How will you investigate my complaint?
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Step 1: Enquiry
Once we receive your complaint enquiry, we will work out the best way to help you. We will allocate a dedicated officer to you, and they will contact you to discuss next steps. This might include:
- telling your landlord to respond if it has missed its deadline
- checking we have your landlord’s stage 2 response
- letting you know if you cannot use our Scheme
- passing your case to our assessment team to prepare for investigation
- recording any reasonable adjustments you need
- supporting you to the end of your landlord’s complaint procedure
We can consider complaints from anyone who is, or was, a resident of a landlord in our Scheme.
Step 2: Assessment
Once you refer your complaint to us for investigation, we will decide the best route to resolution.
For every case, we will contact you to:
- assess the risk the complaint issue could have to you and your household
- confirm you want us to investigate your complaint
- find out what resolution you want and why you are unhappy with the landlord’s response
- let you know if we can consider your complaint
We will then take one of the following actions:
- refer the complaint back to the landlord to take further steps to resolve the dispute
- make a decision based on the information we have
- prioritise and progress your case for investigation
We cannot consider complaints about every housing issue. For example, a homelessness application or housing allocations under the duty of a local authority would be for the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to consider.
Step 3: Investigation
Our investigation looks at how your landlord responded to your complaint. This includes how it handled a report or request you made. We use the evidence available to decide if the landlord acted fairly and reasonably.
We will consider whether your landlord:
- gave you a suitable response and resolution
- followed relevant legal obligations and codes of practice
- applied its own policies and procedures
- took too long to respond or take action
- behaved unfairly, unreasonably, or incompetently
- treated you fairly and appropriately
At the end of our investigation, we will make a finding. We can make 8 possible findings. Findings include service failure, maladministration, and severe maladministration.
Paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme sets out what we will consider as part of our investigation.
Telling you our decision
Once we complete our investigation, we send a determination letter and investigation report to you, any representatives you have appointed, and your landlord. The report sets out:
- the issues we investigated
- the background to the case
- the evidence we used to assess your case
- our findings, decisions, and reasoning
- what your landlord must do to put things right (orders or recommendations)
We publish decisions on our website as part of our commitment to be open and transparent. We will never share your personal details, but we do name the landlord. If we cannot protect the identity of a resident, we will not publish the decision.
What can you tell my landlord to do?
Depending on the outcome, we may set out orders and recommendations in our report to put things right.
We could tell your landlord to:
- pay compensation
- apologise to you
- review its policies and procedures
- complete any outstanding repairs
Orders
Orders aim to put things right to resolve your individual complaint. Your landlord must follow our orders.
We will not close your case until we have evidence from you and your landlord that it has completed a repair or paid compensation to you within the timescale we set. If your landlord does not follow an order, we will issue a Complaint Handling Failure Order. We report these orders to the Regulator of Social Housing.
Recommendations
Recommendations ask your landlord to apply learning or improvements to its housing services. This could stop the same thing happening to other residents.
Remedies
Find out more about the orders and recommendations we can make to put things right.
How long does an investigation take?
We continue to receive an extremely high number of enquiries. We are working towards all investigations being completed within 12 months from the date we accept a case, with high-risk cases within 4 months.
Between 2024-25 we completed our highest number of investigations. We issued 7,000 determinations and made more than 26,000 interventions to put things right. Demand for our service remains high and we appreciate your patience.
Step 4: Review
If you disagree with a decision made by the Ombudsman, you can request a review.
You can ask us to review our decision if:
- you have new facts or evidence that may affect our original decision
- you are challenging the facts or evidence we relied on
We will not review our decision simply because you disagree or have a different view. A review looks at how we reached our decision. We will not look at your original complaint again.
You must request a review within 3 weeks of the determination being made.
Bring your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service
Our online complaint form
Before you can bring a complaint about your landlord to us, we need some information from you.
Our online complaint form asks for details about you, your landlord, and your complaint.