Complaining to a housing association and the Housing Ombudsman. The code, the stages and the timescales.
If your freeholder is a housing association, you have a complaints process with statutory timescales and an ombudsman behind it. It’s slow, it’s free, and it produces a written record the tribunal will read.
Guide by Damion Robinson MCIOB MCIEH. Law and figures checked 01/10/2026. This is general information, not legal advice about your case.
Who it covers
Housing associations and councils that are members of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, which every registered provider of social housing and council landlord has to be. Leaseholders and shared owners of those landlords can complain about the landlord’s handling of a matter: repairs to the block, communication, the way a consultation was run, delays in producing accounts, the handling of an earlier complaint. The ombudsman won’t decide whether a service charge is reasonable, that’s the tribunal, but it will decide whether the landlord dealt with your challenge properly.
The Complaint Handling Code
The code became statutory in April 2024 and every member landlord has to follow it. The parts that matter to you are the timescales. A complaint must be acknowledged within five working days. A stage 1 response is due within ten working days of acknowledgement. If you escalate, a stage 2 response is due within 20 working days of the escalation being acknowledged. The landlord can extend by up to ten working days at stage 1 and up to 20 at stage 2, but only with a good reason explained to you in writing. Two stages is the maximum. A landlord that adds a third, or refuses to log a complaint because it’s “a query” or “already being dealt with”, is in breach of the code and that’s a finding the ombudsman makes regularly.
Writing the complaint
State what went wrong, when, what you’ve already asked for, and what outcome you want. One issue per complaint is better than five. Refer to the code paragraph the landlord has breached where you can. Keep dates in the letter so the timescales are on the record. Reply to the stage 1 decision point by point when you escalate, saying what it failed to address.
Going to the ombudsman
You can refer a complaint to the ombudsman once the landlord’s process is exhausted, or if the landlord is failing to run the process at all. You have 12 months from the landlord’s final response to refer it. There’s no need to go through an MP or councillor first. The ombudsman investigates on the documents, makes findings of maladministration or not, and can order compensation, apologies and actions. Its decisions are published. A landlord with a string of adverse findings on service charge handling has a problem at the next tribunal hearing, because the decisions are evidence of how it behaves.
Running it alongside a tribunal claim
The two don’t conflict. The complaint deals with conduct. The tribunal deals with payability. Many leaseholders run both, using the complaint to force out the documents and the admissions, and then relying on them in the tribunal. What you shouldn’t do is wait for the ombudsman before applying to the tribunal, because the ombudsman takes months and the landlord’s recovery action, with the interest and costs that come with it, won’t wait.
LS-10 Complaint escalation, per stage, £120
Fixed price, confirmed in writing before you commit. Council and tribunal fees at cost on top.
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