What we do
On this page
Who we are
We are a free, independent, and impartial service set up by law to investigate complaints from residents about landlords that are members of our Scheme. This includes:
- tenants, leaseholders, and shared owners of social landlords (including local authorities and housing associations)
- Arm’s Length Management Organisations ALMOs)
- co-operatives and abbeyfields
We also have voluntary members (private landlords and letting agents) that choose to sign up to the Scheme.
Helpful Links
What is our statutory role?
The Complaint Handling Code (the Code) sets out best practice for landlords to handle resident complaints effectively.
The Code helps to:
- create a positive complaints culture
- strengthen landlord-resident relationships
- ensure residents know their rights to complain
The Code is a legal requirement for landlords to follow. We check landlords complaint procedures and responses comply.
How we work
Our investigation process
We investigate complaints from residents of landlords that are members of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme.
There are 4 stages to our casework process: enquiry, assessment, investigation, and review.
Complaints we can consider
The Scheme governs what we can and cannot consider as a complaint.
It sets out what issues fall under our remit to investigate and when we can decide that a complaint is not for us.
Our findings
At the end of our investigation, we make a finding, which is also called a determination.
There are 8 different findings that we can make, depending on what we discover during the investigation.
Others we work with
We work with the:
- Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO)
- New Homes Ombudsman
- Regulator of Social Housing
We work with each under a Memorandum of Understanding, to agree a common approach to collaborative working.
Which Ombudsman for social housing complaints
Some housing complaints are for us to consider, and some are for the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO).
This page explains which Ombudsman to go to for your social housing complaint.
How we work with the Regulator of Social Housing
The Regulator of Social Housing regulates the social housing sector.
Although we have different functions to the Regulator, we work closely with them. We have a Memorandum of Understanding which sets out how we do this.
Sponsoring government department
We are independent of national or local government.
We have a sponsoring government department; the Department for Ministries of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).