Housing Ombudsman
The Housing Ombudsman Service is set up by law to look at complaints about housing organisations. The service is free, independent and impartial.
The Housing Ombudsman resolves disputes involving the tenants and leaseholders of social landlords (housing associations and local authorities).
Residents and landlords can contact the Ombudsman at any time for support in helping to resolve a dispute.
It is mandatory for all local authorities and registered social housing providers to be members of the Ombudsman Scheme.
Ombudsman services for tenants
Dispute support
- provides advice and guidance to residents and landlords while complaints are within the landlord’s complaints procedure
- holds landlords to account if they do not follow their published procedures and respond in a timely manner by issuing complaint handling failure orders to require action by landlords on individual cases
- offers additional support and conducts intervention work with landlords to improve complaints handling
- acts as the initial point of assessment for cases that have exhausted the landlord’s complaints process
Dispute resolution
- undertakes formal investigations into cases that have been referred and remain unresolved following completion of a landlord’s internal complaints procedure
Housing Ombudsman contact details
The contact details for the Housing Ombudsman are:
Phone: 0300 111 3000
Email: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk
Complaint handling code and self-assessment
The Housing Ombudsman’s complaint handling code was launched in 2020.
All social housing landlords have been required to publish a self-assessment on how they meet this new code.
Following a review in 2021/22, the Housing Ombudsman strengthened the code and a revised code was implemented in April 2022.
View the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code.
The Complaint Handling Code acts as a guide for residents, setting out what they can expect from their landlord when they complain.
It also provides residents with information about how to make a complaint and how to progress it through the landlord’s internal complaints procedure.
The self-assessment, found below, demonstrates how the council's housing service has met the code in 2022.
The Housing Service currently deals with complaints under the council's complaints system.
