Understanding the stages of a complaint and the Ombudsman services
Before you escalate a complaint to the Ombudsman make sure you have followed the process below:
Have told your landlord about the problem?
The first step is to report the problem to us. We might be able to put things right. We have our own complaints procedures that is easy to use, fair and designed to put things right.
Have you thought about using our Independent Complaints Panel?
If you are unable to resolve your complaint through Tuntum’s complaints procedures you can contact us to refer your complaint to our Independent Complaints Panel. Their role is to help resolve disputes between tenants and their landlords which they can do in whatever way they think is most likely to work.
Contact the Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman will deal with each complaint to find the best outcome for your individual circumstances. Once they receive your complaint they may:
- Refer the case to a different organisation if it is an issue they cannot make a decision about because it is not in their jurisdiction
- Work with you and your landlord to resolve the dispute under their early resolution procedure. For example they can use their experience of resolving complaints to make suggestions to the landlord and/or the resident if they believe there is a way to resolve the complaint
- Carry out an investigation; they only do this for those complaints where they decide an investigation is proportionate to the circumstances and evidence before us, for example complex complaints involving many issues.
The Housing Ombudsman contact details:
Housing Ombudsman Service
PO Box 152
Liverpool
L33 7WQ
Telephone: 0300 11 3000
Website: housing-ombudsman.org.uk
Their website has an on-line complaints form or you can e mail them at info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk
Videos on making a complaint
This series of videos will help you make a complaint to your landlord and explain how to make a complaint to the Ombudsman if you remain dissatisfied after that. We hope you find them helpful.
1. Reporting an issue to your landlord
2. Making a complaint to your landlord
3. Escalating your complaint
4. The final stage of your landlord’s internal complaints procedure
5. Referring your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service
6. How can the Ombudsman help me to resolve my complaint?
7. Summary of our process
8. What are early and local resolution?
In March 2022 the Housing Ombudsman released a new version of their Complaint Handling Code. Point 8.3 of the code states:
“Following each Complaint Handling Self-Assessment, a landlord must:
• report the outcome of their self-assessment to their governing body. In the case of local authorities, self- assessment outcomes should be reported to elected members.
This was done at the Board meeting on the 15th September 2022.
• publish the outcome of their assessment on their website if they have one, or otherwise make accessible to residents.
You can click here to read the latest self-assessment.
• include the self-assessment in their annual report section on complaints handling performance.
This will be done when the annual report is published.
Housing Ombudsman Service – Spotlight Report self-assessments
October 2022 – Click here to read the Spotlight report on Noise Complaints
July 2023 – Click here to read the Spotlight Report on Knowledge and Information Management and click here to view our self-assessment in response to the report.
