Complaints about councils
This content applies to England only.
Housing laws vary between England and Scotland. Get advice relating to Scotland
This section explains how you may be able to complain about your local council.
Who to contact
Local councils are involved in so many aspects of our lives that it can sometimes be difficult to work out exactly who you need to contact. As a general rule:
- If you are a council tenant, you can complain about your home, for example if the council has failed to carry out repairs or has done them badly - you can complain to the council’s housing department.
- If you own your home on a long lease (including a shared ownership lease), and the council is the freeholder, you can complain if the council is not doing what the lease says, for example cleaning the common parts of the building or carrying out structural repairs.
- If your home is managed by a tenant management organisation (TMO), you can complain about your home to the TMO (see below).
- Anyone can complain to the council's environmental health department about high levels of litter, dog fouling, fly tipping, noise or antisocial behaviour.
- You can also complain to the environmental health department if there is a hazard to health or safety in your home, and it is the council’s fault.
- Anyone can complain about council services, for example rubbish collection, recycling facilities or street lighting. You can do that by contacting the relevant department, for example the highways department.
Often you can contact any council department through your neighbourhood office or estate office if you are a council tenant. If not you can get the correct contact details by looking on the council’s website, using our directory, or telephoning the council’s main number - find your local council.
Appeals involving public authorities
An appeal is not a complaint, and is dealt with in a different way. For example, you may be better off using a different procedure to challenge:
- decisions about homelessness
- decisions about allocation of council homes
- decisions relating to the demotion or eviction of a council tenant
- housing benefit decisions
- council tax benefit decisions
- planning applications and decisions.
How to complain
You will need to use the council’s formal complaints procedure. Ask about it at a council office, or get information from the council's website or from an advice agency.
If the council does not seem to have a complaints procedure, or if you cannot get any information about it, complain by letter. The council will deal with your letter under their complaints procedure. Please see the section on how to complain for more information.
If at the end of the complaints procedure, you are not happy with the result you can complain further to the Local Government Ombudsman (see below), or you may be able to use alternative dispute resolution (ADR) or go to court.
Complaining about a tenant management organisations (TMOs)
Tenant management organisations (TMOs) are owned and run by the residents of the homes that they manage. If you are complaining about a TMO you will need to use the TMO’s complaints procedure. Ask about it at the TMO office, or get information from the council website or from an advice agency. You can use our directory to find an adviser in your area.
If the TMO does not seem to have a complaints procedure, or if you cannot get any information about it, complain by letter. The TMO will deal with your letter under the complaints procedure.
If you are unhappy about the way that your TMO manages your home, you could get involved in the TMO, for example you could:
- attend TMO meetings, especially the annual general meeting
- vote in elections for the directors or management committee
- stand as a director or management committee member.
If at the end of the complaints procedure you are not happy with the result you can complain to the council, or you may be able to use alternative dispute resolution (ADR) or go to court.
Complaining to the local government ombudsman (LGO)
You can complain about most councils and many other public bodies to the local government ombudsman. The ombudsman’s service is free.
The ombudsman investigates complaints and looks into cases of 'maladministration’. It cannot take on complaints about other things. Maladministration includes, for example, the council doing something illegal, corrupt, or in a very inefficient way. Bear in mind that just because you are not happy about something, it does not necessarily mean that the council is guilty of maladministration.
The ombudsman cannot usually help you until you have gone through the council’s formal complaint procedure, and it cannot usually help you if you have a court case about your complaint.
Contact the local government ombudsman for more information. An adviser will listen to you and can tell you whether the ombudsman can consider your complaint. If they can, the adviser will take down the details, and tell you what will happen next.
If the ombudsman agrees with your complaint, they can recommend that the council treat you properly and possibly to pay you compensation. Ombudsman decisions are not legally enforceable, but councils virtually always do what the ombudsman suggests.
If you are not happy with LGO’s decision, you may be able to use alternative dispute resolution (ADR) or go to court.
You can get more information and a leaflet about how to complain from the local government ombudsman website or by telephoning its advice line on 0300 061 0614.
