Housing Ombudsman: what compensation can you get?

When the Housing Ombudsman upholds a complaint, it can order your landlord to pay you compensation. Below, we cover what the Ombudsman awards, how the amounts are calculated, and the difference between an Ombudsman award and a housing disrepair claim.

Can the Housing Ombudsman award compensation?

Yes. When the Ombudsman finds maladministration, a failure in how your landlord handled your complaint or dealt with the repair, it can order your landlord to pay you money as a remedy. This is called a financial remedy, not compensation in the legal sense, but it serves a similar purpose.

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

The Ombudsman considers:

• The seriousness and duration of the maladministration
• The impact on you personally, inconvenience, distress, health, and quality of life
• Whether the landlord caused you additional financial costs (for example, higher heating bills due to inadequate insulation, or the cost of replacing belongings damaged by a leak)
• Any delays in resolving the complaint
• Whether the landlord made things worse by failing to respond adequately

How much does the Ombudsman typically award?

Financial remedy amounts vary widely depending on the circumstances. They have generally ranged from a few hundred pounds for minor maladministration to several thousand pounds for serious and prolonged failures.

In significant cases where a tenant has lived with serious disrepair, such as extensive mould affecting multiple rooms over an extended period, with health consequences, the Ombudsman has ordered payments running into several thousand pounds.

The Ombudsman also has the power to order non-financial remedies, such as requiring the landlord to carry out a repair, provide an apology, review its procedures, or make structural changes to 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 addresses the landlord's failure in service. A housing disrepair claim through the courts is a legal claim for breach of the landlord's statutory and contractual repair obligations.

The key differences:

• Legal claims can result in higher compensation, particularly for personal injury (health effects from damp or cold) and special damages (financial losses like damaged belongings or increased costs). The courts apply damages principles developed over decades.
• Ombudsman remedies address maladministration and service failure, not legal breach. They tend to be lower.
• The two routes are not mutually exclusive. You can bring a legal disrepair claim even after using the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman process does not bar you from court action.

Can you ask for more?

You cannot negotiate the Ombudsman's award, it is an independent adjudication. However, if you believe the maladministration caused you specific financial losses, you should set this out clearly in your complaint. The more detail you provide, the more fully the Ombudsman can assess the impact.

For larger losses, a legal housing disrepair claim will generally produce a higher financial outcome than an Ombudsman remedy.

When should I contact Support for Tenants?

If your landlord has failed to carry out repairs and you have suffered health effects or financial loss as a result, we can advise whether a housing disrepair claim would produce a better outcome 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)