Housing Ombudsman starts publishing its investigation reports on individual cases

March 9, 2021

The Housing Ombudsman has started publishing all decisions on cases investigated, which it described as “a major step in increasing its transparency”.

Decisions will now be published every two weeks. The Ombudsman suggested this would provide a resource to promote learning in the sector and demonstrate the difference complaints can make for individual residents and wider benefit. The Ombudsman carries out more than 2,000 formal investigations each year.

The Ombudsman said the first cases published highlighted a wide range of issues considered, including Right to Buy, moving home, repairs and anti-social behaviour, as well as the type of outcomes following its investigations. The landlord in each case is identified.

The first group of decisions to be published include:

A finding of maladministration (service failure) where Metropolitan Housing Trust failed to do enough or act quickly enough to address the anti-social behaviour issues reported, including noise nuisance (201905797).

A Notting Hill Genesis case about the accuracy of information provided to a resident concerning their Right to Buy where the Ombudsman reached an agreed settlement of £500 compensation through its mediation process (201809422).
A Stockport Homes case where the Ombudsman found there was no evidence that the landlord was required to reimburse a resident for improvements at a previous property and any alterations needed at the new property should be determined by an occupational therapy assessment (202002678).
A finding of reasonable redress in a London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham case about repairs where the landlord took steps to acknowledge its failures in relation to delays and offered compensation which the Ombudsman found satisfactory (202003176).
A complaint about an application to move property where the Ombudsman found no maladministration in how Thirteen Housing dealt with the resident’s application but service failure in how it handled her complaint due to delayed responses and poor record keeping (201910486).

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “This is a crucial step towards greater transparency, accountability and demonstrating the difference complaints can make. The cases published today show the wide range of issues we handle, and the different outcomes we reach, investigating in an independent, fair and impartial way.

“Our investigations are a critical tool for learning. Our casebook provides essential knowledge, helping landlords to improve performance and services. I would encourage landlord staff – whether a board member or frontline staff – and anyone who cares about achieving excellence to regularly consult our casebook to develop their organisation and improve the experiences of residents.

“The publication of our investigations is also important to help residents to understand our work and see the decisions we make about their landlord.”

This first set of decisions to be published were issued in early December 2020 as they are published three months after the decision date.