Complaints Policy

March 2026

Formal complaint procedure

When you’re not satisfied, we take it personally. At Urban Union we are committed to delivering an excellent customer experience. If you have an issue or concern that you have not yet made us aware of, please speak to our Customer Service team in the first instance. If you have already raised an issue or concern with our customer service team and you wish to raise a formal complaint with us, please find the process below. It is important that you go through the appropriate stages step by step. This process does not affect your legal rights.

1. Purpose of this procedure
   This procedure sets out how we receive, record, investigate and resolve formal complaints. Our aim is to treat every customer fairly, act transparently, and resolve complaints promptly and professionally. This procedure applies to all homeowners and prospective purchasers of our new homes.

2. What is a complaint?
   A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction made to us by a customer relating to a new home, our service, sales process, aftercare, or conduct of our employees or person’s working on our behalf which requires a response. This includes issues related to but not limited to:
   • Build quality, we ailed to do something we should have done or not done it is well as we should have done
   • Snagging or defects
   • Handover issues
   • Aftercare or repair service
   • Delays or missed appointments
   • Incorrect or misleading information provided
   • Treated you unfairly
   • Provided poor customer service
   • Any failure to resolve or suitably progress an issue or service request in a timely manner (where possible, within 56 calendar days)

Throughout the process we aim to:

2. • Communicate with you using clear and plain-language
   • Provide a timely response and updates to customer complaints

3. Contacting our customer services team

Our customer service team are on hand to deal with any complaints. Please note we can only deal with customer service complaints submitted to our Customer Service team. Please note complaints must be submitted to our customer service team through any of the following channels:

Email: Customerservice@urbanunionltd.co.uk
Telephone: 0141 530 4000
In writing: Urban Union, Orion House, 7 Robroyston Oval, Glasgow, G33 1AP

Complaints will be acknowledged and handled through the same formal process regardless of how they are received.  To help us resolve your complaint as effectively and quickly as we can, please ensure you provide as much information as possible, including:

• Names and address of any parties involved.
• Dates/times of any particular issues.
• Details of any steps you have already taken to resolve the issue.
• Any supporting information or evidence you would like to include.

In addition, it would be extremely useful to us if you would detail what you would feel is an acceptable resolution to your complaint. 

Upon receipt of a complaint, our customer service team will:

1. Log the complaint in our Customer Service Management System.
2. Assign a unique complaint reference number.
3. Record the following information:

• Customer details
• Property reference
• Date received
• Nature of complaint
• Evidence provided
• Required response actions

The start date for handling your complaint will be the first business day after it has been received. Please note the complaint notification date is the first working day after a complaint is received. If a complaint is received on a Saturday, the complaint notification date will be the following Monday excluding any public holidays.

4. Customer Service team response

Our Customer Service team will:

• Acknowledge in writing that they have received the complaint within 2 working days of the complaint notification date.
• Review the complaint details and supporting evidence.
• Contact the customer if further information is required.
• If appropriate, arrange an inspection or visit.
• Provide a written response setting out:

– Their findings.
– Whether the complaint is upheld (in full, partially, or not upheld).
–  Actions required and timescales to resolve.
–   Any compensation or goodwill payments (if applicable).
–   Next steps if the customer disagrees with their response.

If more time is needed for a complex issue, a member of our Customer Service team will notify you in writing and provide a revised timeline.

• Within 10 calendar days of the complaint notification date, we will email or write to provide details of our proposed resolution, decision or outline how we will investigate your concerns. In some instances, this might state our decision to take no further action or that we believe the complaint to be resolved. Either way, we will confirm what steps were or are being taken, along with an anticipated date for resolution. 
• If the path to resolution requires us to carry out further work, we will ask for your acceptance of this resolution in writing, within 10 calendar days.

Our Customer Service team aim to resolve complaints with minimum delay, if your complaint remains open 30 calendar days after the complaint notification date, we will write to update you on each complaint raised. This will include:

• where a complaint has been resolved and what action has been taken to do so.
• where a complaint is not resolved but further time is needed to investigate the matter, the estimated time within which a decision will be reached together with a brief explanation as what further steps are required and why.
• if a complaint is not resolved but remediation work is required, what that work will be and an estimated time within which required work will be completed.
• where further investigation or remediation has been set out, when the next update will be provided will not be more than 28 calendar days.
• where a complaint is not accepted, we will provide a clear explanation for our decision.

If your complaint remains open 56 calendar days after the complaint notification date, we will write to update you on each item raised. This will include:

• a clear summary of what action has been taken to date.
• clear details of what is still outstanding, a reason why and the actions to be taken.
• an indicative timescale for resolution.
• the frequency that updates will be provided to you until resolution, which will not be more than 28 calendar days.

On addressing all items raised within your complaint, we will write to you to summarise the action taken on each and to confirm the complaint is closed.

5. Escalation of formal complaints

We sincerely hope that all complaints can be addressed by a member of our Customer Service team, however, if you feel your concerns have not been resolved to your satisfaction, you can refer your complaint to our Sales and Marketing Director at info@urbanunionltd.co.uk.  The Sales and Marketing Director will aim within 5 working days to:

• Review the case
• Reassess all evidence, actions, and decisions
• Provide a final response letter within 10 calendar days of escalation or advise you of any reason for any delay.

The response letter will contain:

• The final decision including any remedies offered
• Provide you with information about what you can do if you are unhappy with how we have dealt with your complaints and confirmation of the customer’s right to escalate under the relevant code (e.g. NHBC/NHQB)

6. Compensation/goodwill gesture

Where compensation/goodwill gesture is appropriate, the Sales and Marketing Director will consider and assess:

• Direct financial loss
• Out-of-pocket expenses
• Damage to property
• Distress and inconvenience (where justified)
• Rework or remedial actions

All compensation assessments will be fair, evidence-based, and documented.

7. What you can do if you are unhappy with how we have dealt with your complaint

If you are unhappy with how we have dealt with your complaint, you may be able to refer it for independent review. Referrals can only be made after 56 calendar days have passed since first raising it with us and no later than 12 months after our final response. There are two bodies that you can direct your referral to and depends on when you reserved your home.

Homes reserved before 1st November 2022

If you reserved your home before 1st November 2022 then you will be covered by the Consumer Code for Home Builders (www.consumercode.co.uk). Under the Consumer Code for Home Builders if you are unhappy with how we have dealt with your complaint, you may refer the matter to your Home Warranty Provider in the first instance. If appropriate, they might refer you to the Consumer Code for Home Builders who run an Independent Dispute Resolution Scheme (IDRS).  The IDRS will follow an adjudication process. This is entirely independent and will consider the evidence provided by the customer and the house builder to reach a decision.

Homes reserved after 1st November 2022

If you reserved, your home on or after 1st November 2022 then you will be covered by the New Homes Quality Code: (www.nhos.org.uk). Under the New Homes Quality Code, if you are unhappy with how we have dealt with your complaint, you may refer the matter to the New Homes Ombudsman Service (NHOS)

The NHOS, whose decisions will be entirely independent, will consider the evidence provided by the customer and the house builder to reach an adjudication. Using our formal complaints process, the Independent Dispute Resolution Scheme or New Homes Ombudsman Service does not affect your normal legal rights.

We will cooperate fully with all investigations.

8. Continuous Improvement

Our Sales and Marketing Director regularly reviews all formal complaints, and we may amend our processes where necessary and continue to improve the service we deliver to all our customers.  We review complaints quarterly to identify the following improvements that are recorded in our quality improvement plan:

• Recurring issues
• Trends in workmanship or service failures
• Training needs
• Improvements to processes or customer service

9. Record keeping

We retain all complaint records for auditing purposes for a minimum of 6 years, including:

• Complaint details
• Communications
• Inspection reports
• Evidence
• Decisions and reasoning
• Final outcomes