Housing Ombudsman and complaints
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, self-assessment and performance
Since 2020 the Housing Ombudsman has published a Complaint Handling Code which all social housing landlords have to carry out and publish a self-assessment on how well they are meeting the standards set by the Housing Ombudsman for complaint handling. The Complaint Handling Code also provides a guide to residents of what to expect if they make a complaint, as well as improving access and awareness to the procedure when they need it.
View the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code.
The Code has been revised and strengthened over the past few years and, following new legislation brought in by The Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2003, the Code became statutory from 1 April 2024. This means that landlords are now obliged by law to follow its requirements and must submit a copy of its self-assessment to the Housing Ombudsman on an annual basis.
Landlords must also submit a complaint performance and service improvement report and their governing body’s response.
We are required to publish these documents on our website and they are available below.
You can also watch these videos to learn more about our complaints performance in 2023 to 2024 and how we are making improvements as a result of learning from complaints.
The complaints annual report, self-assessment, action plan and response from Cabinet member for Housing are available below.
If you wish to make a complaint the Housing Service currently deals with complaints under the council's complaints system.
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