Regulator of Social Housing: can tenants complain?

The Regulator of Social Housing, the RSH, oversees social housing providers in England. That means councils and housing associations. Its name comes up whenever people talk housing standards. Here is what it does. Here is whether you can complain to it yourself, and its part in the wider system.

What is the Regulator of Social Housing?

The RSH is a government body. It sets and checks the standards registered providers must meet. Those providers are housing associations, councils, and others. It works under the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023.

The RSH mainly weighs whether providers run well and hold enough money. It checks they are sound. It checks they give you good quality housing.

The consumer standards

From April 2024 the RSH took on new duties that touch you as a tenant. It now sets and checks consumer standards. Providers must meet:

• The Safety and Quality Standard: providers must keep homes safe and meet the Decent Homes Standard
• The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard: residents must be part of decisions and be able to shape services
• The Neighbourhood and Community Standard: providers must help keep neighbourhoods safe
• The Tenancy Standard: tenancies must be given out and managed fairly

The RSH can inspect landlords and act on failures. It can order changes. It can make the failures public.

Can individual tenants complain to the RSH?

The RSH handles no single tenant's complaint the way the Housing Ombudsman does. A complaint about repairs, landlord behaviour, or poor service belongs with the Housing Ombudsman. Not the Regulator.

But the RSH runs a "systemic" complaints route. It is for problems touching many tenants, not just you. Think the landlord is failing many people the same way? Report it. The RSH may then weigh whether the landlord meets the standards across the whole organisation.

It is no route to fixing your own problem. No boiler gets repaired by an RSH complaint. But a report can bring action that changes things widely.

How to report to the RSH

The RSH runs an online portal for reporting a provider. The report should give:

• The landlord's name
• The problem, and why it touches many tenants
• Any proof you hold. Say whether the landlord and the Housing Ombudsman already heard it

The landlord's complaints process need not come first. But running it helps. Keep proof of the reply, or the silence. That makes the report stronger.

What can the RSH do?

A landlord found breaking a standard faces the RSH's powers:

• A published notice naming the breach
• A forced plan to put things right, written and carried out
• An inspection of how the landlord runs
• Legal powers in serious cases. Directions and management transfers sit among them

The RSH has named several housing associations that failed the standards. The public pressure has brought fast change in some cases.

What about private landlords?

The RSH oversees registered social providers only. Private landlords sit outside it. Renting privately, your routes are:

• The county court, for disrepair claims
• The council's environmental health team
• The new Private Rented Sector database, once running

When should I contact Support for Tenants?

A social landlord sitting on serious disrepair? We check whether you may have a claim. If you do, we refer you to an SRA-regulated panel solicitor who gives legal advice and runs the case. 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

• Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 (legislation.gov.uk)

Related articles

• How to complain to the Housing Ombudsman, step by step
• Housing Ombudsman, maladministration, what it means
• What is the Decent Homes Standard?
• Stage 1 vs Stage 2 complaint, housing