In July 2020 the Housing Ombudsman published its new Complaint Handling Code. Under the terms of the Code, where a landlord which is a member of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme fails to comply with the conditions of membership, the Ombudsman may determine that there has been a complaint handling failure and order the failure to be rectified within a given timescale.
The Code also commits the Ombudsman to publishing the total number of complaint handling failure orders (CHFOs) issued, the names of the landlords and the reasons for the CHFOs. The Ombudsman has published its seventh such report covering the period from October to December 2022.
During the quarter the Ombudsman issued 38 CHFOs, down from 45 in the previous quarter. The CHFOs were issued:
- Due to unreasonable delays in the landlord accepting or progressing a complaint through its process
- Due to unreasonable delays in the landlord providing information requested by the Ombudsman or
- Where a landlord failed to comply with its membership obligations.
There were 28 cases of compliance and 10 cases of non-compliance in the quarter. The non-compliance cases related to:
- A2 Dominion HG
- Haringey Council (four cases)
- Hexagon HA (two cases)
- Longhurst Group
- Sandwell MBC and
- Sage Housing.
The Ombudsman is formally investigating seven failures in respect of:
- A2 Dominion HG
- Adur District Council
- Hyde HA
- Lewisham Council
- Magna Housing
- Orbit HA and
- Trafford HT.
Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway said “I recognise the pressures that complaint handling teams are under, yet it is disappointing for six landlords not to comply with these orders and three landlords to receive orders for failing to meet obligations under the Scheme. During challenging times, complaints matter even more and should be used as a tool to effectively respond to the issues the organisation faces. Good complaint handling should not be something marginalised because of other pressures. It is important for landlords who have received one of these orders to consider what steps they should take to strengthen their complaint handling procedures. This includes ensuring the complaints team has the resources and cooperation within the organisation to get issues resolved, without the intervention of the Ombudsman”.