Suzanne and Sarah from the Housing Ombudsman Service answer adviser questions about the service, including timescales, the investigation process and compensation orders.
Published September 2024.
The Housing Ombudsman is an independent and impartial service which handles complaints about social housing providers. The Ombudsman can investigate complaints to see if there has been fault by the provider, and where there has been fault, order the provider to put things right.
Suzanne and Sarah from the Housing Ombudsman Service spoke to Shelter to answer adviser questions about how the service works.
What complaints can the Housing Ombudsman consider?
Sarah says:
The Housing Ombudsman can consider complaints against any registered provider of social housing, including local authority landlords and housing associations.
Complaints can include anything from disrepair, tenancy rights, a landlord's response to ASB, communal areas or the complaints process itself.
Normally, a resident should make their initial complaint to the landlord directly. After the landlord has dealt with the complaint, a resident can escalate their complaint to the Ombudsman if the issue is still not resolved.
In some cases we can also investigate when a resident has complained to their landlord but the landlord has not dealt with the complaint.
What makes a good complaint to the Ombudsman?
Suzanne says:
Any complaint, whether to a landlord or to the Ombudsman, should state clearly:
what the issue is
what the resident believes has gone wrong
what remedy the resident wants
Keep records
A complaint doesn't have to be made in writing, but having a written record can make the process smoother. If the tenant can provide copies of previous communication or reference numbers, we might not have to go back to ask for more information.
If the complaint wasn't made in writing, the resident should keep a record of who they spoke to.
Regardless of what information the resident has kept, we always expect the landlord to keep full records of their complaint procedure and will ask the landlord for these records.
How long does it take for the Ombudsman to deal with a complaint?
Sarah says:
How quickly we can resolve a complaint depends on the quality of the information provided in the initial complaint and the complexity of the case.
The Ombudsman service will need to communicate with the resident and landlord to gather information, and any additional investigations we complete add time to the complaint process.
Once we’ve got enough information to be certain that something should be investigated, the complaint is passed to an adjudicator or investigator. The complaint should normally be resolved within 4 to 6 months from this point, but it can be quicker.
Does the Ombudsman prioritise some cases over others?
Suzanne says:
Yes, sometimes particular cases can be prioritised and dealt with more quickly.
Initially, cases are prioritised by the date the complaint was received. We then consider whether there a current risk to the tenant which is ongoing. If so, a case might be prioritised to address the risk as quickly as possible.
We also consider whether the landlord is already on our radar due to systemic problems, such as repeated damp and mould complaints from residents. The Ombudsman monitors issues around the sector and looks at existing complaints to decide when cases for specific landlords should be prioritised. We might then allocate all issues with one landlord to one team if needed.
Who handles complaints to the Ombudsman?
Sarah says:
There are two potential stages to an Ombudsman investigation. The first stage is handled by the dispute support team, and the second stage by dispute resolution.
Dispute support offers residents help through the landlord's complaints process. For example, if the resident has complained and the landlord has not responded.
Dispute resolution will investigate the resident's complaint after the landlord's complaint process has ended. When we pick up the complaint, the investigator or adjudicator will make a call to the resident to clarify details, manage expectations and discuss the impact of the problem on them. We will ask the resident what resolution they are hoping for.
The investigator or adjudicator might note that the service needs to be catered to a resident’s additional needs. For example, we might offer to call a resident to talk through our final decision as well as sending out a written record.
Investigator or adjudicator
There are two key roles at the Ombudsman for determining complaints - an investigator and an adjudicator.
Typically, an investigator takes on less serious or complex cases. An adjudicator deals with the most serious and complex cases – for example, when there were lots of complaints about cladding, these cases would typically be handed to an adjudicator.
How does the Ombudsman deal with situations that affect more than one resident?
Sarah says:
In some cases, the Ombudsman can look at a group complaint. For example, when a problem affects many residents in the same block.
In the past the investigation would just have focused on the specific case raised, but we can now order a landlord to review their policy or practice more broadly.
We can take on a group complaint with just one lead complainant, but we usually need to speak to all affected residents to understand their expectations.
What orders can the Ombudsman make?
Sarah says:
Where the Ombudsman has made a finding of service failure or maladministration, we can order the landlord to put things right through specific acts such as compensation, undertaking a repair or survey, as well as making an apology or reviewing policies.
The Ombudsman aims to ensure any remedy ordered is fair and proportionate, taking into account the severity of the maladministration or fault.
Our orders are legally binding, so if a landlord does not comply, we can force them to do so via court action. In practice, the compliance rate with our orders is 100%.
Calculating compensation
There is no top limit to the compensation orders the Ombudsman can make. A typical award might be in the hundreds or thousands of pounds.
More recently, the Ombudsman has started to calculate compensation levels as a proportion of rent. For example, if a property is affected by damp and mould, we can consider what percentage of the living space is unavailable, and calculate compensation as a percentage of the rent.
This is similar to how a court calculates compensation for disrepair. This means that an Ombudsman complaint might be a genuine alternative to court proceedings.
Can someone make a complaint to more than one Ombudsman?
Suzanne says:
Sometimes a resident might have a complaint which covers both the remit of the Housing Ombudsman and the remit of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO). This could include situations where the local authority is acting as both a landlord and a provider of homelessness or social care services.
In these situations, we can conduct a joint investigation with the LGSCO. Working with the LGSCO can mean that a resident doesn’t have to repeat their story twice.