Social housing complaints in 2026: the numbers

Landlord Record currently holds 16,224 published Housing Ombudsman determinations. Those decisions have resulted in £7,607,904 in total compensation ordered, and 2,499 include a finding of severe maladministration. These figures represent the current dataset snapshot, not a calendar-year count.

The numbers at a glance

The table below summarises the headline figures from Landlord Record's build-time query functions. Every number is drawn directly from the dataset and attributed to the original Ombudsman publications.

Top complaint issues

The Housing Ombudsman tags each determination with themes that describe the subject of the complaint. The themes below are the most common in the current dataset. They give a clear picture of what social housing residents most often escalate to the Ombudsman.

Severe maladministration

Severe maladministration is the Ombudsman's most serious finding. It reflects a prolonged failure, repeated failings, or a significant impact on the resident. The landlords below have the highest counts of severe findings in the current dataset.

For the full, live severe maladministration ranking, see the severe maladministration league table. You can also read our guide to the worst housing associations in 2026 for a wider editorial view.

Severe findings are relatively rare compared with total decisions, which is what makes them significant. When the Ombudsman applies this label, it usually signals a systemic or repeated failing rather than an isolated mistake. Residents and journalists often use severe-maladministration counts as a proxy for landlord risk, although volume should always be read alongside the size of the landlord's housing stock.

Compensation ordered

Financial compensation is one of several remedies the Ombudsman can order. The figures below describe the distribution of compensation awards across all decisions in the dataset that carry an ordered award.

The highest-compensation landlords in the dataset are shown below. These figures reflect the total compensation ordered across all published decisions for each landlord, not a single award.

For more detail on how compensation is calculated, see our compensation guide or browse the highest-compensation ranking.

Trends and context

The numbers above describe the current shape of the dataset, not a year-on-year trend. Because the Housing Ombudsman publishes determinations on a rolling basis, the dataset grows continuously. The figures you see here are the state of the index at the last build.

Several patterns are consistent with what the Ombudsman reports in its own annual reviews. Repairs and maintenance — particularly damp and mould — feature heavily in the theme counts. Financial complaints, including rent and service charge disputes, also appear regularly. These patterns reflect the issues that most often reach a formal determination after a resident has exhausted the landlord's complaints process.

The Ombudsman's caseload has grown in recent years as awareness of the service has increased and as the Complaint Handling Code has tightened the standards landlords must meet. This means more complaints are being escalated, and more determinations are being published. The growth in the dataset is therefore partly a reflection of higher visibility and access, not necessarily a proportional increase in underlying complaints.

It is important to remember that an Ombudsman determination is a late-stage record. Before a case reaches this point, a resident normally complains to the landlord, the landlord has a chance to respond, and some disputes are settled or resolved. The published decisions therefore show complaints that reached a formal outcome, not the total volume of complaints across the social housing sector.

If you are researching a specific landlord, you can search the full decision index or view the worst housing associations page for an editorial overview. Our guide to which housing association has the most complaints gives a data-led answer for the housing-association subset.

Method and data sources

Landlord Record indexes published Housing Ombudsman determinations released under the Open Government Licence v3.0. We do not collect complaints directly from residents or landlords. Instead, we structure and analyse the published decision text to extract outcomes, themes, orders, compensation and landlord performance.

The query functions used on this page run at build time and read from a PostgreSQL database that contains the structured decision data. If the database is empty or unreachable, each query falls back to safe defaults so the page still renders. You can read more about the dataset on our data methodology page.

Compensation figures on this page represent the amount the Ombudsman ordered the landlord to pay, not the amount the landlord offered before the determination. In some cases the landlord may have made a voluntary offer that the resident rejected; only the final ordered amount is counted in our statistics. This keeps the figures consistent with the Ombudsman's own remedies guidance.

Sources

• Housing Ombudsman Service — official determinations and guidance.
• Housing Ombudsman decisions — published determinations (OGL v3.0).
• Complaint Handling Code — the code that governs how landlords must handle complaints.
• legislation.gov.uk — primary legislation referenced in Ombudsman determinations.
• gov.uk — government guidance on social housing and tenant rights.