Ombudsman names 10 landlords for repeat complaint-handling failures

He said CHFOs are “issued rarely” and “may signal wider concerns”. He added: “These warnings must be heeded to avoid unnecessary detriment to residents.”

These orders are issued by the ombudsman as a last resort where a landlord has failed to handle complaints in line with the code and has failed to act in response to the watchdog’s intervention.

The report noted that it had seen an increase in the number of CHFOs made to landlords for failing to provide evidence of compliance with orders made in determinations, on top of the increase last quarter. In 50% of cases where timescales were extended, the landlord then failed to comply with the new deadline.

The 10 landlords that appeared in the report with more than one CHFO in the first quarter of this year were:

• Soho Housing
• L&Q
• Haringey Council
• Harrow Council
• Warwick District Council
• Hexagon
• A2Dominion
• Southwark Council
• Newham Council
• Lewisham Council

Of these, Soho Housing, L&Q, Hexagon, Haringey, Harrow, Warwick, Newham and Lewisham then failed to provide evidence of compliance with at least one order, forcing further action to remedy the situation for the resident.

All 10 of the landlords named above have been approached for comment.

Kate Gascoigne, chief customer officer at A2Dominion, said: “We treat our customer complaints very seriously and have apologised to the customers that have been affected. Both complaints relate to delays in providing information to the ombudsman due to internal issues. We’re confident that we’re putting the right steps in place to deliver the improvements that our customers deserve. 

“To ensure we learn and manage our complaints better, we have recruited additional complaint case workers and implemented new systems to support our complaint handling visibility and highlight key lessons learnt. We’re also currently implementing transformation plans to improve our key service areas, such as repairs.”

A spokesperson for Warwick District Council said: “Warwick District Council is committed to providing the highest standards of services to its residents, and recognises the importance of complaints in maintaining and improving standards. The council has recently undertaken a review of its complaints policy and procedure, and has implemented a number of changes across the authority to ensure that complaints are dealt with in a timely and effective manner.

“Since April 2024, Warwick District Council has had in post a dedicated officer responsible for overseeing complaints across the Council, has complied with the orders from Housing Ombudsman determinations and has a process in place for monitoring the implementation of complaint recommendations.”

Councillor Sarah King, cabinet member for council homes at Southwark Council, said: “We’re committed to improving the complaints process for people living in our homes. We’ve already developed a service improvement plan for the way we handle complaints, including a dedicated housing complaints team to ensure residents’ concerns are properly investigated. The learning from complaint handling is now embedded in our service delivery and we are carefully monitoring progress as the service improves.”

Sheron Carter, chief executive of Hexagon Housing Association, said: “We are very sorry for the distress that these cases represent for our residents, who received unacceptable levels of service. In two instances, the issues were due to poor historic record keeping that made it difficult to provide the information the Ombudsman had requested. In the third instance we provided the information by the stated deadline, but not in a format accepted by the Ombudsman. We were asked to resubmit as individual documents which pushed our response over the deadline.”

“We recognise the importance of high-quality complaints handling, and in January 2024 we set up a new, fully resourced central complaints team to improve the service Hexagon residents receive. We now have in place modern systems and formalised processes to ensure lessons are learnt from complaints and fed back into the business. We now provide our residents with regular updates during the complaints process, and we have also made significant changes to our record keeping and CRM system to ensure that our records are complete.”

L&Q declined to comment.

The ombudsman also raised concern over complaint-handling resources and staffing levels, warning that this function “should be central to any landlord’s existence”.

To succeed, Mr Blakeway called on landlords must adopt an “ethical complaint-handling stance” which looks at “the person behind the complaint” and understands the detriment it can have when not completed successfully.

The ombudsman’s complaint-handling code was placed on a statutory footing in April. Mr Blakeway said this “has been met positively by landlords”.

According to the report, 95% of landlords that responded to feedback surveys said the code has helped to embed a positive complaint-handling culture, while 92% found it has helped them provide a more consistent approach to complaint-handling.

The report continued: “In several instances, landlords have demonstrated openness and transparency in their self-assessments, highlighting areas where further work is required to fully embed the provisions of the code beyond policy and into practice.”

It highlighted good practice from Hammersmith & Fulham Council, which showed learning throughout complaints and willingness to put things right, and Longhurst Group, which took a “person-centred approach” to compensating a resident.

The report came a week after the ombudsman shared its annual complaints review, which included 271 individual landlord performance reports from 2023-24.

It revealed that the watchdog made nearly 22,000 orders and recommendations last year to force landlords to put things right for residents, a more than threefold year-on-year increase.