Housing Solutions is a member of The Housing Ombudsman Scheme.

The Housing Ombudsman independently oversees how social housing landlords deal with complaints about their services. The Ombudsman can also provide active support in resolving disputes between tenants and landlords.

In April 2024 the Housing Ombudsmen published a new Complaint Handling Code. The Code provides a framework for landlords to follow in making sure complaints are managed fairly and effectively.   We are required to assess our handling of complaints against the requirements of the Code each year. This is a valuable tool for us in reviewing our processes and learning from complaints. You can read our latest (May 2024) self-assessment including the actions we’re taking to improve our services and how residents experience them.

If you’re a tenant or leaseholder of Housing Solutions you can seek advice from the Housing Ombudsman at any stage of the complaints process and ask for a review of the way your complaint was dealt with by us at the end of our two-stage complaints process. To find out more about the Housing Ombudsman generally please click here and whether they can help with your particular type pf complaint please go here.

You can contact the Housing Ombudsman Service here.

The Housing Ombudsman’s review of our complaints (2023/24)

We’ve set out below the type of requests - and outcomes – we have received from the Housing Ombudsman over 2023/24.

We responded to all requests for information or for us to take specific action in a complaint within the timeframes requested by the Housing Ombudsman.

We received 16 ‘evidence requests’ from the Housing Ombudsman over the year – this is where the Housing Ombudsman asks a landlord for information about a complaint to help it investigate a case referred by a resident. Following the Housing Ombudsman’s evidence requests and any subsequent investigation, we received one finding of ‘maladministration’ last year. This was the first maladministration order received by Housing Solutions. We are working to implement the Housing Ombudsman’s recommendations in this case to improve our services to residents.

We report to the Housing Solutions Board twice a year on our complaints performance as part of our Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report. Our last report to the Board was in March 2024 covering the period from April 2023. You can read find out more about our Report here.