In July 2020, the Housing Ombudsman published its Complaint Handling Code. This sets out how landlords should respond to complaints effectively and fairly.
The Complaint Handling Code became statutory on 1 April 2024 following new powers given to the Ombudsman under the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, meaning that landlords are obliged by law to follow its requirements.
The Code aims to support the earliest resolution of complaints while the matters are still within the landlord’s own procedure and is a guide of what can be expected when a complaint is made to a landlord.
To comply with the Complaint Handling Code, landlords are required to complete an annual assessment against the Code as part of their annual complaints performance and service improvement report for submission to the governing body and are required produce a response from the governing body.
Landlords must also assess their compliance annually and submit self-assessment reports to the Ombudsman which forms part of the annual complaints performance and service improvement report.
The results of the assessment are required to be published on the landlord’s website, and can be found on our Complaint Handling Code Self-Assessment webpage.
We have also recently updated our Customer Complaints and Comments Policy to comply with the Complaint Handling Code, which outlines how we will be adhering to the Code requirements and illustrates the primary goal of the Code - which is to promote best practices in handling complaints and enhancing services for residents.
