Shared ownership
This key topic page shares information on how the Ombudsman can help with complaints about shared ownership. It covers common issues faced by shared owners and learning from its latest insight report and casework.
What is shared ownership?
Shared ownership is where a resident owns a part of their home and pays rent to a landlord for the remaining share, along with ground rent and service charges. Shared owners often have the option to buy more shares in their property in a process known as ‘staircasing’.
Shared owners and applicants of social housing landlords have the right to complain to the Ombudsman if they are unable to resolve a complaint with their landlord. Even if they staircase to 100% ownership of a leasehold property.
How the Ombudsman can help shared owners
The Ombudsman can investigate complaints between those who are in a landlord or tenant relationship with one of our member landlords, who manage shared ownership schemes.
We can consider complaints about housing management – for example property condition and repairs, how charges are managed, complaint handling and antisocial behaviour affecting residents in their home.
Our fact sheet on how the Ombudsman can help leaseholders and shared owners highlights issues we can consider and signposts to organisations that can help on other issues.
Helpful Links
Shared ownership webinar
Insight report on shared ownership
The Centre for Learning will be hosting a special 1-hour webinar on 20 November 2024.
Join us to explore our latest Insight report on shared ownership. During the session, we will discuss the report’s findings, including complaints data, individual cases, and broader learning points from shared ownership complaints.
Guidance
Landlord expectations
Landlords can read the expectations to find out how to review complaints from shared owners proactively and implement the Housing Ombudsman’s core lessons.
Resident expectations
Residents can read the guidance provided to understand what your landlord must do and what the Ombudsman can do in relation to leaseholder and shared ownership complaints
Reports
Insight report
Our latest Insight report focusing on shared ownership, sets out 9 tests for how we may assess shared ownership complaints in future.
It also highlights what we can and cannot do for shared owners, including on issues such as defects and the sales process, and shares learning points from the cases we see from shared owners.
Spotlight report
Our spotlight report on leaseholders, shared ownership and new builds, brings together insight from our casework. It provides recommendations for landlord learning and case studies to improve standards in area’s we see the most complaints.
Insight report on service charges
Our Insight report on service charges and the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction looks into our complaints data, a selection of case studies and key learning points on the managment of charges.We work closely with the First Tier Tribunal and have included case studies in this report from them to show their work in this area.
Case studies
No Maladministration
In this case about defects in a new build property, the ombudsman found that the landlord acted reasonably in their response to the shared owner's complaint.
The property was under a 12-month defect period where the developer held responsibility for repairs. The Ombudsman cannot investigate the developer's actions directly as they are not a member of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme.
Although the landlord was not responsible for repairing the defects, it was responsible for proactively reporting the defects to the developer, taking reasonable steps to compel the developer to take action and updating the resident on the progress of the repairs and the actions it had taken.
Our investigation found the landlord reported issues to the developer in a timely manner and kept the resident consistently informed. The landlord demonstrated good practice and customer service promptly responding to the residents' emails and kept clear and consistent record keeping with concise notes, emails, and repairs information.
Severe maladministration
In this case about service charges, the Ombudsman found severe maladministration after significant and unreasonable delays in the landlord’s handling of requests for service charge information. It repeatedly assured the resident it would provide information, but by the time of the Ombudsman’s investigation it still had not done so.
The Ombudsman made orders to remedy the individual dispute including £2,300 compensation. It also ordered the landlord to carry out an independent review of the way it provides service charge information to residents and consider whether there was a systemic or cultural problem causing the failures found.
Podcast
Listen and learn with the Centre for Learning
Our podcasts aim to provide insight on our casework and to share best practice for landlords.
We look at topics from our Spotlight reports and share key sector insights from across the organisation.
Landlord Learning Hub
Centre for Learning online platform
Explore our NEW learning tool - the Landlord Learning Hub.
Log in and discover the training options available to you.
If you have not logged into the new Hub, you will need to set up an account to gain access to a range of learning materials.
Resident information
When to get help from the Housing Ombudsman
You can bring a complaint about your social housing landlord to the Housing Ombudsman Service for investigation if you have completed your landlord’s complaint process and the issues have not been resolved or if your landlord is not responding to a complaint you have made to it.
This page explains when to bring a complaint to us for investigation, how we can help you if your landlord does not respond, and what you need to bring the complaint to us.