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Home ownership

This page is for social housing residents to understand your rights around homeownership and complaining to the Housing Ombudsman.

Freeholder guidance

We cannot consider a complaint from somebody who owns their home, also known as a freeholder. If you are a freeholder having issues in your home, you cannot bring a complaint about a landlord or social housing resident to us.  

If you are experiencing problems with a neighbour that lives in social housing this is a civil dispute. If you know who the social housing landlord is you should let them know about the problems you are having with the resident as they may be able to help.  

If you are a freeholder, you can also report the issues to your local council or the police.

We produced guidance following a Spotlight report on landlord’s engagement with freeholders and managing agents in March 2022. 

Spotlight on: Landlords’ engagement with private freeholders and managing agents

Right to Buy

We do not consider complaints about ‘Right to Buy’ applications for council homes - this would be for The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman or in some cases would need to be settled by the courts under specific legislation.  

This is because the Right to Buy concerns the disposal of land owned by local government, rather than the landlord/tenant relationship between the two parties to the sale. 

We can consider a complaint concerning voluntary Right to Buy schemes run by housing associations if we have evidence that the handling of the application has been raised and considered through the landlord's complaint process.  

More information about which Ombudsman considers housing complaints can be found in our agreement with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and New Homes Ombudsman. These agreements are known as a Memorandum of Understanding.  

Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

Home ownership applications

The Housing Ombudsman Service does not offer advice on applying to own all or part of your home.  

There is a wide range of schemes on offer for residents that want to apply to own all or part of their home such as Right to Buy, Right to Acquire, leasehold purchase, shared ownership staircasing provisions, equity loans and mortgage rescue schemes. Not all schemes are available for every resident, or in relation to every property, and there are often specific requirements which must be met before you can progress an application for home ownership. 

If you are interested in exploring the options available for owning your home, you should: 

Before you consider a home ownership scheme, you should make sure that you are fully aware of your rights and obligations as a homeowner and those of the landlord. You should seek your own legal advice and carefully consider the documentation.

Often, you will have greater responsibility for repairing and maintaining the property, and there may be added unforeseen charges. 

Complaints we can consider

The Housing Ombudsman Service was set up by law to investigate complaints between social housing residents and landlords about housing management – for example repairs and housing support.  

Social housing landlords must register as a member to our Scheme.  

We can consider complaints from: 

  • a person who has an agreement to occupy a residential premise owned or managed by a landlord who is a member of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme – this could be a lease, tenancy, license to occupy, service agreement  
  • an applicant for a property owned or managed by a member 
  • a person who had an agreement or an application with a member at the time the complaint issue arised (for example, someone who has now moved out of a property but made a complaint whilst living there) 
  • leaseholders and shared owners 

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