Make a complaint about a housing association property

Find out how to make a complaint about a housing association.

How to complain

In the first instance, you must make a formal complaint to your housing association and exhaust their full complaints procedure. This gives them the chance to put things right.

If you are unhappy with their response you must then contact the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) who regulate Housing Associations.

The HOS looks at complaints about housing associations registered with them. They only have the power to investigate a complaint after you have taken it all the way through the landlord's own formal complaints procedure.

However, the HOS only have the power to investigate a complaint after you have taken it all the way through the landlord's own formal complaints procedure.

This gives the landlord the chance to respond and try to put things right first. It is up to you to take your complaint through the landlord’s complaint procedure.

Help in an emergency

If you have an urgent issue that you have already made a formal complaint to your housing association about which has not been resolved, we may be able to contact them on your behalf to move things along. In the unlikely event that an environmental health officer will need to visit, this will be done formally, and your landlord will be charged for any legal notices deemed necessary.

The type of issues we consider an emergency include:

loss of heating and hot water, especially in winter months
blocked drains within the boundary of your property
electrical hazards and serious leaks from plumbing