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Ombudsman’s guidance to focus on restoring broken landlord-tenant relationships
The Housing Ombudsman will release its first good practice guidance later this year, which will focus on restoring landlord-tenant relationships that have broken down.
The watchdog said that relationship management was an aspect of complaints it sees often. The Grenfell Tower Inquiry report “brought into stark focus the tragic impact this can have”, it added.
Last year’s landmark report into the 2017 fire noted that relations between the tower’s residents and tenant management organisation were “increasingly characterised by distrust, dislike, personal antagonism and anger”.
“The result was a toxic atmosphere fuelled by mistrust on both sides,” it stated.
Restoring broken-down relationships was “strongly supported” as a topic for new guidance during the ombudsman’s consultation last year on its proposed approach to new good practice powers, it said.
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Good practice is a power introduced by the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 which will provide examples of “where landlords have got things right”, the ombudsman said.
It will establish a framework to help landlords solve problems in a “challenging area” that can regularly result in complaints. It will also share “practical lessons” and aim to reduce the need for residents to raise a complaint or refer their case to the ombudsman.
Landlords will self-assess against the guidance to help them develop improvement plans, with organisations encouraged to learn from complaints and make “positive, lasting change”.
The ombudsman will not order landlords to submit their self-assessments as a matter of course, but only if they are needed to support the handling of a complaint.
Support for landlords to engage with good practice will be provided by the ombudsman’s centre for learning, as well as its resident panel, which will ensure future proposals for good practice are “grounded in resident and landlord experience”.
The good practice consultation received 163 responses from landlords, residents and other stakeholders.
Housing ombudsman Richard Blakeway said: “Good practice will be a valuable tool for landlords to test approaches and improve using the insights of complaints. As with all learning from complaints, the right culture and behaviours will produce the greatest benefits rather than a tick-box exercise.
“Our first topic will further explore areas in last year’s Spotlight report on attitudes, respects and rights, encouraging landlords to refocus their attention on embracing every contact with a resident as an opportunity to get to know their customers, understand their needs and build relationships.
“This guidance will share the good we see in our casework which can sometimes be overshadowed by examples of where things have gone wrong. We will highlight approaches where landlords have delivered person-centred services rather than follow ‘copy and paste’ policies, which can often fail in the current and complex operating environment.”
In May 2024,1,500 residents across England were appointed to the ombudsman’s resident panel, which will meet four times a year.
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