us for a review.

Our final viewpoint closes our internal procedure.

Stage 4 — the Property Redress Scheme

Cardiff Modern Living Management Ltd is a member of the Property Redress Scheme, membership number PRS059920. It is a government-approved redress scheme, it is independent of us, and it is free for you to use.

You can take your complaint to the scheme when:

• eight weeks have passed since we received your written complaint — whether or not we have replied; or
• we have sent you our final viewpoint and you are not satisfied with it;

and, in either case, it is less than 12 months since our last communication with you about the matter. Do not leave it longer than that, because the scheme will not be able to take it.

The scheme will look at the complaint independently. It can require us to apologise, to explain ourselves, to take practical action to put things right, or to pay compensation, up to a maximum award of £25,000. If you accept its decision, that decision is binding on us. We will co-operate with the scheme, and we will supply it with our file on request.

Other routes, and things this procedure does not cover

How we have handled your personal information

Tell us first if you can — but you have the right to complain directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk, and you do not need our permission to do it.

Our licensing, or a landlord’s licensing

Rent Smart Wales licenses landlords and agents in Wales and can be contacted at rentsmart.gov.wales. Our agent licence number is LR-96208-17295.

A repair, a safety concern or anti-social behaviour at a property

That is a report, not a complaint about us — tell us and we will act on it, working with you, the landlord and, where it is appropriate, the council or the police. If you are then unhappy with how we handled it, that is a complaint and this procedure applies in full.

A decision that is the landlord’s and not ours

Some decisions are the landlord’s to make and we cannot overturn them. If that is the position we will tell you so in writing, tell you who is responsible, and pass your complaint on where we properly can.

Matters already before a court or tribunal

We will not run a parallel investigation into something a court or tribunal is deciding. We will still deal with any part of your complaint that sits outside those proceedings.

Help making a complaint

If putting your complaint in writing would be difficult — because of a disability, a health condition, or because writing is not something you are comfortable with — call us on 029 2169 0515, or email us and ask us to call you. We will take the details over the phone, write them up, and send them to you to check before we start.

You can ask someone to complain on your behalf: a relative, a friend, a support worker, Citizens Advice or a solicitor. We will need your written confirmation that you are happy for us to deal with them.

You may make your complaint in Welsh, and we will deal with it in Welsh. Doing so will not slow your complaint down or change the outcome.

Making a complaint will not be held against you. We will not end an agreement, refuse a service, or treat you any differently because you have complained.

Our records

We keep a written record of every complaint — what was raised, what we did, how long it took and how it ended — for six years from the date we close it. We review those records so that we fix causes and not just symptoms.

Complaint records are personal data and are handled under our privacy notice. We share the details only with people who need them in order to resolve the complaint: for example your landlord, a contractor who attended, our insurers, or the Property Redress Scheme. We provide a copy of our complaints procedure, and our complaint records, to Rent Smart Wales on request.

Getting a copy of this procedure

This procedure is published here, given to every landlord client when they instruct us, and given to every contract-holder at the start of their occupation contract. Ask us and we will send it to you as a PDF, in large print, or in Welsh, at no charge.