Council and housing association tenant complaints
How to complain about your social housing provider
If you have an unresolved issue or complaint with your social housing provider/social landlord, you should contact the Housing Ombudsman.
It is much easier to make a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman. If you have a problem with your home or a service your landlord provides, or your landlord has not followed their complaints procedure, follow these steps:
- Complain to your landlord - they should have a complaints policy that you can follow.
- Request a complaint reference number from your landlord.
- Contact the Housing Ombudsman if you have made a formal complaint directly through your landlord that has not been resolved, or your landlord has not followed their complaints procedure.
To contact the Housing Ombudsman, you can:
The following is a list of the larger registered providers (housing associations) who provide social housing in Tower Hamlets with a link to each providers complaints procedure.
How can the Housing Ombudsman help me?
The Housing Ombudsman resolves disputes involving the tenants, shared owners, and leaseholders of its member landlords who are:
- social landlords (housing associations and local authorities, for whom membership is compulsory).
- voluntary members (private landlords and letting agents who are committed to good service for their tenants).
The Housing Ombudsman encourages landlords and residents to resolve complaints locally at the earliest possible opportunity through its Complaint Handling Code - Housing Ombudsman and dispute support service.
Tenants, shared owners, and leaseholders do not have to pay to use the Housing Ombudsman Service. The service is independent and impartial. The service is paid for by landlords, and all social landlords must be members.
What happens when the Housing Ombudsman receives a complaint?
The Housing Ombudsman investigates complaints that it receives by requesting evidence from the resident and landlord and decides what is fair in all the circumstances of the case. When investigating complaints, the Ombudsman will consider whether the landlord:
- failed to comply with relevant legal obligations or codes of practice
- failed to apply its own policies and/or procedures
- delayed unreasonably in dealing with the matter
- behaved unfairly, unreasonably, or incompetently or
- treated the complainant personally in a heavy-handed, unsympathetic, or inappropriate manner.
The Housing Ombudsman may consider the main issue giving rise to the complaint as well as the way the complaint has been handled.
What could be the outcome of the complaint?
The Housing Ombudsman can:
- find maladministration or not
- decide whether the landlord has already provided reasonable redress
- make orders or recommendations to landlords depending on findings.
Orders aim to put things right for the individual complainant and landlords are obliged to comply. Orders can include requiring the landlord to apologise or pay compensation to the complainant or to undertake repairs.
Recommendations are made where the Ombudsman believes that wider changes, like better staff training or record keeping, could improve the landlord's housing services for the benefit of other residents.
The Housing Ombudsman may refer the social housing provider to the Regulator of Social Housing. This is if evidence suggests that individual cases could reveal wider failings.
The Regulator cannot resolve individual tenant complaints. It can, however, consider if they show general failings by the landlord.
Following the Social Housing (Regulation) Act, the Regulator has introduced an integrated regulatory approach, with proactive regulation of the consumer standards.
For more on the Regulator of Social Housing and Housing Ombudsman Service, and how residents can get support, visit the GOV.UK.
The Government has also produced a webpage to provide guidance and free training for social housing residents on their rights and how to stand up for them.