What does "maladministration" mean at the Housing Ombudsman: and what can it order?

If you are thinking about complaining to the Housing Ombudsman, or if the Ombudsman is already investigating your case, you will come across the term "maladministration". Here is what it means, what the Ombudsman can order when it finds it, and how the outcome compares to a disrepair claim.

The short answer

Maladministration is the Ombudsman's finding when a landlord has handled your complaint, repair, or housing matter poorly. A finding of maladministration can result in an order to pay you compensation, carry out repairs, or change their procedures. The compensation amounts are typically lower than what a court claim can achieve for serious disrepair, but the route is free and accessible without a solicitor.

What counts as maladministration?

The Housing Ombudsman defines maladministration to include:

• Failure to follow the landlord's own policies and procedures. If your landlord has a repair policy that says urgent repairs will be attended to within 24 hours and they took three weeks, that is a breach of their own procedure and can constitute maladministration.
• Unreasonable delays. A repair that was reported, acknowledged, and then left without any action for months is a classic maladministration finding.
• Failure to communicate. Not updating a tenant, not acknowledging complaints, not explaining decisions.
• Failure to learn from complaints. Repeatedly making the same mistake is taken seriously by the Ombudsman.
• Ineffective remedies. Offering a derisory amount of compensation or carrying out a repair that does not address the root cause.

The Ombudsman can also find "no maladministration" (the landlord handled things reasonably), "service failure" (a lower-level finding), or "severe maladministration" for the worst cases.

What the Ombudsman can order

When the Ombudsman finds maladministration, it can order the landlord to:

• Pay you compensation. Amounts range from a few hundred pounds for inconvenience and distress to several thousand for prolonged serious failures. For severe maladministration, the Ombudsman has ordered payments of £10,000 or more in exceptional cases.
• Carry out specific repairs. The Ombudsman can require your landlord to carry out the outstanding repair within a set timeframe.
• Review their procedures. The Ombudsman can require the landlord to examine and report on how they will prevent the same failure happening again.
• Apologise to you. This is more significant than it sounds, a formal finding of maladministration with a required apology on the record affects the landlord's regulatory standing.

The Ombudsman cannot award compensation for personal injury (health harm caused by the disrepair). For that, you need a court claim.

Compensation amounts in context

In 2024–2025, the Housing Ombudsman's largest individual awards reached £10,000–£12,000 in cases of severe and prolonged failure. More typical awards for serious disrepair cases run between £500 and £3,000.

By contrast, a disrepair claim through the courts can result in larger compensation, particularly where there is a personal injury element (health harm), a long period of disrepair, or significant loss of use of part of the home. A rent reduction of 30–50% for 12 months on a £700/month tenancy produces £2,520–£4,200 in general damages alone, before any personal injury element.

The two routes are not mutually exclusive. You can have an Ombudsman complaint running at the same time as a disrepair claim, provided they relate to different aspects of the matter (or you complete the Ombudsman process before litigating on the same issue).

Severe maladministration

In 2024, the Housing Ombudsman published a new category: severe maladministration, reserved for the worst cases. Findings of severe maladministration are published on the Ombudsman's website with the landlord named, and the Ombudsman requires a formal landlord response. They also inform the Regulator of Social Housing, which can affect a registered provider's regulatory grade.

For tenants, a published finding of severe maladministration can be useful evidence if you later pursue a court claim. It is a public record that your landlord was found to have seriously failed you.

The 8-week rule and when to complain

You can only complain to the Housing Ombudsman after:

• You have received a final response from the landlord's internal complaints process (Stage 2), or
• 8 weeks have passed since you raised a formal complaint without receiving a final response

Once either of these conditions is met, you can refer your case to the Ombudsman. There is no cost to you.

When should I contact Support for Tenants?

If your landlord's failures have gone beyond the Ombudsman process, or if you want compensation that reflects the full legal value of the disrepair, 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)

Related articles

• How to complain to the Housing Ombudsman step by step
• Should I use a solicitor or an ombudsman?
• Stage 1 vs Stage 2 complaints, what is the difference?
• How courts calculate disrepair compensation