Housing Ombudsman warns of "alarming" rise in complaint handling failure orders

The Housing Ombudsman has issued its highest number of complaint handling failure orders for a quarter since they came into effect in January 2021, a report has revealed.

The Ombudsman issued 45 complaint handling failure orders between July and September 2022, in which there were six cases of non-compliance by landlords.

By comparison, in April to June 2022 the Ombudsman issued 22 complaint handling failure orders. Of these, 17 were complied with and there were five cases of non-compliance.

The quarterly report names the landlords and shows that the 45 orders, all related to individual complaints, were issued to 30 landlords, made up of 15 councils, 14 housing associations and one housing co-op.

The order types are:

• Type 1: Issued due to the landlord’s unreasonable delays in accepting or progressing a complaint through its process.
• Type 2: Issued due to unreasonable delays in providing information requested by the Ombudsman.
• Type 3: Issued where a landlord fails to comply with its membership obligations.

The report notes that the majority of orders, 35, were issued while complaints were still within the landlord’s complaints procedure due to “unreasonable delays in accepting or progressing a complaint through the process” (type 1).

According to the report, in five of those cases, the landlord did not comply within target timescales.

The remaining 10 orders were issued due to “unreasonable delays in providing information requested by the Ombudsman” (type 2) when complaints were in its formal remit for investigation. In one case the landlord did not comply.

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “It is alarming to see complaint failures at this level. There’s a real risk that cost-of-living pressures result in more complaints so it is critical for landlords to get their communication and handling procedures right now.

“This reinforces the need for landlords to re-evaluate if their complaint teams have the necessary resources to do their jobs so they can deal with complaints effectively.

“We recognise the financial pressures on landlords but it makes complaints and the learning from those complaints even more important to help maintain effective services.”

Lottie Winson