What does a housing ombudsman actually do?
An ombudsman is an independent referee for complaints you couldn't resolve with your landlord or agent directly. The service is free to tenants, doesn't need a solicitor, and can order practical remedies: compensation, an apology, repairs carried out, or a change in how the organisation behaves. Different parts of the rental world answer to different bodies, and knowing which one covers your situation is most of the battle.
The short map looks like this: social landlords answer to the Housing Ombudsman Service, letting agents must belong to an approved redress scheme, and private landlords are due to come under a new ombudsman created by the Renters' Rights Act 2025, which isn't fully in force yet. Courts and tribunals sit alongside all of this for disputes about money and legal rights.
Who handles complaints about social landlords?
The Housing Ombudsman Service. The framework sits in Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1996, which requires social landlords, housing associations and councils in respect of their landlord functions, to belong to an approved ombudsman scheme. The scheme must provide an independent ombudsman, a proper complaints procedure, investigation powers and the authority to determine disputes.
The ombudsman's powers are practical. Determinations can order compensation or other relief, require a landlord to review its policies or practices where a systemic problem appears, and be published so other tenants can see the outcome. The ombudsman can also propose alternative ways of resolving a dispute and conduct joint investigations with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman where a complaint crosses into council services such as housing allocations or homelessness help.
Complaints about disrepair in social housing have extra force behind them since Awaab's Law came into force for social landlords in England on 27 October 2025. Emergency hazards must be investigated and made safe within 24 hours, and significant damp and mould hazards carry fixed investigation and works timescales. Because those requirements form part of the tenancy agreement, missed deadlines can support both an ombudsman complaint and a court claim.
Who handles complaints about letting agents?
Every letting agent in England must belong to a government-approved redress scheme, a requirement imposed by a 2014 Order which also lets councils impose a financial penalty on agents who don't join. The approved schemes currently include The Property Ombudsman and the Property Redress Scheme.
Redress schemes cover the way an agent has treated you: mishandled money, poor communication, failure to pass on repair requests, misleading marketing and similar service failures. Like the Housing Ombudsman, they're free to use, and they can direct the agent to put things right and pay compensation. If you're unsure which scheme your agent belongs to, they should tell you, and membership details typically appear on the agent's website and in their office.
Is there an ombudsman for private landlords?
Not yet in operation, but one is coming. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 provides for mandatory landlord redress schemes for private residential landlords (sections 64 to 74) alongside the new Private Rented Sector Database. Once that chapter is switched on, private landlords are expected to have to join an ombudsman scheme in the same way agents already must. As of August 2026 the government hasn't brought the redress scheme provisions fully into force, so check the current position before relying on this route.
In the meantime, complaints about a private landlord generally go through the landlord (or their agent, whose redress scheme may still apply), then to your local council where the complaint concerns housing conditions, and to the courts or tribunals where money or legal rights are at stake.
How do I complain before going to an ombudsman?
Ombudsmen and redress schemes expect you to give the organisation a fair chance to fix things first. A complaint that skips this stage usually gets referred back. The sequence that works:
- Complain in writing to the landlord or agent, describing the problem, the dates and what you want done. Keep a copy.
- Follow their complaints procedure to its final stage. Social landlords must operate a proper procedure under their scheme's rules.
- Keep evidence: photographs, emails, letters and notes of phone calls with dates.
- Escalate once the process is exhausted, or if you've had no meaningful response after a reasonable period. The scheme's own guidance will say how long it expects you to wait, so check the current rules for your scheme.
The ombudsman will typically want to see the complaint history, so a tidy paper trail genuinely improves outcomes.
What can an ombudsman order, and what are the limits?
Ombudsmen can order compensation, require works or service failures to be put right, and require policy reviews. What they generally can't do is decide questions that belong to a court, such as possession disputes, or make findings that bind third parties. Some disputes fit other routes better:
- Deposit deductions are usually best handled through your deposit scheme's free dispute resolution service, and unprotected deposits can lead to a county court claim for compensation of between 1 and 3 times the deposit under the Housing Act 2004.
- Disrepair compensation can be pursued in the county court for breach of the landlord's repairing covenant (section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985) or the fitness for human habitation covenant (section 9A).
- Prohibited fees paid to agents or landlords can be recovered through the First-tier Tribunal under the Tenant Fees Act 2019.
- Housing conditions can be reported to your council's environmental health team, which has enforcement powers under the Housing Act 2004.
None of these routes excludes an ombudsman complaint about how you were treated along the way, and the ombudsman route costs nothing, which makes it a sensible first escalation for most service complaints.
Is it worth complaining at all?
Usually, yes. Ombudsman determinations are free, don't risk costs orders the way court claims can, and published decisions increasingly shape how landlords behave. The process rewards persistence and paperwork rather than legal knowledge, which suits most tenants. And if the ombudsman route doesn't produce what you need, using it rarely prejudices a later court claim; for money claims, limitation periods (typically 6 years) are the main clock to watch, so don't let a complaint drift for years before taking advice.