Housing Ombudsman announces new special investigations process

The Housing Ombudsman has unveiled a new process for its special investigations in a move designed to “help landlords detect and fix problems early”.

The new process announced today aims to allow landlords to resolve issues earlier without the need for a full investigation.

Under the new process, instead of moving to full investigation when the ombudsman sees issues in its casework, there are two new stages which the ombudsman will go through first.

‘Tier 1’ will see the ombudsman ask landlords to provide a response plan of how they are resolving the issues. If there is still a lack of improvement the ombudsman will move to ‘tier 2’ under which the ombudsman asks for updates to the response plan and monitors progress, referring the landlord to the Regulator of Social Housing if necessary.

If there are still serious concerns, the ombudsman moves to ‘tier 3’ which triggers a full investigation.

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Richard Blakeway, housing ombudsman, said: “This new approach to special investigations enables us to engage landlords earlier, sharing our insights and encouraging the landlord to identify how it can prevent service failings reoccurring.

“This proactive approach to learning from complaints should deliver better outcomes for residents and landlords, improving services, strengthening trust and preventing complaints. This is integral to embedding a positive complaints culture across the sector.”