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Membership

Find out all you need to know about the 2 types of membership to the Housing Ombudsman Scheme.

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Our members

More than 1,600 landlords are members of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. This is made up as below:

Pie chart showing membership by organisation type. Housing associations make up 40% of members, almshouses 18%, co-operatives 13%, local authorities 12%, Abbeyfield societies 7%, voluntary members 6%, and for-profit providers 4%. Housing associations are the largest membership group.

Mandatory members

All bodies registered with the Regulator for Social Housing (RSH) must be a member in the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction by effect of the 1996 Housing Act and Localism Act 2011.

These landlords are known as registered providers.

Landlords that have deregistered from the regulator, but provide housing funded by the Social Housing Grant, must also be members of our Scheme. These are usually almshouses and Abbeyfield societies.

 Registered providers of social housing – updated monthly – GOV.UK   

Voluntary members

Landlords who are not required to join our Scheme may apply for voluntary membership.

Being a voluntary member shows you are committed to providing a high-quality service. 

It reassures your residents. They understand that if they are dissatisfied with the outcome of the internal complaints process, they can refer their complaint for an independent and impartial review.

Membership also helps you improve services and learn from complaints. 

Find out more about voluntary membership 

Read our voluntary membership policy  

Helpful Links

Member obligations

Both mandatory and voluntary members must: 

  • agree to the terms of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme  
  • establish and maintain a complaints procedure with our good practice recommendations, including following the Complaint Handling Code  
  • publish your complaints procedure  
  • complete an annual self-assessment against our Complaint Handling Code 
  • provide information we request in a reasonable timescale  
  • provide us with up-to-date contact details 

For all membership queries including updating contact details, email membership@housing-ombudsman.org.uk. 

Membership fee

The membership fee for 2026-27 is £9.64 per unit. 

We bill landlords annually for their membership of the Scheme. 

How is your membership fee invoice calculated?  

Registered providers  

We use the Statistical Data Return (SDR), published by the RSH, to calculate the subscription fee. To calculate the total number of units, we include leasehold, shared ownership, and rental homes.  

Local authorities (also registered providers)

We use the Local Authority Data Return (LADR), also published by the RSH, to calculate this subscription fee. We also contact local authorities to confirm the number of leasehold homes.

Non-registered providers  

For non-registered providers, including voluntary members, we contact them directly to confirm their unit number.

Annual billing 

The RSH publishes the SDR and LADR after the end of the financial year. Therefore, we bill members based on the unit numbers at end of the previous financial year. 

For example, we based invoices issued in March 2026 on the number of units held on 31 March 2025. 

We charge each unit at the current membership fee amount to produce a total due.  

Every year we’ll send you an invoice for your membership subscription fee alongside our Business Plan. So, you can see how your contributions support our service. 

Legislation regarding mandatory membership

All bodies registered with the Regulator for Social Housing (RSH) must be a member in the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction by effect of the 1996 Housing Act and Localism Act 2011.