In its latest Complaint Handling Failure Order report, the Housing Ombudsman shares learnings where it has seen poor complaint handling in the previous quarter.

According to the Ombudsman, there was a significant reduction in the number of orders issued in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the previous one, with 25 landlords that had an order in the third quarter of 2023 not receiving any during the fourth quarter. This shows how the orders can effectively help landlords target areas for improvement.

However, eight landlords did receive orders in both periods and the report includes case examples to support improvement, including compliance with the orders.

Complaint Handling Code

Ahead of the Complaint Handling Code becoming statutory on 1 April 2024, the Ombudsman has shared key lessons from the fourth quarter of 2023, such as accepting complaints, agreeing on extensions, and providing evidence.

As of 1 April 2024, all landlords will have to adhere to the new provisions in the Code. Whilst there are minimal changes for the landlords who are already compliant, the Ombudsman is urging all landlords to review the new Code in readiness and ensure self-assessments, are submitted on time.

Insights on how landlords become compliant

The report provides insights into how landlords can ensure that not only is their policy compliant with the Code, but it is consistently delivered in practice.

On the back of this report, the Ombudsman has written to the landlords with more than one non-complaint CHFO.
The landlords that did not comply with its orders are:

Adullam Homes
Barking and Dagenham Council
Ealing Council
Lambeth Council
Lewisham Council
Luton Community Housing
Metropolitan Thames Valley
Sandwell Council
Westminster City Council

Engaging with landlords

The Ombudsman also engaged with 27 landlords to help ensure their complaints policy was compliant with the Code, following issues seen in complaints. This is the most in any quarter.

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “Most of these orders are made while the complaint is live the landlord’s procedure, revealing issues that occurred in the last three months. We only issue a handful compared to the thousands of cases we handle and after much intervention with the landlord.

“These orders help landlords to identify where action is necessary to improve complaint handling, and with most landlords, this appears to be successful. Ultimately, this helps complaints to be resolved earlier by the landlord itself, which is essential given the continued rise in complaints.

“As the Complaint Handling Code becomes statutory at the beginning of April 2024, we are urging landlords to read this report, and its predecessors, to ensure that complaint handling compliance is seen in practice as well as policy.

“This will form a key part of our Duty to Monitor work, where we will not just take the landlord’s word in their self-assessment if our casework is saying otherwise.

“Landlords must assess their complaints procedure as the Code becomes statutory. This also means ensuring its complaints team has the resources and leverage within the landlord to do its job and to ensure there is fairness for residents when making a complaint.”

You can read the full report here.