Complaints Policy
How to raise a concern with us, and what happens next.
1. About this policy
House Smart Property Group ("HSPG", "we", "us") arranges and co-ordinates property services for customers. That includes surveys, conveyancing, mortgage advice and specialist reports.
We do not carry out all of those services ourselves. We introduce you to firms that are qualified and regulated to do the work, and we manage the relationship so that everything runs smoothly. In each case you enter into your own agreement, terms and conditions, directly with that firm.
That matters when something goes wrong, because it decides who is able to investigate your complaint. This policy explains, in plain terms:
- what we will investigate and put right ourselves;
- what we must pass to another firm, and why;
- how quickly we will act, and what you can expect from us either way.
This policy applies to every customer, and to anyone acting on a customer's behalf with their permission. It is free to use, and complaining will never affect the service you receive from us.
2. Our commitment to you
We would always rather know when something has not gone well. A complaint is not a nuisance to us, it is how we find the weak points in our service and in the firms we work with. Whatever your complaint is about, we promise to:
- take it seriously and treat you fairly and courteously;
- tell you promptly and honestly who is going to deal with it;
- never simply leave you to chase another firm on your own — if it is not ours to investigate, we will hand it over and confirm that to you in writing;
- record every complaint we receive, including those we pass on, and use what we learn to improve;
- keep your information confidential and share it only with the firm that needs it to investigate.
3. Who will deal with your complaint
When we receive a complaint, the first thing we do is work out which of two routes it takes.
Route 1 — It is about HSPG, so we deal with it
Where the complaint concerns our own service, we investigate it ourselves. Examples include:
- the standard of our customer service, communication or updates;
- delays or errors in the way we arranged, co-ordinated or chased your service;
- the fees, charges or quotes we gave you, or the way we explained them;
- the way we referred you, or the information we gave you about a firm we introduced you to;
- how we have handled your personal information, or how we have handled an earlier complaint.
Route 2 — It is about a firm we introduced you to, so we pass it on
If your complaint is about the professional service, advice or work carried out by a firm we introduced you to, we cannot investigate it for you. That firm is regulated in its own right, holds its own professional indemnity insurance, and has its own complaints procedure that it must follow under the rules of its regulator. You will also have entered into terms and conditions directly with them.
This is not us passing the buck. Only the firm that did the work is able to review the file properly, put things right, and give you a formal response that carries the escalation rights you are entitled to. If we tried to answer for them, you would lose those rights. What we will do is make sure the complaint reaches the right people quickly and does not get lost.
If your complaint covers both
Complaints often do not fall neatly on one side of the line. If part of what went wrong was ours and part was another firm's, we will split it: we will investigate our part and pass on the rest. We will always tell you in writing which parts we are dealing with and which parts have gone elsewhere, so you are never left guessing.
4. The services we arrange, and who handles complaints about them
All of the work we arrange, including our in-house surveying team, is placed with a regulated firm. The table below shows who investigates a complaint about each service.
| Service | Who carries it out | Who investigates a complaint about the work |
|---|---|---|
| Survey — in-house team | Our surveyors are employed by Ready Set Survey, the regulated firm we place all in-house survey work with. | Ready Set Survey, under its own complaints procedure and the rules of its regulator. |
| Survey — panel | The independent surveying firm we placed your instruction with. | That surveying firm, under its own complaints procedure and the rules of its regulator. |
| Conveyancing | The conveyancing firm you were introduced to and entered into terms with. | That conveyancing firm, under its own complaints procedure and the rules of its regulator. |
| Mortgage advice | The mortgage broker you were introduced to and entered into terms with. | That broker, under its own complaints procedure and the rules of its regulator. |
| Specialist reports | The specialist firm instructed for your report (for example damp, timber, drainage, structural or environmental). | That specialist firm, under its own complaints procedure and any applicable regulator or trade body. |
| Arranging and co-ordinating the above | House Smart Property Group. | HSPG — see 'What happens if we are dealing with it'. |
Each of these firms will tell you, in its final response, whether you can take your complaint further to an ombudsman or independent redress scheme, and how long you have to do so. Those rights come from that firm's regulator, so the route and the deadlines differ from one service to another. We will not repeat them here, because we do not want to give you a date that turns out to be wrong for your case, but if you cannot find them, contact us and we will help you locate the right procedure.
5. How to make a complaint
You can complain to us by email or by telephone, whichever suits you better. You do not need to use the word "complaint", and you do not need to set it out in any particular format.
| complaints@housesmartpropertygroup.co.uk | |
| Telephone | 0161 850 4672 — Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm |
| Post | House Smart Property Group, 20 Swan Street, Manchester, M4 5JW |
To help us deal with things quickly, please tell us where you can:
- your name, address and a phone number or email address we can reach you on;
- your reference number or the property address, if you have one;
- which service your complaint relates to (survey, conveyancing, mortgage, specialist report, or HSPG itself);
- what happened, and roughly when;
- what you would like us to do to put it right.
If you need help putting your complaint together, or you would find it easier to give it to us over the phone, tell us and we will write it down for you and check it back with you. If you would prefer a different format, large print, or correspondence through a family member, carer or adviser, just ask.
6. What happens if we are dealing with it
Where your complaint is about HSPG, this is our process and the timescales we hold ourselves to.
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| Straight away | Wherever we can, we will try to sort things out on the spot. If we resolve it to your satisfaction within three working days, we will confirm that to you in writing and close the matter. If you are not happy with that, tell us and we will treat it as a formal complaint. |
| Within 3 working days | We acknowledge your complaint in writing, tell you who is investigating it and how to reach them, and link to a copy of this policy. |
| Within 4 weeks | We aim to send you our full written response. If we are not able to conclude our investigation by then, we will write and explain why, and tell you when you can expect our response. |
| Within 8 weeks | You will receive our final written response. This is the point at which our internal process is complete. |
Our investigation is carried out by someone with the authority to put things right, and wherever it is practical, by someone who was not directly involved in what you are complaining about.
Our final response will set out what you complained about, what we found, the reasons for our conclusion, and what we are going to do about it. Where we have got something wrong we will say so, apologise, and tell you how we will fix it and how we will stop it happening again.
7. What happens if we are passing it on
Where your complaint is about a firm we introduced you to, we will:
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| Within 3 working days | We acknowledge your complaint and confirm in writing that it is going to the relevant firm, and why. |
| Within 3 working days | We pass your complaint to that firm in writing, with the details you gave us and any relevant records we hold, and we ask them to contact you direct. |
| At the same time | We give you the firm's name, their complaints contact details, and a copy of, or a link to, their complaints procedure so you can see the timescales and escalation rights that apply. |
| Ongoing | We log the complaint on our own register and monitor that the firm has picked it up. If you tell us they have not been in touch, we will chase them on your behalf. |
From that point the firm investigates and responds to you under its own complaints procedure, in line with the requirements of its regulator. Their response, not ours, is the one that carries your right to take the matter to an ombudsman or redress scheme.
We do not control their decision and we cannot overturn it. But if you feel they have handled your complaint poorly — for example, they have not responded, or they have not followed their own procedure — please tell us. How our panel firms treat our customers is very much our business, and we will take it up with them.
If, having looked at your complaint, we conclude that part of it is actually about our own conduct, we will pick that part up ourselves under section 6 without you having to ask.
8. If you are still not happy
With a complaint we investigated
If you are unhappy with our final response, please tell us. If you have new information, or you feel we have misunderstood something, we will look at it again — tell us within 8 weeks of our final response and we will review the matter and write to you again.
HSPG is not a regulated firm and is not a member of an independent redress or ombudsman scheme, so our final response is the end of our internal process. That does not affect your legal rights. If you remain dissatisfied you may want to take independent advice, for example from Citizens Advice, a trading standards service, or a solicitor, about the options open to you.
With a complaint we passed on
If you are unhappy with the response you receive from a firm we introduced you to, your next step is the escalation route set out in their final response letter. That will name the ombudsman or redress scheme that covers them and the deadline for going to it, which is usually a fixed period from the date of their final response, so it is worth acting promptly rather than waiting.
Please also let us know. We record the outcome of complaints about our panel firms and it forms part of how we assess them.
9. What we do with complaints information
We keep a central record of every complaint we receive, both the ones we investigate and the ones we pass on. For each one we record what it was about, which firm it concerned, when it was passed on, and what the outcome was.
We do this for two reasons. The first is so that nothing gets lost. The second is that it tells us how the firms on our panel actually perform for our customers. We use that evidence to assess whether a firm is good enough to stay on our panel, it informs how much work we place with them, and whether we continue to work with them at all.
We handle your personal information in line with UK data protection law and our privacy policy. We keep complaint records for 6 years.
10. Extra support
If there is anything about your circumstances that makes it harder for you to deal with a complaint — a health condition, a bereavement, financial difficulty, a language need, or anything else — please tell us. We will adjust how we communicate with you, and we will tell the firm handling your complaint if it will help them support you properly. You are welcome to have a friend, relative or adviser speak to us on your behalf; we will just need your permission first.
House Smart Property Group · 20 Swan Street, Manchester, M4 5JW · Registered in England and Wales, company number 17299379 · Version 1.0 · Effective from 1 August 2026