Residents
If you are unable to resolve a complaint with your landlord directly via its complaint procedure, the Housing Ombudsman Service may be able to help.
How to complain to your landlord
How to complain to your landlord
You should always tell your landlord if you have a problem or issue in your home.
Discover how to let your landlord know if things have gone wrong in your home and how to make a complaint if you are unhappy with how it has handled a report you have made to it.
When to get help from the Housing Ombudsman
When can the Housing Ombudsman help you?
You can bring a complaint about your social housing landlord to us for investigation if you have completed your landlord’s complaint process and the issues have not been resolved. We can also help if your landlord is not responding to a complaint you have made to it.
This page explains when to bring a complaint to us for investigation, how we can help you if your landlord does not respond, and what you need to bring the complaint to us.
Who can use the Housing Ombudsman Service
Who can use the Housing Ombudsman Service
The Housing Ombudsman can consider a complaint from an individual that is, or has been, in a landlord and tenant relationship with a landlord that is a member of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme.
This page explains who can bring a complaint to us for investigation, what to do if you no longer live at the property you are complaining about, and the situations where the Ombudsman will consider a complaint.
Our online complaint form
Bring a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service
Before you can bring a complaint about your landlord to the Housing Ombudsman Service, we will need to ask you some more information.
Our online complaint form will ask you for information about you and your landlord and the details of the complaint you made to it.
How we investigate your complaint
How does the Housing Ombudsman investigate complaints?
Discover how we investigate complaints about social housing landlords.
This page explains our dispute resolution process from accepting a complaint to making a determination - including what orders we can make and how long we take to investigate complaints.
The Resident Panel
The Housing Ombudsman Resident Panel is an opportunity for residents to be involved in the development of our service as well as give us feedback on their own experiences of complaining to their landlord and accessing our service.
Bring a complaint to us on behalf of somebody else
This information is for people wishing to act as a representative for a resident and bring a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman on their behalf. This includes advisors and advocacy services.
Our commitment to you
Our aim is to improve residents’ lives and landlords’ services through housing complaints.
We provide an independent and impartial service to residents living in social housing and alternative dispute resolution for complaints that are not resolved after finishing a landlord’s complaint procedure.
Helpful resources
Resident information
These information pages cover specific issues for social housing residents which may help you to report a problem easier and assist the landlord in putting things right.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
View the list of residents Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) including information about the Housing Ombudsman Service, our process, and how we investigate complaints about landlords.
Making a complaint about the Housing Ombudsman
If you are dissatisfied with the service you have received from the Housing Ombudsman you can let us know so that we can try to put things right and share any lessons we have learned with our teams.
Links to helpful organisations
Find details of advice agencies and charities, legal advice, and other helpful organisations that can provide you with advice and information.
Telling residents about our service
We have a range of materials available to include in complaint templates and print to inform residents about their right to bring a complaint to us.