What should we be learning from Ombudsman reports?

Housing Ombudsman services are changing. The two current Ombudsman services dealing with social housing will be combined into one Housing Ombudsman in 2013. Their role in regulation will in effect be extended and consolidated, and wise housing organisations will ensure they routinely learn the lessons from upheld complaints.

This briefing written by HQN Associate, Robert Brewer, aims to help landlords and others start off on the right footing by examining both Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) and Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) cases which have been made publicly available since January 2011. It is in three sections:

• Section one – background
• Section two – recent complaints and findings
• Section three – what should we be learning from upheld and ‘not-upheld’ complaints?