How much compensation can the Housing Ombudsman award?

Short answer

Typical awards run from £100 to £3,000. Serious cases reach £3,000 to £20,000 and beyond, with the highest recent determinations around £100,000. Breaches of Awaab’s Law timescales are treated as severe maladministration and routinely attract £500 to £5,000, more where health was damaged.

The Housing Ombudsman Service resolves disputes for tenants and leaseholders of councils, housing associations and ALMOs — disrepair being much the largest category — and its orders are binding on the landlord. Findings run on a scale: no maladministration, service failure, maladministration, and severe maladministration, a category strengthened in October 2023 after the death of Awaab Ishak.

What drives the figure

How long the failure ran and how many times you had to chase.
Vulnerability in the household — children, disability, existing ill health.
Evidenced harm. A GP letter linking damp or mould to a health problem transforms the level of an award; a police log does the same job in anti-social behaviour cases.
Complaint handling itself, which is investigated as a separate failing and can attract its own remedy, including a Complaint Handling Failure Order.

Since 27 October 2025, Phase 1 of Awaab's Law has imposed statutory timescales on social landlords for damp and mould and for emergency hazards: emergency safety work within 24 hours; significant damp and mould investigated within 10 working days, a written summary within 3 working days of the investigation concluding, safety work within 5 working days, and further preventative works begun within 12 weeks. Phase 2 extends the hazard list on 30 November 2026. Missing those deadlines is severe maladministration. Separately, the Regulator of Social Housing can fine a landlord up to 10% of turnover for systemic failure.

Getting a determination

Complete the landlord's two-stage procedure first — stage one within 10 working days, stage two within 20, under the Complaint Handling Code. If no final response arrives within 8 weeks of your stage-two escalation, you can go to the Ombudsman without it. Refer within 12 months of the final response, online at housing-ombudsman.org.uk or on 0300 111 3000. Cases typically take 6 to 12 months, with safety cases expedited.

Dated before-and-after photographs, a contact log, and an explicit statement of which specific failing you are alleging are what move a case from "service failure" to a substantial award. Determinations are published with your details redacted but the landlord named.

Read the full guide: Housing Ombudsman Service: Post-Awaab Complaint PowersCovers eligibility, the process, deadlines, and next steps in depth.

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