Complaints procedure

If we have surveyed your house, quoted for a rooflight or skylight, or installed or replaced one, you can use this procedure. So can someone acting for you, such as a relative or a managing agent, as long as you let us know you are happy for them to speak for you.

A complaint can be about anything we did or failed to do: how we behaved in your home, the accuracy of a quote, the standard of the finished work, the mess we left, delays, the Building Control paperwork, or the way we handled your personal details. There is no wrong subject and nothing too small to raise.

A fault with an installation that is still under our 10-year workmanship guarantee is usually quickest dealt with as a guarantee claim. If you are not satisfied with how that claim was handled, bring it here.

Email is best, because it gives us both a written record. Send your complaint to info@northcrestskylightsleeds.co.uk. If you would sooner talk it through, ring 0113 436 0654; we will write up what you told us and send you a copy to check, so nothing is lost between the call and our reply.

It helps if your message includes:

• your name and the address of the property where the work was done
• what went wrong and when you first noticed it
• photographs, if the problem can be seen, such as a stain on a ceiling or a gap at a reveal
• what you would like us to do about it

We keep no public premises, so complaints come to us by email or phone, and we visit you where a problem needs to be seen.

These are the timescales we commit to. They are our own policy, set to be fair to you, and we keep to them.

A complaint about how we used your personal data has its own legal timetable as well: the law requires an acknowledgement no later than 30 days from receipt. Our privacy policy covers the detail.

Reply to our full response and say what is still wrong. The owner of the business then reviews the complaint afresh, looks at everything you and the person who handled it have sent, and writes to you with a final response. That letter confirms that our own procedure has finished and sets out the outside routes still open to you.

Raising a complaint never affects what the law entitles you to. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 expects our work to show reasonable care and skill, and the skylight or rooflight itself has to be of satisfactory quality and properly installed; the terms and conditions explain how those rights apply to your job.

Alternative dispute resolution

Alternative dispute resolution means an independent body, such as a mediator or adjudicator, looks at the disagreement and helps settle it without going to court. It takes place only if both of us agree to use it. In the UK, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 sets the rules that consumer ADR providers work under. If one is available to us for your complaint, our final response names it and explains how to apply.

Free advice

The Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133 gives free, impartial advice on your rights and can pass a complaint to Trading Standards where that is appropriate.

The small claims track

If you are claiming money, the small claims track of the county court is designed for people bringing a case without a solicitor. A claim can be started online through the GOV.UK money claim service, and a court fee is payable. Before starting, you would normally need to send us a letter setting out the claim and give us a fair chance to reply.

Data protection

If your complaint is about personal data and our response has not resolved it, you can take it to the Information Commissioner's Office through ico.org.uk.

Every complaint is kept on file with the job it relates to. Once a complaint is closed, we look at whether it points to something we should change, whether on the survey, in the wording of a quote or in the way an opening is made good, so the next roof we work on benefits from it.