The Housing Ombudsman has published its Insight Report for the period from January to March 2022. The report sets out findings from data and individual cases and shows a 2.9% decrease in the number of enquiries and complaints received by the Ombudsman compared with the previous quarter.
The Ombudsman received 6,128 enquiries and complaints (2,072 enquiries and 4,053 complaints) in the quarter to March 2022. The number of enquires fell by 15.5% from 2,451 in the quarter to December 2021, with the number of complaints increasing by 4.9% from 3,862.
Property condition accounted for 45% of the complaints that the Ombudsman received during the period compared with 47% in the previous quarter, followed by complaint handling at 20% (up from 18%) and then anti-social behaviour on 11% as in the previous quarter.
Of the determinations made by the Ombudsman during the quarter:
- A finding of maladministration, which could be a finding of serious maladministration, maladministration or service failure, was made in 25% of cases
- 21% of cases resulted in a finding of partial maladministration and
- The Ombudsman determined that the landlord had made reasonable redress where service failure or maladministration had been identified in 10% of cases.
The Ombudsman issued 1,250 orders and recommendations (808 orders and 442 recommendations) during the period, compared with 1,300 (783 orders and 517 recommendations) in the previous quarter. In total 595 cases resulted in compensation being awarded to residents.