Landlord and Tenant: Complaints
(asked on 13th June 2023) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to review the resolution system for disputes between tenants and landlords.
Answered by
Baroness Scott of Bybrook
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Renters (Reform) Bill) will introduce a new private rented sector Ombudsman, ensuring that tenants and landlords have the same mechanisms to resolve disputes as exist in the social sector through The Housing Ombudsman.
The new Ombudsman will act as an impartial decision-maker to which complaints can be escalated by private tenants where they have been unable to resolve these with their landlord. We are exploring whether the Ombudsman also could provide a mediation service for landlords to resolve disputes with their tenants without needing to take court action.
Through the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill, the Government is taking action in the social housing sector to ensure that disputes between tenants and landlords can be resolved more effectively. This includes giving the Ombudsman the powers to issue a code of practice on complaint handling and issue orders to landlords to prevent the recurrence of issues identified through an investigation.
In October 2022, we amended legislation to allow social housing residents with unresolved complaints to access the Housing Ombudsman directly without having to contact a designated person or wait eight weeks.