Click here to access the tenant handbook

The City Council aims to provide good-quality, cost effective services, but recognises that, at times, things can go wrong. If they do, we need to know so we can put them right and learn from them.

To raise a complaint with us click here to take you to the complaints page.

The Housing Ombudsman Service deals with disputes between landlords and tenants in England. The service was established under the Housing Act 1996 with jurisdiction over more than 2,000 landlords. Under the Housing Act 1996, all housing associations (RSL’s) must belong to the service by law. This includes any landlord who has taken over the management of council housing, such as whg and WATMOS.

The Housing Ombudsman Service aim’s to provide a fair and effective way of dealing with complaints against member landlords from their tenants. The service, will try to remedy the situation by either asking the landlord to change their way of working or offering financial redress.

Visit the Housing Ombudsman website www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk  for more information.

Compliance with the Complaint Handling Code forms part of the statutory membership obligations set out in the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. Landlords must comply with the requirements of the Code.  There will be a legal duty placed on the ombudsman to monitor compliance with the code, regardless of whether it receives individual complaints from residents about a landlord. For the first time, this means landlords will need to submit their self-assessment annually to the ombudsman at the same time as their Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs).  We will need to submit this by the 30 June 2024. Compliance in policy with the Complaint Handling Code is required by 1 April 2024, and publish this on our website

Winchester City Council Housing Ombudsman self assessment can be downloaded on complaints web page.