Residents

This information is for residents of member landlords.

Learn how to make a formal complaint to your landlord. If you are unable to resolve the complaint with your landlord directly via its complaint procedure, this service may be able to provide you with further assistance.

Understand the process

1

Report the issue to your landlord

You must let your landlord know if something has gone wrong.

Your landlord should have its own procedures for reporting repairs or raising issues you are having in your home.

2

Make a formal complaint to your landlord

If you are unhappy with the way your landlord responds to the issue/s you have raised, you should make a formal complaint.

Tell them you are unhappy and why by setting out what has gone wrong and what you would like them to do to put things right.

Your landlord should respond to a formal complaint in writing.

We would suggest keeping a copy of the complaint you make to it for your records.

3

Contact the Ombudsman for help if you do not receive a response to your complaint 

Your landlord should respond to you within its complaint policy timescales – these can be found in your landlords' complaint procedure and our Complaint Handling Code 

If you do not get a response to the formal complaint you make to your landlord, you can send us a copy or provide us with details of the complaint you raised to it, and we have powers to order it to respond.

4

Refer the complaint to the Ombudsman for formal investigation if you are unhappy with its final response

If you are unhappy after completing all stages of your landlord’s formal complaint procedure, you can refer your complaint to us.

You will need to tell us why you remain unhappy with your landlord's final response and the outcome you are seeking to resolve the complaint.

Make a complaint

5

We review your case

Once we receive your complaint, we will review it and assess if the issues raised fall under our authority.

If it is outside our authority, then we will direct you to the right service.

If we can consider your complaint, we will contact the landlord and request the information we will need to start our investigation.

6

We will investigate the complaint 

For a complaint to be investigated, the complaint must be referred to us within 12 months from the date of the landlord’s final response.

Once we have completed our investigation, we will issue our findings, known as a determination.

We cannot provide a timescale for how long this will take as it varies on a case-by-case basis.