Housing Ombudsman: what compensation can you get?

When the Housing Ombudsman upholds a complaint, it can tell your landlord to pay you compensation. Below, we explain what the Ombudsman awards. We show how the amounts are worked out. We also explain the difference between an Ombudsman award and a housing disrepair claim.

Can the Housing Ombudsman award compensation?

Yes. The Ombudsman can find maladministration. This means your landlord got something wrong in how they handled your complaint or the repair. When this happens, the Ombudsman can tell your landlord to pay you money to put things right. This is called a financial remedy. It is not compensation in the legal sense, but it does a similar job.

What does the Ombudsman look at when deciding on a financial remedy?

The Ombudsman thinks about:

• How serious the maladministration was, and how long it went on
• The effect on you, such as the upset, stress, harm to your health, and your quality of life
• Whether the landlord left you out of pocket. For example, higher heating bills from poor insulation, or the cost of replacing things ruined by a leak
• Any delays in sorting out the complaint
• Whether the landlord made things worse by not replying well enough

How much does the Ombudsman typically award?

Financial remedy amounts vary a lot. It depends on what happened. They have usually gone from a few hundred pounds for minor maladministration to several thousand pounds for serious failures that went on a long time.

Some cases are very serious. A tenant may have lived with bad disrepair, such as a lot of mould across many rooms over a long time, which harmed their health. In cases like these, the Ombudsman has told landlords to pay several thousand pounds.

The Ombudsman can also order non-financial remedies. For example, it can tell the landlord to do a repair, say sorry, review how it works, or change how it handles complaints.

Is an Ombudsman award the same as a legal disrepair claim?

No. An Ombudsman remedy is a service complaint remedy. It deals with a failure in the landlord's service. A housing disrepair claim through the courts is a legal claim. It is about the landlord breaking its repair duties, both the ones in law and the ones in your agreement.

Here are the main differences:

• Legal claims can lead to higher compensation. This is true for personal injury, such as health effects from damp or cold. It is also true for special damages, such as money losses like ruined belongings or higher costs. The courts use rules on damages built up over many years.
• Ombudsman remedies deal with maladministration and service failure, not a legal breach. They tend to be lower.
• You can use both routes. You can bring a legal disrepair claim even after you have used the Ombudsman. Using the Ombudsman does not stop you going to court.

Can you ask for more?

You cannot haggle over the Ombudsman's award. It is an independent decision. But if you think the maladministration caused you certain money losses, you should explain this clearly in your complaint. The more detail you give, the better the Ombudsman can judge the effect on you.

For bigger losses, a legal housing disrepair claim will usually give you a higher result than an Ombudsman remedy.

When should I contact Support for Tenants?

Your landlord may have failed to do repairs. This may have harmed your health or cost you money. If so, we can tell you whether a housing disrepair claim would give you a better result than the Ombudsman route.

Call us on 0800 030 4669. No upfront cost. You only pay if you win, and the fee comes out of the compensation, not your pocket. If you don't win, you pay nothing.

Sources

• Housing Ombudsman Service
• Housing Act 1996 (legislation.gov.uk)