Awaab’s Law and the Rising Tide of Ombudsman Complaints: Are Providers Ready?

In recent years, social housing has seen an alarming increase in the number of complaints, mainly around repairs and maintenance.

This worrying trend was highlighted in a recent Housing Ombudsman’s Spotlight report called ‘Repairing Trust’, which revealed there had been a 474% surge in complaints about substandard living conditions between 2019–20 and 2024–25. 

Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman for England, said that “repairs were the biggest driver of complaints”, accounting for 45% of his office’s workload.

Despite social landlords spending a record £9bn on repairs and maintenance in 2023/24, the Ombudsman ordered £3.4m in compensation for poor living conditions in 2024/25.

With Awaab’s Law coming into effect from October 2025, social housing providers must be ready to deal with these complaints. By law, landlords will have to adhere to strict time limits to address hazardous repairs. Initially, this will focus on damp and mould issues, but will later extend to other serious risks.

From October, social landlords in England will have 24 hours to make emergency repairs, but will have until 2027 to begin fixing other hazards immediately, such as asbestos, electrical risks and contaminated water supplies.

This phased rollout does not relieve landlords of existing obligations, which means they must continue to repair and maintain homes safely and meet their duties.

In the Housing Ombudsman’s Spotlight report, there was a focus on the need for a shift in mindset and practices. It recognised the importance of “treating a house as a home” and ensuring policies are aligned with tenants’ needs. It states that “trust is the critical missing element that impacts relationships between landlords, residents and contractors”.

Some of its key proposals for both service and system change include:   

• Trust  
• Communication and complaint handling 
• Relationship management 
• Empowerment and engagement 
• Contractor relationships 
• Power imbalance  
• Values 
• Costs and skills shortages 

Source: Housing Ombudsman

You can read the full Repairing Trust report here.

Steps to ensure social housing providers are ready

In reaction to the Housing Ombudsman’s warnings of “simmering anger at poor housing conditions”, social housing providers must ensure they are doing everything in their power to tackle repairs and maintenance complaints. 

Here, we’ve listed some possible solutions that need to be urgently implemented.

1. Audit and strengthen repairs workflows: This means damp, mould and other emergencies can be identified and addressed within the new legal timeframes.
2. Enhance complaint-handling systems: Allows organisations to resolve issues swiftly, avoiding escalation to the Ombudsman where possible.
3. Foster better communication and transparency with tenants: Creates improved relations between social housing providers and residents, making tenants feel valued and respected. 
4. Invest proactively in preventive and predictive maintenance: Avoids reacting only when failures occur, which is often too late. Enhances service quality.
5. Upgrade governance and oversight: Helps to align internal policies with phased Awaab’s Law obligations and ensures consistent application.
6. Introduce code of conduct guidance: Sets clear expectations for tenants, contractors and in-house staff about behaviours and processes. Builds trust and accountability.
7. Engage with government consultations and draft guidance: Gives social housing providers a platform to shape regulations that are workable for tenants and providers alike.

How can ROCC help?

At ROCC, we offer digital solutions for social housing providers wishing to streamline their repairs and maintenance service. It’s our mission to improve responsiveness and reduce tenant complaints at your organisation.

To ensure you don’t add to the statistics shared in the Housing Ombudsman’s latest report, we offer a multi-functional social housing repairs and maintenance software suite that gives you everything you need to revolutionise your repairs service.

This way, you’ll be ready for the phased rollout of Awaab’s Law and any other future changes in law. By deploying our software, you can:

• Track and prioritise repairs in real time: Ensuring urgent and damp‑related tasks are handled within legal thresholds.
• Integrate with complaint systems: Allowing seamless escalation and transparent resolution paths.
• Monitor performance metrics: Enabling managers to spot recurring issues, bottlenecks or areas where practices fall short of compliance.
• Simplify data collection and reporting: Supporting oversight, regulatory accountability and continuous improvement.

With Awaab’s Law raising the stakes and Ombudsman scrutiny at an all-time high, we will do everything we can to reduce the risk of complaints at your organisation.

Get in touch with our customer support team today to create a tenant‑focused service that restores trust with your tenants.