Recommendation 26

The primary responsibility for resolving disputes between tenants and providers lies with the providers themselves, and yet too often their complaint handling processes are inefficient and obstructive. It is understandable if tenants sometimes conclude they have been specifically designed to prevent them from ever referring their complaint to the Housing Ombudsman. It is also quite clear that, as well as adding insult to injury, the inefficiency of some providers’ complaint handling processes is itself contributing to levels of disrepair, since repeated requests for repairs will nearly always also be complaints, and satisfactory resolution will usually involve the completion of remediation or repair work.