Ask the Ombudsman
This form will be open to submit a question for the Ombudsman when there is an upcoming Meet the Ombudsman meeting. 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. 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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Is a landlord (a Housing Association) entitled to recover the annual fee it is charged by the Housing Ombudsman (£8,03 per unit 2024/25) from leaseholders? The recovery of this fee is not provided for specifically in the lease. The landlord has simply imputed it as 'legal and professional' expenditure.
Pauline2 asked about 1 month agoHello Pauline
It will depend on the terms and conditions of the lease. Some leases have a term that says a landlord may claim back professional fees or services provided to the resident.
You can book an appointment with the advisors at LEASE to seek advice on this: Home - The Leasehold Advisory Service
We are sorry we cannot be more help. It is not within our remit to decide on the reasonableness of a charge in a lease.
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At a recent meeting between residents and our social housing landlord we scrutinised their Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report for 2024/25. We also considered the Housing Ombudsman's Landlord Performance Report for 2023/2024. Both the resident panel members and the housing provider staff were concerned with the presentation of the Landlord Performance Report. The bold graphics, 'Performance at a glance', were quite damning and yet when we drilled down into the numbers the reality of the situation was very different. The comparison to other landlords of similar size and type was very useful and highlighted how well our landlord had performed. We discussed how the report portrayed the Landlord's performance and how that affects resident attitudes toward their Landlord. Furthermore, we felt that the staff involved with Tenant and Leaseholder Services would feel very demoralised when reading the headline graphics. As a member of the Housing Ombudsman's resident panel, I offered to ask if there is any way to provide feedback on the layout of the report and the language used. Perhaps you would be kind enough to help me with this, and also advise if there is likely to be any change to the layout or language used in future. Thank you.
Vizipop asked 19 days agoHello,Thank you for the question. We have taken onboard this feedback, and similar feedback received from other landlords and residents, and are making changes to our landlord reports for this year. They will feature less of the comparisons landlords felt were unfair or misleading, and also remove words such as "poor" which also may be taken out of context in regard to the actual figures mentioned. We hope to also make landlords aware of how to use these reports more constructively, and the benefits analysis of these trends can provide.We will be sharing these with landlords shortly, ahead of our Annual Complaints Review being launched in the autumn. -
Is it a legal requirement for social housing landlords to give a "NOTICE OF VARIATION OF YOUR TENANCY FORMAL LEGAL NOTICE OF INCREASE OF RENT"? If the landlord fails to give NOTICE of the rent increase is it a legal requirement for the tenant to pay the new rent increase despite not receiving the NOTICE? Thank you
Yvonne asked about 2 months agoHello.
The landlord must give the required notice if it plans to increase rent. The notice period required will depend on the type of tenancy. You can find out more on Shelter's website:
Assured and Shorthold tenancies - Shelter Legal England - Statutory rules for rent increases for assured tenants - Shelter England
Local authority tenancies - Shelter Legal England - Local authority rent and rent increases - Shelter England.
If a complaint is brought to this service about whether a rent increase was enforceable, it would likely be outside of our jurisdiction to determine. This is beacause it is a decision made by the courts.
In some cases, we may be able to look at how the landlord handled a complaint about a rent increase (the handling of it rather than the decision to increase). We would suggest a resident in this situation speak to Citizens Advice, Shelter or seek advice from the court directly.
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To the Housing Ombudsman, I recently came across a piece — originally published in The Guardian — that discussed Angela Rayner’s forthcoming housing rights initiatives. Part of the article referenced the Housing Ombudsman’s strategy of attempting to shift the mindset of social housing landlords by using complaints as a catalyst for change. However, the article stated that this approach has ultimately failed. I wanted to ask for your thoughts directly: • Do you agree with this assessment? • In your experience, have you seen evidence that your approach is working and genuinely changing landlord behaviour for the better? • Might it be worthwhile to formally ask the panel for their collective view on this? Or even to conduct a public survey to better understand whether tenants feel there has been a change in landlord attitudes or behaviours? Thank you for your work — I appreciate the complexity of the task you’re undertaking. Mr. P
MR P asked about 2 months agoWe would not agree that there's been no change, however, we would certainly like to see landlords accelerate progress in this area. We've now established the Code on a statutory footing, engaged more with the governing bodies through our MRC and have produced more and more learning on our Centre for Learning to enable landlords to use complaints as a vehicle to improve. We've asked the panel previously about learning from complaints, and will do so again in the coming months. In our last poll of this kind, it was quite split but many had said they had not seen change. However, where they had seen positive change, there was great feedback from residents that we could share with landlords to enable them to improve.
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I believe my landlord’s KIM is really bad and so is its record keeping, especially with complaint handling. How can I be sure if I bring my complaint to the Ombudsman after completing the landlord’s complaint process, that all the written evidence I have will be seen by the Ombudsman in order that a just and fair investigation and decision can be made?
Aes asked about 1 month agoWe take an ‘inquisitorial’ approach to our investigations. This means we aim to get to the truth through investigation and consideration of all evidence.
We give both parties the opportunity to provide evidence. The information we request from the landlord is usually quite comprehensive. Many residents chose to send over their own supporting evidence which often include copies of email trails and photographs of repairs.
Once we start the investigation, if we find that there is missing information, we will ask for it. If we find that we cannot make a fair decision because of missing information, we will set this out in our investigation report that there is evidence of record keeping failure. Our 2025 follow up Spotlight report on Knowledge and Information Management sets out recommendations to landlord's to improve record keeping practices to aid service delivery.
Follow up report: Spotlight on knowledge and information management
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Awaabs Law comes in during October are you confident that landlords are prepared ? Seemingly a lot are just papering over cracks rather than tackling damp and mould.
Mike asked about 2 months agoThe introduction in October 2025 is to respond to damp and mould only. We speak to some landlords that are proactively reviewing its policies, timescales and procedures based on the consultation on Awaab’s Law. There will also be landlords that wait for final legislation to be introduced before changing the way they work, which will not prepare them for the start of the new laws. There are wider issues that we see regularly in complaints (complaint handling, ageing stock, delayed repairs, shortage of contractors) that will not be resolved by the introduction of the legislation in October. We will be doing work with residents and landlords to set out how Awaab's Law will impact landlord's services.
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If a group of tenants ask you to attend a meeting with them because the relationship between them and their Housing Association has become so bad they do not know what to do some afraid of retaliation etc . Is it in your remit to be able to .
Denise asked about 2 months agoAs a Resident Panel member, we would encourage you to make other residents aware of their right to make a complaint when things go wrong and how to access their landlord’s complaint procedure.
If the resident is able to, we would advise they make their own individual complain. If the landlord does not respond, our Dispute Support team can ask the landlord to respond.
Complaints should be viewed by member landlords as an opportunity to learn and not prevent anyone accessing resolution through its complaint procedure.
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In a hypothetical scenario, is there a threshold at which a tenant can request immediate intervention from the Housing Ombudsman, particularly where they feel overwhelmed, unsafe, and unsure where to turn for help? For example, if a tenant believes their landlord is engaging in behaviour that seems intended to cause serious stress and anxiety—leaving them afraid to grant access to the landlord or its contractors—what options would be available? Could the Ombudsman step in under such circumstances, and if so, what kind of support or action could be offered? What general advice would you give to a tenant who feels their safety and mental wellbeing are at risk in their own home?
MR P asked about 2 months agoHello.
Thank you for your question. Landlords have responsibility to take certain actions, use its safeguarding processes and involve support services where required.
The Housing Ombudsman can only consider a complaint once a landlord's complaint procedure has been exhausted. Our Dispute Support team can provide signposting to other services and assist if your landlord if not responding to a complaint you made to it. Our role is to remain impartial and we cannot provide advocacy support.
You should always discuss your wellbeing and mental health with professional support services, your GP or your support network.
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If landlord offers compensation in stage one response and complainant requests escalation to stage 2, what happens to compensation already offered?
Aes asked about 2 months agoIf a resident accepts the compensation offered at stage 1, it does not affect their right to escalate the complaint to stage 2. You can request for your complaint to be escalated, while still accepting a compensation offer made by the landlord at stage 1.
As an impartial service, we are unable to advise a resident whether to accept or reject an offer made by the landlord, as it is for the resident to decide the resolution they are seeking to their complaint. If you do not think the landlord's response or offer of compensation is appropriate for the impact the issues have had on you, you should tell your landlord in the request to escalate to stage 2 of its complaint process. You can accept the compensation offered at stage 2 and still bring the complaint to the Housing Ombudsman service for investigation.
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Are Housing Associations now subject to questions under The Freedom of Information Act and are rules the same?
Mike asked about 2 months agoHousing associations and private registered providers are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act because they are not public bodies. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government consulted on the introduction of the Social Tenants Access to Information Requirements Scheme (STAIRS). This will allow social housing tenants and their representatives to access information related to the management of their housing.
We are working with the Regulator of Social Housing and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government - who are setting the legislation through their policy statement that will be coming soon and that they will also be consulting on their role in stairs.
The Housing Ombudsman Service has been appointed as the appeals body for (STAIRS). This means when it is rolled out, the service will investigate complaints from residents about a landlord’s handling of an information request. We are working with MHCLG and RSH to develop the route to redress for any disputes about the new STAIRs scheme.
The consultation can be found on MHCLG website: Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements: consultation - GOV.UK