Scope: England. The PRS Landlord Ombudsman is established by the Renters' Rights Act 2025; government expects mandatory membership from 2028. Wales runs its own arrangements through Rent Smart Wales. Verified against the Act and the implementation roadmap on 10 August 2026.
A complaints process sounds like customer service. It is closer to evidence management, because the thing that decides a complaint later is almost never the repair itself — it is what you can show about how you responded.
What is coming
The Renters' Rights Act creates a PRS Landlord Ombudsman, and membership will be mandatory for private landlords in England. Government has said it expects that from 2028, once it is confident the scheme can handle the volume. The ombudsman will be able to require a landlord to apologise, to take action, and to pay compensation.
It is not live yet. What matters now is that the habits you build before it arrives are the ones you will be judged on afterwards.
The process, in four steps
- Acknowledge, in writing, quickly. Same day if you can. Most complaints escalate because of silence rather than disagreement.
- Record what was complained about and when. This is the date your section 11 duty is triggered from, so it has legal weight independent of the complaint.
- Say what you will do and by when — and then say so again if the date moves. A missed date you flagged is a delay; a missed date you did not is a broken promise.
- Close it in writing. What was done, when, and by whom.
What an ombudsman looks for
Redress schemes in adjacent sectors are consistent about this, and there is no reason to expect a different emphasis here:
- Was there a route to complain that the tenant could actually find?
- Was it acknowledged, and how fast?
- Was the response proportionate to the seriousness?
- Was the tenant kept informed while it was open?
- Is there a record, or only recollection?
Notice that four of the five are about process, not outcome. A landlord who took three weeks over a repair and communicated throughout is in a far better position than one who fixed it in three days and said nothing.
The complaints that are not really complaints
Some carry their own statutory clock and must not be handled as ordinary correspondence:
- Damp, mould and prescribed hazards — fixed timescales under Awaab's Law.
- No heating or hot water — see boiler breakdown.
- Anything raising a gas or electrical safety concern — act first, correspond second.
Keep the record with the property
Complaints, dates, responses and outcomes belong in the property file alongside the certificates, not in a mailbox. If a complaint becomes a claim, or the property is later sold with the tenant in place, that file is what the next person inherits.
Run the free compliance check to see what else is due.
Common questions
When does the PRS Landlord Ombudsman become mandatory?
The Renters Rights Act 2025 establishes it, and government has said it expects mandatory membership for private landlords in England from 2028, once it is confident the scheme can handle the volume. It is not live yet, but the habits you build now are the ones you will be judged on when it is.
What will the ombudsman be able to make me do?
Require an apology, require action to put things right, and require compensation. Redress schemes in adjacent sectors weigh process heavily — whether there was a findable route to complain, how quickly it was acknowledged, whether the response was proportionate and whether the tenant was kept informed. Four of those five are about process rather than outcome.
Which complaints cannot be handled as ordinary correspondence?
Anything carrying its own statutory clock. Damp, mould and other prescribed hazards fall under Awaab Law timescales. Loss of heating or hot water engages the repairing covenant and the excess cold hazard. And any gas or electrical safety concern should be acted on first and corresponded about second.