Ask the Ombudsman

This form will be open to submit a question for the Ombudsman when there is an upcoming Meet the Ombudsman meeting. You can also use the form to ask us general queries about the panel, meetings, and our service.

To submit a question to the forum you will need to register for an account via the home page.

Please note, we will not respond to questions about individual cases or landlords and cannot provide an update on a case that you have with the service.

This form will be open to submit a question for the Ombudsman when there is an upcoming Meet the Ombudsman meeting. You can also use the form to ask us general queries about the panel, meetings, and our service.

To submit a question to the forum you will need to register for an account via the home page.

Please note, we will not respond to questions about individual cases or landlords and cannot provide an update on a case that you have with the service.

Ask the Ombudsman

Please feel free to submit a question for the Ombudsman. Where possible, we will answer the question publicly on this forum and may ask the question at any upcoming Meet the Ombudsman meeting. 

Please note, we will not respond to questions about individual cases or landlords and cannot provide an update on a case that you have with the service.

We aim to respond to all questions within 15 working days, however, we may sometimes take a little longer as we need to ask experts across the organisation.

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  • I had an ASB Case Review on 25/3/26, whereby the chairperson recommended that we (my 14 year old and I), are rehoused urgently. After almost 7 weeks waiting for the next steps, my Housing Association refused to rehouse us. A further ASB Case Review Appeal, failed to change their minds despite the Chairperson upholding her recommendations. We had receiving rehousing offers, but these either had evidence of further ASB or were completely inappropriate due to my chronic fatigue syndrome / M.E. We cannot live in our home any longer, the cumulative impact of the ASB has taken its toll and the ASB is ongoing. The Housing Ombudsman had determined maladministration in the handling of the ASB case in August 2024. I feel backed into a corner and cannot see a way out. I have exhausted all avenues for help and having regular suicidal thoughts. I have tried absolutely everything. I have been told that I can ask the housing ombudsman for urgent intervention, is this possible? Thank you.

    LG1971 asked about 1 month ago

    Hello. Thank you for your question. We are sorry to hear about the issues affecting you in your home. 

    The Housing Ombudsman is an impartial organisation set up to look at housing complaints. We can only consider issues that have exhausted a landlord's complaint process. 

    If you do not agree with the way the landlord has handled the ASB since we last looked at your case you would need to use the landlord's complaint procedure in the first instance. 

    We do not provide urgent intervention, however, when a case is referred to us and we accept it, we risk assess the presenting information to prioritise the case for investigation. 

    If you are having suicidal thoughts you should speak to your GP or support services straight away. ASB help can also signpost you to help when living with ASB: ASB Help | Advice & support for Victims of Anti-Social Behaviour 

    To speak to the casework team you can email info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk or call 0300 111 3000 

  • What is the current wait time for a caseworker

    Soph asked 3 months ago

    Hello. We are working towards completing all investigations within 12 months from the date we accept a case. We do not have an average wait time for a caseworker, however, in the last quarter we completed over 50% of determinations within 6 months. 96% of high-risk cases were resolved within 4 months. 

  • If your doing STAIRS complaints on top of those via the complaint handling code, how will it work. Are you employing more people or operating with same amount?. Will waits be longer ? It can take some time before being assigned a Caseworker for a complaint so would be concerning if these waits were longer.

    Tracey asked 7 months ago

    Hello.

    Thank you for your question. We understand there are concerns around this.

    To help us recruit additional resource to the team, we used data from comparable schemes, such as the Scottish Information Commissioner, to estimate the likely volume of complaints and plan our resources accordingly. We are continously working to improve our processes and have a dedicated project team to ensure delivery and implementation of this new element of our casework will not place additional pressure on our existing waiting times. 

  • Your panel meeting in May, to discuss compensation process. I would like to ask if the HO has plans to make landlords pay compensation following an HO order? Also, I would like to ask if a time will come when all landlords have to sign up to the HO?

    Lucinda asked 4 months ago

    Hello. 

    All landlords must make follow orders made by the Ombudsman. This includes payment of compensation. More information is available on our website: Our orders | Housing Ombudsman Service

    Membership of the Scheme is compulsory for social landlords – primarily housing associations and Local Authorities, who are or have been registered with the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH). Private landlords and agents are able to register as members of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme on a voluntary basis. You can find out more about our membership requirements on our website: Membership 

    The Renters Rights Act 2025 has set out its plans to implement a Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman as part of the new legislation but is yet to appoint a designated body to take this on. More information: Implementing the Renters' Rights Act 2025: Our roadmap for reforming the Private Rented Sector - GOV.UK


  • Thank you for your answers to previous questions. I am with Southern Housing and a tenant was issued a pre notice of possession due to asb etc last year stipulations say dont wedge the communal door open but they are, and they are also storing items in communal area, both of which are fire hazards etc, all I get when reporting is wait . The asb team didn't respond by the day I was told and the hsm said she needs 2 weeks diary sheets, other than that told to wait till 3 June?. Can you do anything to get them to act on fire and security issues now?? Surely these should be treated as urgent.

    Tracey asked 3 months ago

    Hello. Thank you for your email. We cannot ask the landlord to take urgent action. We can only consider a complaint that has exhausted a landlord's formal complaint procedure. Our Resident Support guides may be able to provide advice on how you can tell your landlord if you are unhappy with the level of action it has taken:

    Antisocial behaviour | Support guide | Housing Ombudsman 

    Fire safety in your home | Housing Ombudsman 

    We hope you can get this sorted soon. 

  • Getting to the point of complaining to the Ombudsman is stressful enough, but we wait sometimes years for a reply. Councils must be laughing at this. What are you doing to improve this awful situation?

    PeckhamRose asked 3 months ago
    Hello. We are aware that raising a complaint can be stressful, and that the increased demand for our service means things are taking longer than we would like. We are committed to making faster decisions for residents. Last month we released our Business Plan which sets out our plan to address this in a phased approach focused on 3 priorities:
    • stopping the number of open cases from growing
    • resolving older cases more quickly
    • delivering faster outcomes

    You can read more about our plans here: Business Plan for 2026-27

  • Southern housing so far has taken 7 months and still nothing changed. We are struggling to use our communal door and getting loads of bruises,its so heavy everyone is struggling and it doesn't shut automatically. Its a health and safety, fire and security risk. Stage 1 told nothing they can do after workmen made it even heavier, told us to go to occupational therapist, we join council queue the visit they did AD2 with alterations that needed doing but told us NOT an occupational therapist issue as heavy for all. I took to stage 2 (due outcome dec 17th but if other complaints anything to go by thry will extend)Months later still nothing has changed. We cant keep damaging our bodies what do you suggest. Am at wits end and sent message to ceo please can you advise what to do to get action.

    Tracey asked 9 months ago

    Hi Tracey. We are sorry to hear you are having issues with your landlord and repairs to the communal door. If it has been more than 20 working days and the landlord has not provided a stage 2 response, you can bring the complaint to us via our helpful webform: When to get help from the Housing Ombudsman Service 

  • Happy new year to you. Can a housing association revisit a complaint, once you have received it? They may have new information about the complaint.

    Long legs 72 asked 8 months ago

    Hello, happy new year to you too. Once the landlord has issued a final response it is unlikely it would revisit the complaint. Our Code sets out that the landlord must have a complaint process that is a maximum of 2 stages. Therefore, if new information has come to light since the stage 2 response it should be raised as a new complaint and the landlord should consider any relevant information from the first complaint (since the issue was first reported) in its handling of the complaint. Alternatively, if you are happy for the landlord to provide another stage 2 response to consider new information you can tell it you are happy for it to do so.

  • Reading your email about each housing association having an MRC it was news to me, so I contacted southern housing to ask who it was they didn't tell me just said contact service centre so I emailed about 2 complaints at stage 2 one is 7monyhs in the other 5months I said send email directly to MRC but instead they just sent it to the complaint resolution lead for each case. Is this right that residents are not told who the MRC is and dont get contact with them??.? The complaints seem never ending our bodies are bruised with heavy communal door etc and we cant seem to get any action

    Tracey asked 9 months ago

    Hi Tracey. The Member Responsible for Complaints is not operational and would therefore likely never have involvement in individual complaints. The role is appointed for someone to have oversight of the overall complaints performance for the organisation and report this, risk, and area for improvement to the governing body or board.

    If you have complaints at stage 2 and the landlord is not responding you can use our online complaint form to bring a complaint to us: When to get help from the Housing Ombudsman Service 

  • Hello, could you give guidance on how to access 'decisions' for individual landlords. I can't seem to use the filter to get to the information. It just doesn't seem to work. What I would like to get is an overall listing of the decisions across a number of years. Could you describe how to achieve that? Many thanks.

    May asked 7 months ago

    Hello.

    We are sorry if the filtering isn't working in the decision library. There is an option to search by landlord and date, however, we do apologise if it is not showing for you. If you would like to make an information request about a specific landlord for a certain time period, you can send an email to the Freedom of Information team at: inforequests@housing-ombudsman.org.uk 

Page last updated: 28 Jan 2026, 03:15 PM