The Housing Ombudsman found landlords had failed residents in 12,485 cases in 2025-26, with repairs accounting for three-quarters of the most serious cases.
More than 12,000 complaints about social housing were upheld by the Housing Ombudsman last year, with delays and failures in repairs among the most serious problems identified.
The Ombudsman found landlords had failed residents in 12,485 cases in 2025-26, an increase of 22% on the previous year.
In total, 62% of complaints investigated resulted in a finding in favour of the resident, compared with 71% in 2024-25.
The fall was partly due to a change in how complaints are investigated. Since October 2025, the Ombudsman has assessed landlords’ handling of complaints in every case it investigates, even when the original issue raised by the resident was something else.
Excluding those additional findings, the proportion of complaints upheld was 65%, compared with 68% the previous year.
The most common failings included landlords not following their own policies, delays in taking action and breaches of the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.
Repairs account for most serious cases
The Ombudsman recorded 470 cases of severe maladministration, its most serious finding, accounting for 2% of all findings. This was down from 5% in 2024-25.
Of those cases, 355 involved repairs. Problems included poor communication, inadequate record-keeping and delays in assessing risks. Some landlords also failed to take residents’ individual circumstances into account or consider temporary solutions while major work was carried out.
Compensation was ordered in 99% of severe maladministration cases.
Differences between landlords
Complaints about local authorities were upheld in 72% of cases, compared with 59% for housing associations.
However, housing associations were more than twice as likely to have offered residents reasonable redress before a case reached the Ombudsman.
The review found little difference in performance between landlords with more than 1,000 homes, although there was significant variation between providers of similar sizes.
London recorded twice as many complaints per 1,000 homes as areas outside the capital.
The Ombudsman said older housing and overcrowding were likely to be contributing factors.
A total of 33,189 remedies were made during the year, including repairs, compensation and changes to landlords’ practices.
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