The Housing Ombudsman has published its Insight Report for the period from October to December 2022. The report sets out findings from data and individual cases and shows a 29% increase in the number of enquiries and complaints received by the Ombudsman compared with the equivalent quarter in the previous year.
The Ombudsman received 8,123 enquiries and complaints (2,867 enquiries and 5,256 complaints) in the quarter to December. The number of enquires increased by 27% from 2,252 in the quarter to September, with the number of complaints increasing by 10% from 4,777.
Property condition accounted for 51% of the complaints that the Ombudsman received during the period compared with 41% in the previous quarter, followed by complaint handling at 13% (down from 16%) and then anti-social behaviour on 10% (down from 13%).
In terms of overall outcomes of determinations made by the Ombudsman during the quarter:
- A finding of maladministration, partial maladministration or severe maladministration, was made in 55% of cases consistent with the previous quarter and
- The Ombudsman determined that the landlord had made reasonable redress where service failure or maladministration had been identified in 13% of cases, also consistent with the previous quarter.
The Ombudsman issued 1,263 orders and recommendations (796 orders and 467 recommendations) during the period, compared with 819 (572 orders and 247 recommendations) in the previous quarter. In total 541 cases resulted in compensation being awarded to residents, down from 559 in the previous quarter.
Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway said “We’re seeing the continuation of the surge in complaints we’ve experienced since last year. And not only that, we’re now finding more maladministration than before, showing some of the issues we’re uncovering are serious and have needed dealing with for some time. This also means we are issuing more orders and recommendations to make residents lives better and improve landlord’s services so that residents do not suffer in the future”.