Housing Ombudsman Anmeldelser 

If I could review no stars I would I fell sick in 2017 I was bedridden for a year and in a wheelchair for three and a half years I had to learn how to walk talk wash dress and feed myself from scratch I underwent lots of chemotherapy and Iloprost Infusions and other physical mental and emotional impacting treatment, my housing association Southway Housing Trust refused to help me, I was critically ill, and they did not help, the Ombudsman's determination mainly filed in Southway's favour, utter disgrace they don't care about sick tenants asking for help for over 8 years, they all stick together:(

they are slow and always side with the landlord

I have been waiting 14 months so far for my complaint to be handed to an investigator. It’s been over 2 years since I originally complained to my housing association! The Secretary of State for housing needs to do their job and actually regulate this organisation!!

So disappointed, i went to Housing Ombudsman because I had no one to help with a repairs hoping to get rehouse because of it. In 2019 the property where I live with my 2 children. Keep has been having on and off leaking in my kitchen ceiling and couple of months ago I started having leaks in my hallway and rusty water come from a pipe, though they have fixed the leaks in the kitchen it's keeps coming back. And cause me and my children to have chest infections, I also am suffering from Mental health. I was offer compensation, but not what I was hoping for as my home is making me and my children ill all the time and I don't think it's healthy for us to live here. I also hoping the Housing ombudsman will help us get out of here and the compensation was a lot higher, i know things are difficult at moment with Housing and money, but I see on Google about the Housing ombudsman has given a family a large amount of compensation, and what i was offer was a lot less. Me personally think since the Labour Party been in power, us British people have been push a side. I know what I was offer was better then nothing and we got roof over our heads, but we can't live like this anymore. God for bid, but I feel our health gonna get a whole lot worse. 😭😭😭🙏🙏🙏🙏 if our health does get worse. I will never forgive the Housing Ombudsman for this. I really don't understand how the man i chatted to call me when I was suffering from a chest infection. It's no wonder the reviews on here are 1 star. No has so far called me and told me when these repairs are going to be done. 😭😭

Housing Ombudsman
“A dismal service; slow (over 2.5yrs) inaccurate, and in my honoured opinion, detached from the reality of my case. Personal loss was reduced to paperwork, facts were misrepresented, and the final report read more like a defence of the landlord than an independent investigation. I went through a exhausting, fruitless process that left me feeling profoundly let down. I consider myself a forensic honest individual, who would not gain anything through fabrication, but was our plight really understood, even inclusive of their investigative parameters? For me, its a lingering sceptisism that will never be abated.
Phone the refuse dept to help you — at least they have an excuse for their rubbish service.”

What is the point of the ombudsman service. Thay are only looking after the landlord not the tenant. It's time now to take a stand and fight for our rights. Ombudsman you are useless.
Boycot them dont use them it's a free service yes thay make money out of the landlord. Funny how the ombudsman services have not committed once on here. It all fake.

A 0 was not there but this Housing ombudsman team should not exist it's corrupted organisation who close a blind eye to all the pictures & videos i sent them . Totally rubbish & failed my case twice with full evidence sent to them its a corrupted organisation 100%

Initially the housing ombudsman were superb in dealing with my complaint although I waited well over a year for them to make a start!

However when I contacted my case worker back to ask some very important questions he never replied! I was told of I still continue to get problems with my hoysi g association to contact housing omb again however I did and was met with a rude unhelpful lady on the phone who saud she would get them to call me and no one did. I then asked to make a formal complaint abd was refused the right to make this complaint!

Incidentally I had made a second complaint to my housing association on the grounds if discrimination which was ignored so on the time frame provided I sent it onto the ombudsman and had an initial email with someone introducing themselves as my case worker only I never heard from them ever again!
I have today made another complaint to my housing association about discrimination and don't expect I will hear back. We are supposed to rely on the housing ombudsman for impartial and fairness but yet can't even rely on them to help at all anymore!? So where on earth am I supposed to go now?
I am literally being messed about still by my housing assoc, repair works are still not done and they are still lying and the housing ombudsman won't even follow it up. I am disabled with severe mental illness and this is making me more ill.

I really don't know why the ombudsman exists. I have been waiting 3 years for them to "allocate a caseworker to investigate" my complaint.
There is no sense of urgency in anything they do. No understanding of how poor housing affects people.
WHAT ARE THEY BEING PAID TO DO?
It seems that they are working with social landlords to obfuscate and undermine tenants rights. They know that most people can't afford to take our landlords to sort so we are left to suffer in sub-standard housing.

For three months they have been doing nothing but rejecting my complaint for some nonsense reason. And every time this complaint goes back to them.

At that pace, maybe they will finally read the complaint in full in 2030.

In September 2024, I contacted the Housing Ombudsman to help resolve a long-standing issue with caretaking in the council estate where I live. Unfortunately, it took around seven months before I was finally connected with an adviser. During that time, I had to repeat the same information multiple times, which gave the impression that my previous emails had not been read. The responses I received from Housing Ombudsman staff felt generic and impersonal.
When I was eventually put in contact with the Dispute Resolution Adviser, I initially felt optimistic. He responded promptly to my emails, took initial steps to address the issue, and gave me the impression that it would be resolved by April 2025. I even provided positive feedback regarding his performance at the time.
However, the issue was never actually resolved. When I followed up with the adviser a few weeks later to raise this, his attitude had changed significantly. He was unresponsive and seemed to have forgotten about the matter altogether. He informed me that I was once again on a waiting list and that it could take another 6 to 12 months for someone to look into my case.
I find it difficult to understand why residents are directed to the Housing Ombudsman to resolve unresolved issues with the council, as in my experience, the process has been ineffective and frustrating.

I have waited over 1 year regarding complaint against Lincoln City Council leaving a disabled lady for 5 months without any heating or hot water and as usual the housing ombudsman has sided with the Council, they are an absolute disgrace .

My time working at the Housing Ombudsman was unexpectedly cut short under distressing and unprofessional circumstances, leaving me feeling unsupported, misrepresented, and dismissed.

I joined as an Administrator – Dispute Support and Resolution in February 2025 via the London recruitment agency, on a 6-month contract. A key condition of my accepting the role was the ability to work remotely from abroad—this was clearly communicated in writing and confirmed as agreed prior to my start date. I also reiterated this directly to the interim manager, who raised no objections.

Despite this, when I attempted to log in from abroad in April, I found my access suddenly revoked with no prior notice. I was told by IT that special approval was required—something neither the agency nor management had ever informed me about. I immediately reached out for clarity, but received no real support or explanation.

Worse still, I learned days later that my line manager, AB, had told the wider team I had “left the organisation”—a false and damaging statement. At that time, my situation was still supposedly “under review,” and no one had spoken to me directly. I was also wrongly accused of taking equipment without informing management, despite having discussed my travel plans with the other manager.

Throughout, there was a total lack of transparency, communication, and due process. I was never given a fair opportunity to resolve the issue or explain my side. As a public body tasked with resolving disputes, the Housing Ombudsman failed to uphold even basic fairness and respect toward a contractor.

This experience has seriously affected my mental health and employability. I expected more from an organisation that claims to value integrity, inclusion, and accountability. Sadly, their internal culture told a very different story.

Utterly worthless. Completely misunderstood my complaint, ignored my repeated clarification, and closed the case. All while beinng galcially slow and dumb as a post. They simply don't care. They're box-ticking morons.

Absolutely useless. Second time we yave hated to approach the service. Lots of work done only to be abandoned half way though the case.

I have made a couple of complaints to them over the years about my housing association and took a lot of time completing forms and attaching evidence and I have never once received a response from them and as far as I can tell they never investigated my case and so my HA is just left unscathed to get away with treating tenants poorly and avoiding repairs. What’s the point of them if they don’t do their jobs

It took the HO two years to give a response to my complaint against my landlord. Even then the Adjudicator's report was full of errors, yet they've refused a right to review, even though they admit they're errors - which they've passed off as 'simple typos' (which they're not) and despite the fact that there are multiple issues. They've not even followed their own procedures. Beginning to think someone in the HO is protecting my landlord, not least as this is the second time they've mishandled a complaint I've taken to them (they 'lost' my previous case files when they moved offices). It has had real consequences for me as it's prevented me from getting a no win, no fee lawyer to take my case despite ten years of lies and failure to deal with repeated mould issues on the part of my landlord. I think the only way the HO will improve is if people go to the press about them. I can't think of any other organisation on this site that has 94% of reviews that are negative.

I raised a complaint about Southwark Council which was then referred to the Housing Ombudsman, and it’s now been more than 1.5 years — yet I’m still waiting for a resolution.

The only update I’ve received is a standardised response stating:

> “Your case is awaiting allocation to an adjudicator. We hope to investigate your complaint soon, but as the length of time each investigation will take is hard to predict, it is hard to give a more accurate timeframe at this point.”

It’s extremely difficult to believe that 99% of cases are resolved within 12 months, as they claim. This clearly doesn’t reflect the reality many complainants are facing.

There has been no progress, no clear timeline, and absolutely no sense of urgency. After such a long delay, it’s hard not to feel that the complaints process is failing those it’s meant to protect.

The Housing Ombudsman & The Whitehall Civil Service Model – How Public Bodies Systematically Undermine the Public

The Housing Ombudsman is marketed as an independent service to resolve disputes between social housing tenants and landlords. In reality, it is embedded within a wider bureaucratic culture known as the Whitehall Civil Service Model — a system deliberately structured to protect institutions, not the public.

What is the Whitehall Civil Service Model?

This model is the foundation of how the British state operates. It prioritises:

✔️ Protecting the institution's reputation
✔️ Deflecting accountability through complex procedures
✔️ Using opaque complaint processes to wear people down
✔️ Minimising legal risk, not addressing public harm

It isn't just Whitehall departments that operate this way. This model has been replicated across the public sector — local councils, the NHS, housing associations, regulators, and yes, the Housing Ombudsman all follow the same blueprint.

The Illusion of Accountability

Bodies like the Housing Ombudsman, NHS complaints services, and council complaints teams all present themselves as fair, impartial, and there to help. But in practice, the system works like this:

You raise a complaint.

You're directed through endless 'stages' and policies.

The process becomes the focus, not the problem.

Decisions hide behind vague language and bureaucratic "frameworks".

Evidence gets cherry-picked, omitted, or distorted.

By the end, the institution is 'cleared', and your grievance is buried.

A System Designed to Exhaust

This is not incompetence — it's calculated design. The Whitehall model encourages public bodies to weaponise procedures to:

➡️ Delay justice
➡️ Break down public trust
➡️ Avoid legal consequences
➡️ Shift blame onto individuals
➡️ Silence vulnerable people

It's Happening Everywhere

The scandals follow the same pattern — from the Post Office Horizon cover-up to Grenfell, NHS failings, council social care disasters, and widespread housing complaints. The underlying system is the same:

🔒 Institutions protect themselves first.
🔄 Complaint processes are manipulated to limit exposure.
🚪 Whistleblowers and victims are obstructed, isolated, or ignored.

Time for Transparency, Not Excuses

Until the Whitehall Civil Service Model is dismantled across the public sector, services like the Housing Ombudsman will continue to act as little more than damage control operations for the powerful — not genuine advocates for the public.

I can't see the point of the ombudsman. They have had my complaint for 2 1/2 years and still haven't started to investigate it. I contact them every 6 months or so to check on any progress. Still nothing.
No wonder housing associations flout the law, they know there is no one to hold them accountable.
The ombudsmanservice is not fit for purpose. Get rid of it and start from scratch. Social housing tenants should be on the management team so that they can provide another perspective on housing problems. It's clear that the ombudsman service has no understanding of the distress and upset caused by substandard housing.