Housing Ombudsman sees 21% rise in caseload
Complaints to the Housing Ombudsman soared by 21% in the year to 31 March 2009, it has emerged.
Publishing his annual report, Dr Mike Biles said the organisation received 3,870 new complaints during the period.
Disrepair cases continued to be the main area of complaint, accounting for 29% of the total. However, there was also a big jump in the number of complaints about estate services – these produced 20% of the Ombudsman’s caseload, compared to just 4% the previous year.
Other significant sources of complaints were anti-social behaviour (15% of the total), charges (11%), allocations (9%) and complaints handling (8%).
The Ombudsman also dealt with a further 2,884 enquiries which presented issues which were outside his jurisdiction or were matters that were referred for consideration by other agencies.
In terms of outcome after an investigation, the Ombudsman found maladministration in fewer than one in ten cases (8%). In 2% of cases the maladministration had been remedied by the landlord and in 1% there was no adverse effect on the complainant.
In the vast majority of cases, there was either no maladministration (48%) or the issue was outside the Ombudsman's jurisdiction (40%).
Dr Biles pointed out that the number of determinations had increased by 40% to 398, following a review of its core process and the introduction of a new casework management system.
“Greater efficiency in investigations has enabled us to invest more resources in improving customer care and dispute resolution at early stages of the process,” he said.
Other recent developments include:
- Establishing a protocol with the Tenants Services Authority and working with the TSA on its new complaints standard
- Making summaries of the Ombudsman’s cases accessible through the internet
- Being recommended as an escalated complaints-handling body in the British Property Federation’s Residential Code of Conduct.
