The Housing Ombudsman is an organisation that investigates complaints about landlords housing management. The organisation aims to improve residents’ lives and landlord’s services through housing complaints. It provides an independent and impartial service to social housing residents and landlords and offers dispute resolution for complaints that are not resolved after finishing a landlord’s complaints procedure.
They are made up of three directorates:
- Quality, engagement and development
- Dispute support and resolution
- Finance and corporate services
What the Housing Ombudsman do
The Housing Ombudsman scheme sets out their role, the types of complaints they can consider and the responsibilities of their members. They work collaboratively with other bodies, including the:
- Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
- New Homes Ombudsman
- Regulator of Social Housing
Their vision is to improve residents lives and enhance landlords services through effective handling of housing complaints. They uphold values such as fairness, learning, openness and excellence in their work.
Investigating complaints
They:
- handle complaints from tenants and leaseholders of social landlords, including housing associations, local authorities and arms’ length management organisations (ALMOs)
- assist voluntary members such as private landlords and letting agents
Their service is free and they provide an unbiased assessment of housing related issues.
The complaint handling code became statutory on 1 April 2024, meaning that landlords are obliged by law to follow its requirement. The code aims to achieve best practice in complaint handling and ultimately to provide a better service to residents.
The heartbeat of the code is enabling a positive complaints culture across the social housing sector. The code aims to support the earliest resolution of complaints while the matters are still within the landlords own procedure.
For residents the code is a guide of what can be expected when a complaint is made to a landlord. It also gives information on making and progressing a complaint.
Read more on the Housing Ombudsman complaint handling code – Housing Ombudsman.
You can also read our complaint procedure.