Provide feedback or a complaint?

We expect SA Housing Trust tenants to be good neighbours and the communities they live in to be enjoyable places to live – and most of them are. We also expect that our staff and contractors provide a quality service to our tenants.

But sometimes problems arise, and when this happens we act quickly to get a full picture of what has happened and take action when we need to.

If you would like to make a complaint, you can contact us in a number of ways:

To report anti-social behaviour

  1. Use our  ☞ secure online form
    1. Note: Submissions not made via this form will not be accepted,   OR
  2. You can call the SA Housing Trust on 131 299 ☏ and state you wish to "Report a Public Housing tenant’s behaviour"

To report a maintenance complaint

We understand it can be frustrating if repairs take time. Before lodging a complaint about maintenance, please make sure you have:

  1. Contacted the Maintenance Contact Centre more than once, if needed
  2. Allowed time for return calls, texts, or updates
  3. Checked your repair status through Housing Connect or by calling 131 288 ☏

The Maintenance Contact Centre makes multiple attempts to contact tenants to provide updates or confirm access. In many cases, issues can be resolved quickly once contact is made.

If you are still unhappy after following up, you can then make a complaint through the SA Housing Trust Contact Centre on 131 299 ☏

Did you know?

  • The Maintenance Contact Centre may call or text you more than once to follow up on repairs.
  • If you miss a call, please call 131 288 ☏ back before making a complaint.

To make a complaint about a Community Housing Provider

If you are a tenant or a neighbour of a tenant whose home is managed by a registered Community Housing Provider, you can lodge a complaint or an appeal.

Before making a formal complaint or lodging an appeal, please take the following steps:

  • Step 1 - Discuss your complaint with the community housing provider
  • Step 2 - If you have tried to resolve your concerns but are still dissatisfied with the outcome, you can make a formal complaint or appeal.

Detailed information about the steps you can take to resolve disputes, who else can help, and other options available if the dispute cannot be resolved is provided on the SA Housing Trust  Community Housing webpage

All other enquiries, complaints or feedback

Before you make a formal complaint or lodge an appeal, please take the following steps to get your complaint resolved:

Step 1:  Discuss your complaint with a Trust staff member, housing officer, or our contact centres.

Step 2:  If you have tried to resolve your concerns but you are still dissatisfied with the outcome, you can discuss your complaint with a Senior Manager at the local office.

Step 3: If we cannot resolve your complaint at Step 1 or Step 2, you can choose one of the following ways to make a formal complaint:

  1. Submit Feedback online
  2. Email housingfeedback@sa.gov.au ✉
  3. Download and complete the Customer Feedback Form and —
    1. Post to: Customer Feedback, GPO Box 1669, Adelaide SA 5001, or
    2. Attend in Person: At any SA Housing Trust office
  4. Call us Monday to Friday 9.00 am to 5.00 pm — Contact Centre:  131 299 ☏

We deal with complaints about the services we provide and the households we support. For example, your complaint might be about:

  • a decision-making process
  • a failure to act or delay in taking action
  • an unreasonable or unfair decision or requirement
  • the conduct of staff or delivery of a service

When you get in touch with us about a problem you’re experiencing, there are some key pieces of information we need so we can investigate.

Please let us know:

  • What the problem is and how it relates to SA Housing Trust
  • If you’re getting in touch about a specific home, please let us know the address
  • If you’re getting in touch about a specific event, please let us know:
  • The date and approximate time the event occurred
  • Who was involved
  • Any other relevant information you think may help us resolve the problem.

We recommend that you also provide us with your name, address and contact details. This means that we can get back in touch with you to let you know what we’re doing about the situation or ask any further questions if needed. However, you can remain anonymous if you’d prefer.

We take complaints seriously and act quickly to get a full picture of what has happened to help resolve the situation. What we do depends on the circumstances, and we focus on ensuring a fair outcome.

Our tenants know what’s expected of them as both a tenant and a neighbour. The SA Housing Trust will seek to refer tenants with a substantiated complaint to appropriate supports when required - for example, mediation, support services, other government agencies, including the SA Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

While we aim to keep you informed throughout this process, it’s important to keep in mind that we are limited in what we can share with you under the Privacy Act. This means that we can’t provide information about specific actions we may have taken or next steps.

We understand that this can be frustrating and can assure you that we do everything we can to resolve issues as quickly as possible.

While the specific steps we take are unique to each situation, our approach to managing anti-social behaviour could include:

  • Formal warnings
  • Conciliation conference
  • Ending the tenancy

More information on "What happens next" is available at  www.housing.sa.gov.au/next steps

More information on "Being a good neighbour" is available at www.housing.sa.gov.au/Good Neighbour

There are some situations where it’s best to get in touch with another agency to help, before reaching out to SA Housing Trust. This includes:

  • If you think someone is in immediate or physical danger, call police immediately on 000 ☏
  • If you’re concerned about potential illegal activity, report it to the Police on 131 444 ☏
  • If you’re having problems with dogs, call your local Council
  • If you’re concerned about animal welfare or an abandoned pet, get in touch with the nearest RSPCA.

Once you’ve reported your concern to one of these organisations, please get in touch with us to let us know what’s going and that you’ve connected with other authorities. This means we can not only look into your concerns, but reach out to the right agency to get more information if needed.

We’ve introduced a new approach to managing disruptive behaviour which is about being fair but firm, and making more effective use of the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) to drive behaviour change and provide a clear deterrent for disruptive behaviour.

We’re committed to being a good landlord. Part of this means getting the right balance between our responsibilities to our customers – some of whom experience a range of challenges – and ensuring the quiet enjoyment of others in the community. Our new approach is designed to strike this balance.

While we’ll always be understanding of our tenants’ situations and work hard to understand what’s driving behaviour, we are clear with our tenants that serious disruptive behaviour puts their tenancy at risk.

We’ve introduced an escalated approach for situations where a tenant’s behaviour creates a significant safety issue, or is disruptive and persistent, and they ignore our warnings. In these situations, we will apply to the Tenancy Tribunal to terminate the tenancy – and we will not provide them with another home.

These changes are focused on addressing serious disruptive behaviour. Most of the issues people get in touch with us about are minor things that are common issues between neighbours throughout the country, like noisy cars, lawns not being mowed regularly or how often visitors are calling at a home. We will continue to address these types of concerns through our existing processes.

Everyone has the right to enjoy their home in peace and privacy. Being a good neighbour is about respecting the people who live around you — including other tenants, the SA Housing Trust, and the wider community.

A good neighbour respects their neighbour's privacy and property, treats people with kindness and respect, does not use offensive language, keeps noise to reasonable levels by avoiding loud music and other noisy activities in evenings and early mornings, and ensures visitors and household members respect the peace of the surrounding community.

More information on "Being a good neighbour" is available at www.housing.sa.gov.au/Good Neighbour

More information on "What happens next" is available at  www.housing.sa.gov.au/next steps

If you have already submitted a complaint using one of the official channels, you have the right to refer matters to:

If assistance is required:

  • Call  Interpreting and Translating Services
    • If English is not your preferred language
      • Translation & Interpreter Service: Monday to Friday 9.00am to 5.00pm
    • For more information visit: www.translate.sa.gov.au
  • Call  National Relay Services (NRS)

Related Information

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Children and Young People

We respect the views of children and young people. Customers may wish to provide feedback or make a complaint on behalf of the children and young people in their care. Young people receiving a service directly may wish to provide feedback themselves. We will listen to and act upon any complaints or concerns that a young person or parent or guardian of a child or young person raises with us.

Our organisation is committed to the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.

Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner

Requesting compensation from SA Housing Trust (the Trust)

If your personal property has been damaged, or you have been injured, and you believe the Trust is at fault you should refer to this information guide.

The information is provided for reference only, and is not an admission of liability.

The Trust considers any claim made to us on its individual merits.