Interactive Casework Portal – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

You can access the Portal from most browsers and our Accessibility Statement has more information about this.

See the main screen instructions within the  Portal user guide for landlords for further details.

Once we create your account, the main administration email address cannot be changed as this will disrupt the Portal’s connection.

If you need support with this, please email portal@housing-ombudsman.org.uk

You should receive an email when there is a message for you to read.

If you’re not receiving a notification, please let us know by email to portal@housing-ombudsman.org.uk

The best way to send an email thread is by making the document a PDF file first or copying and pasting the information into a Word file.

Use the print to PDF function on Word to create a file, that you can name and upload.

You cannot. You will need to reduce the size before sending it.

There are some tips below but if you are unable to reduce the file size enough, please send a message to the caseworker using the Portal who will be happy to help:

• Adobe Pro lets you break down large PDF files into several smaller documents
• you can also visit the Adobe website to use their online PDF compressor

You can only reply to a message, you cannot create a new message.

You can reply to a message multiple times, but it’s helpful if you aim to send all your queries within one message where possible.

See section Using the Portal – messages of the Portal user guide for landlords.

For security, if you are logged into the Portal and inactive, the system will warn you after 25 minutes that it will log you out, which it does after 30 minutes.

If you need to send us a long message or letter, we recommend that you type the detail into a word file and copy into the message field or save the document and attach it as a file.

When we create your Portal account, you will see cases that are open with our teams, as of the date of activation.

Cases that were closed before your account was activated on the Portal will not be visible.

Cases closed after your account is activated will remain visible for 2 years.

If you have a technical issue with the Portal, please email portal@housing-ombudsman.org.uk so we can help.

Please make sure you include the following details in your email:

• which account is affected (main account, sub accounts, or both), with the relevant email addresses
• a detailed description of the issue
• any screenshots showing the fault
• the browser and IP address which you can get by visiting whatismyipaddress.com

Our caseworkers will aim to reply to any case related messages within 15 working days and any contact to the Portal mailbox will be replied to within 10 working days.