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Localism Act - Complaints

The Localism Bill received Royal Assent on 15th November and here we take a look at the Localism Act's effect on tenants' rights to make a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman, and the changes to the procedures involved.

The key elements relating to complaints are contained in Chapter 6 of Part 7 of the Act.

The key changes brought about by the Act are:

  • The relevant ombudsman for local authority tenants will become the Housing Ombudsman Service, this brings local authority tenants in line with other social housing tenants.
  • Complaints will not normally be made direct by the tenant to the Ombudsman (but see comments below), they will be expected to be made through a 'designated person', defined as an MP, a local housing authority member or through a designated tenant panel.
  • There is provision for the Secretary of State to allow the Ombudsman to apply to a court (subject to consultation) to ensure enforcement of the determination following investigation of a complaint.

The original Bill has been amended so that in the Localism Act tenants are able to refer a complaint direct to the Ombudsman in order to retain privacy and to avoid having to discuss issues with intermediaries.  If tenants want to complain direct to the Ombudsman they will generally have to allow a period of eight weeks from the date of the landlord's determination under its in-house complaints procedure before making the referral and so using an MP, local councillor or tenant panel will be seen as a fast track route.  It will be possible for tenants to complain direct to the Ombudsman, without waiting eight weeks, if the designated person refuses to investigate the complaint or refer it to the Ombudsman, or if the designated person agrees to the tenant going direct to the Ombudsman.

These new arrangements come into force from 1st April 2013.  Whilst this may seem some way off many landlords will need to establish their designated tenant panels and provide suitable training to enable them to handle complaints referred to them and handle complainants appropriately. 

Further information can be found on the Housing Ombudsman Service website at www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk.

Making a complaint

What we can do for you

We are able to develop compliant complaints handling policies and procedures to meet the needs of the new legislation.

We can also work with you on your in-house complaints procedures to ensure that the need for tenants to go to the Ombudsman are reduced and to ensure that lessons learnt from complaints are integrated into your working practices.  We can work with your staff helping them to have the skills and approach that will identify potential complaints and handle them appropriately.

Additionally, we can help your designated tenant panel to develop the skills and procedures needed to ensure a consistent and appropriate approach to complaints referred to them.


Looking at the details

The Localism Act introduces the concept of a 'designated person' who may receive complaints from a tenant and refer them to the Ombudsman.  The designated person is defined as a Member of the House of Commons, a member of the local housing authority for the district in which the property is located or a designated tenant panel.  It should be noted that whilst the local member of the housing authority (usually a local councillor) must be from the district in which the property is located, the MP who may refer the case is not required to be local.

The designated tenant panel is defined as 'a group of tenants which is recognised by a social landlord for the purpose of referring complaints against the social landlord'.  It should be noted that the Act says that this must be a panel of tenants; interestingly, it does not say that the panel must comprise tenants of the landlord; however, it is anticipated that this will usually be the case but it does open up the opportunity for the creation of panels that may comprise tenants from more than one landlord thereby offering an element of comparison between landlords.

The Act does not require the designated person to investigate the complaint and it will be perfectly acceptable for them to simply forward the complaint on to the Ombudsman, having received consent to do so from the tenant.  Similarly, there is no formal timescale in which the designated person must deal with the matter, but presumably if they take longer than eight weeks the complainant will be entitled to refer the matter direct to the Ombudsman.  It is unclear what happens if the designated person is dealing with the matter, but has not concluded matters within eight weeks - presumably the tenant has the option to allow time for the completion of enquiries or go to the Ombudsman at this stage.

The designated person will usually investigate the complaint and either resolve it with the landlord and tenant or they may refer it to the Ombudsman, following their investigation.  The designated person must obtain the tenant's written consent (or that of their representative) before the referring the matter to the Ombudsman.

Finally, the Act requires the Ombudsman to reply to the designated person rather than the tenant (assuming that the tenant hasn't used the facilities to complain directly to the Ombudsman).

If you would like to discuss how we can help you handling complaints or implementing changes brought about by the new legislation please give Peter Bird a call (contact details are given in the right hand column),.

A member of the
 Consultants for Housing
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