Social landlords are resolving more complaints before they escalate, according to the Housing Ombudsman’s Annual Complaints Review for 2025-26.
The report found the ombudsman made 8,783 determinations this year, with 62% of complaints upheld – down from 71% the previous year. Findings of no maladministration rose to 17% (from 13%), while reasonable redress findings rose to 20% (from 13%).
Severe maladministration findings fell to 470, or 2% of findings, down from 714 (5%) last year. Compensation orders totalled £4.8m, with the average payout per upheld case falling to £703 from £947. Compliance with orders stood at 99%.
Part of the fall in the uphold rate reflects a change in methodology: the ombudsman now assesses how a landlord handled the formal complaint in every case it fully investigates, rather than only when a resident raised the point. Even stripping out this change, the report said the uphold rate would still have fallen, from 68% to 65%.
Responsive repairs remained the biggest driver of complaints, featuring in 80% of cases and recording the highest severe maladministration rate of any category, at 5%. Condensation, damp and mould accounted for 34% of repairs complaints and leaks 23%, with both categories upheld in more than 75% of cases. Windows, a new category introduced this year, had the highest uphold rate among repairs complaints at 80% and a severe maladministration rate of 10%. More than 65% of compensation ordered related to responsive repairs.
The review also found differences between landlord types and regions. Local authorities had a higher uphold rate than housing associations (72% versus 59%), which the ombudsman said was largely because housing associations resolve more issues through redress before a case reaches it (31% versus 12%).
London recorded more than twice as many complaints per 1,000 homes as elsewhere, which the report linked to challenges including overcrowding and ageing homes. Variation within landlord groups was often greater than variation between them, suggesting a landlord’s own practices matter more than its type, size or location.
The ombudsman is encouraging landlords to use their individual performance reports to benchmark against similar organisations, and pointed to its Centre for Learning, which offers free eLearning, workshops and case studies.
Andrea Keenoy, interim Housing Ombudsman, said: “This year’s review shows landlords continue to learn and improve by using their complaints as early warning indicators of something going wrong. More residents are coming to us with confidence that we’ll investigate fairly, and more landlords are resolving issues before they reach us. That’s real progress.
“But there is still work for landlords to do. Behind every severe maladministration finding is a household affected by serious failure. We will work with the sector to keep driving these down. We encourage landlords to use our Centre for Learning resources to take lessons from our casework. This can improve services for landlords and prevent complaints from coming to us.”
Image credit: Bacho/Shutterstock
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