What is the Housing Ombudsman?
The Housing Ombudsman Service is an independent body that resolves complaints about members of its scheme. All registered social landlords — housing associations and local councils that own homes — must be members. Some private landlords and letting agents also join voluntarily.
The Ombudsman does not take sides. It considers how a landlord has handled an issue against its obligations, its own policies and recognised standards, including the Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code, and decides whether the landlord has acted fairly and reasonably. Using the service does not cost you anything.
Step one: your landlord's complaints process
Before the Ombudsman will usually look at your complaint, you need to give your landlord the chance to put things right through its own complaints procedure. Since April 2024, the Complaint Handling Code has been statutory for social landlords, which means they are expected to follow it.
Under the Code, landlord complaints processes normally have two stages:
Stage 1
You make a formal complaint. The landlord should acknowledge it within 5 working days and give a full response within 10 working days of acknowledging it. If they need longer, they should explain why and tell you when you will hear from them.
Stage 2
If you are unhappy with the stage 1 outcome, you can ask for the complaint to be escalated. The landlord should acknowledge this within 5 working days and give its final response within 20 working days of acknowledging it, again with an explanation if it needs more time.
Make your complaint clear
Tell the landlord you are making a formal complaint — not just another repair request. Describe the problem, how long it has been going on, what you have already reported, how it is affecting your household, and what you would like them to do. Keep a copy of everything you send and receive.
Step two: when you can go to the Ombudsman
Once you have received your landlord's final response at the end of their complaints process, you can refer your complaint to the Ombudsman if you are still unhappy. You can also contact the Ombudsman if your landlord is failing to respond to your complaint or is not progressing it through its process — the Ombudsman can contact the landlord to get things moving.
You can refer your complaint directly; you do not need to go through an MP or councillor first. The Ombudsman generally expects complaints to be brought within 12 months of the end of the landlord's complaints process, so it is sensible not to leave it too long.
What the Ombudsman looks at
- How and when you reported the problem.
- How the landlord responded at each stage, and how long things took.
- Whether the landlord followed its own policies, its obligations and the Complaint Handling Code.
- Whether the landlord kept you informed and kept proper records.
- The impact on you and your household, including any vulnerability.
- Whether any remedy the landlord has already offered was reasonable.
- The evidence supporting your account.
What the Ombudsman can and cannot do
If the Ombudsman finds that something has gone wrong — it may describe this as service failure or maladministration — it can make orders and recommendations aimed at putting things right. These can include asking the landlord to apologise, carry out repairs or inspections, review its policies, or pay compensation for the impact of its failings. The outcome always depends on the facts of the case.
The Ombudsman is not a court. It does not decide legal claims in the way a court would, and it cannot award damages for personal injury. If you are considering a legal housing disrepair claim, that is a separate route where you would normally need advice from a solicitor or qualified adviser. Our guide to tenant compensation for damp and mould explains the difference between these routes.
Preparing your evidence pack
The Ombudsman works from evidence. The stronger and more organised your record, the easier it is for an investigator to understand what happened and when. A good referral typically includes:
- A clear timeline from your first report to the landlord's final response.
- Copies of your formal complaint and the landlord's stage 1 and stage 2 responses.
- Emails, letters, portal screenshots and notes of phone calls.
- Dated photographs showing the problem and how it changed over time.
- Records of inspections, appointments and missed visits.
- Health and vulnerability context for your household.
- A short summary of what you would like to happen.
Why an organised case helps your referral
A disorganised bundle of forwarded emails and loose photographs makes an investigator's job harder. An organised evidence pack — with a timeline, an evidence register and a communication log — presents your case clearly and shows that you have engaged seriously with the process.
From the very first sign of a problem, keep your own records. Save photographs, note the dates, record any health impacts, keep every message from your landlord, and build a clear timeline. Storing everything in one place — a Housing Issue Case File — is what turns scattered notes into a record that is easy to follow and hard to ignore.
This is exactly what a Housing Issue Case File is designed to produce: a single, structured record you can build as you go and draw on when you make your referral, without having to reconstruct months of events from memory.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Treating repeated repair requests as a formal complaint — say clearly that you are complaining.
- Not keeping copies of what you send, or relying on phone calls with no written follow-up.
- Going to the Ombudsman before the landlord's process has finished, without explaining why.
- Leaving it too long after the landlord's final response.
- Sending evidence in no particular order, without dates or explanation.