The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman: when to use them for housing complaints

Most housing complaints about repairs or the way your home is run go to the Housing Ombudsman. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) is a different body. It deals with a different set of complaints. These are mostly about how councils make choices on housing allocation, homelessness claims, and planning. Here is the difference. And here is when the LGSCO is the right path.

The short answer

Is your complaint about a repair, or about how a housing association or council landlord runs your home? Then use the Housing Ombudsman. Is your complaint about a council housing-allocation choice, a homelessness choice, or a planning matter? Then use the LGSCO.

What each Ombudsman does

The Housing Ombudsman Service deals with complaints about:

• Repairs and upkeep that have gone wrong (damp, mould, broken heating, structural disrepair)
• The way your home is run (neighbour rows the landlord has not sorted out, service charges, how they deal with anti-social behaviour)
• Times when a landlord handled things badly, even if the first problem was fair enough

The Housing Ombudsman covers housing associations and councils that act as landlords. Since 2023 its powers over council housing were widened and made clearer.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman deals with complaints about:

• Council housing allocation choices (the housing register, how points or banding were used)
• Homelessness choices (such as whether you were found intentionally homeless, or wrongly found not to be in priority need)
• Planning choices
• Adult social care (this is separate from housing but often matters to the same household)
• Council tax choices

The LGSCO does not deal with complaints about repairs. It also cannot overturn a homelessness choice. Only a court or the council on review can do that. But it can look at whether the council followed its own rules properly. And it can award compensation where a council's poor handling caused you harm.

When a council homelessness decision goes wrong

You may have asked the council for help as homeless, and you think the choice was wrong. For example, the council said you were not in priority need when you think you are. Or it said you made yourself homeless on purpose when you did not. There are two paths:

Statutory review (Housing Act 1996, s.202): You can ask the council to look at the choice again within 21 days. If the review keeps the first choice, you can appeal to the county court within 21 days of the review choice. This is the main legal path.

LGSCO complaint: This is not a swap for a statutory review, but it can run next to it. The LGSCO looks at whether the council followed the right steps, and whether poor handling caused you distress. Maybe the council took weeks to decide and gave no reason. Maybe it lost your paperwork. Maybe it ignored medical evidence you gave it. These are the kinds of failings the LGSCO looks at.

Compensation from the LGSCO

The LGSCO can suggest that a council pays you compensation. This is for the distress and trouble caused by poor handling. The amounts are usually small, hundreds rather than thousands of pounds. But the process to look into it is free, and you do not need a solicitor.

The LGSCO cannot award the kind of compensation that a disrepair claim can reach. And it cannot force a landlord to do repairs. For repairs, the right path is still the Housing Ombudsman or a disrepair claim.

How to complain to the LGSCO

First you must complain to the council and go all the way through their own complaints process. The LGSCO will not take your complaint before you have done this. Once you have a final reply from the council's complaints team (or 12 weeks have passed with no final reply), you can take the matter to the LGSCO.

You make complaints online at the LGSCO's website. There is no fee. The LGSCO aims to give a decision within a year, though hard cases take longer.

When both Ombudsmen are relevant

Some cases bring in both bodies. For example: a council failed to do repairs (Housing Ombudsman) and also failed to deal with your housing transfer request properly (LGSCO). You can have complaints open with both bodies at the same time. Each complaint just needs to fit that body's own powers.

What about housing associations?

Housing associations are not public bodies. They sit fully within the Housing Ombudsman's powers. The LGSCO does not look into housing associations.

When should I contact Support for Tenants?

Is the state of your home your main worry, rather than an allocation or homelessness choice? Call us on 0800 030 4669. We check whether you may have a disrepair claim and refer suitable matters to an SRA-regulated panel solicitor.

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 Act 1996 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, Section 11 (legislation.gov.uk)

Related articles

• How to complain to the Housing Ombudsman step by step
• The council says they can't rehouse me without a court order
• Challenging a Section 184 homeless decision