1. Understand your landlord's complaints process

Locate the policy

Landlords must make their complaints policy and procedure easily accessible to residents. Your landlord should have a published complaints procedure on their website. If they don’t have a website, or you can’t access it, request it from them directly.

Review the steps

Carefully read the policy to understand the process, including how to submit a complaint, timeframes for responses, and escalation procedures.

2. Document your complaint clearly

Be specific
Clearly state the problem, providing dates, times, and any relevant details.

Explain the impact
Describe how the issue affects you and your home.

Outline desired outcome
Specify what you want your landlord to do to resolve the problem. The Housing Ombudsman provides an example of a complaints letter which can download as a Word document here www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Make-a-complaint-request.docx

Keep records
Make copies of your complaint and any responses you receive.

3. Submit your complaint and follow up

Submit in writing
Send your complaint via email or letter, as this provides a record of your communication.

Acknowledge and response
Ensure your landlord acknowledges receipt of your complaint and provides a written response within the timeframe outlined in their policy.

Escalate if needed
If you are not satisfied with your landlord’s response, follow the next steps in their complaints procedure, which may involve an internal review or appeal.

4. When to contact the Housing Ombudsman

The Housing Ombudsman is an independent body that investigates complaints about social housing providers. You should contact them if:

• You have been through your landlord’s complaint process and you are still not happy with their response.
• Your landlord says it’s not a complaint and you disagree.
  You can go to the Ombudsman and ask them to review the decision. If the Ombudsman agrees with you, they will write to the landlord and say they must treat your complaint as a complaint
• Your landlord doesn’t reply within the set timescales or doesn’t reply at all.
  The Ombudsman can only look at your complaint once it has been through your landlord’s complaints process. You can go to the Ombudsman and say that your landlord has denied you access to the process. The Ombudsman can intervene to ask the landlord to respond. To do this, they need to see a copy of the complaint you made.

Remember

• Before making a complaint, you need to report the issue first and give your landlord a chance to fix it.
• Even if you have an ongoing complaint, your landlord still needs to deal with the issue that you are experiencing
• If you feel like you have a claim against the landlord, you have to go to the courts.

5. When to contact other authorities

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
For complaints about local authorities’ wider housing activities (like homelessness duties or social housing allocation).

Regulator of Social Housing
If there are systemic issues with your landlord, you can refer the case to the Regulator of Social Housing, or the Housing Ombudsman might do this as well.

Police
If the issue involves anti-social behaviour where there’s an immediate risk of harm, a serious crime is occurring, or if the behaviour is criminal.

The courts
You can take your social housing landlord to court if they fail to fix serious problems after you’ve reported them and followed the complaints process. It’s important to keep records, try the Housing Ombudsman first, and get legal advice.

Complaints timescales

The Housing Ombudsman has a Complaints Handling Code which your landlord must follow. This has fixed timescales for them to respond to your complaint.

Stage 1 complaint

5 working days

The landlord must acknowledge your submitted stage 1 complaint in 5 working days.

10 working days

The landlord has 10 working days to respond to your stage 1 complaint. The landlord can extend this by another 10 working days if necessary, but you must be told and given a reason for this.

Stage 2 (appeal)

If you are unhappy with the response you can escalate to Stage 2 (also called an appeal). You don’t have to give a reason for this, but the Ombudsman recommends that landlords try to understand your dissatisfaction. And although it’s not a requirement, it helps your case if you explain it clearly.

Stage 2 responses must be handled by someone who was not involved in the Stage 1 response – usually a more senior or independent officer within the landlord’s organisation.

5 working days

The landlord must acknowledge your request to escalate the complaint, within 5 working days.

20 working days

The landlord has 20 working days to respond to your stage 2 complaint. The landlords can extend this by another 10 working days if necessary but you must be told and given a reason for this.

If you are still unhappy with the response, you have up to 12 months from the date of the landlord’s final response to take your case to the Housing Ombudsman.

Tips for success

• Clearly state the issue
  Be explicit about what went wrong, when it happened, and why you are dissatisfied.
• Provide evidence
  Support your complaint with relevant details—dates, times, photos, emails, letters, or receipts. This strengthens your case.
• Be specific about the desired outcome
  Clearly explain what you want the landlord to do to resolve the issue—whether that’s a repair, apology, refund, or policy change.
• Stay calm and polite
  Even if you’re frustrated, avoid aggression or personal attacks. A respectful tone increases your chances of being heard.
• Be reasonable
  Present your complaint in a fair and proportionate way. Focus on the issue and how it affects you.
• Consider the landlord’s perspective
  Try to understand the organisation’s point of view. Acknowledge any steps they’ve already taken, even if they haven’t fully resolved the problem.
• Act quickly
  Raise the issue as soon as possible. Delays can weaken your case or limit your rights.
• Propose solutions
  Suggest practical ways the landlord could fix the problem and avoid it happening again.
• Follow up
  If you don’t get a response within the landlord’s complaints timescale (usually within 10–20 working days), follow up or escalate to the next stage.

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