Consumer standards for social housing

We have created this webpage to help you to understand your rights as a social housing tenant, and to spell-out the ways we (Kingston landlord services) and other organisations can help you to exercise these rights. This includes the various ways you can hold us to account if you think we've fallen short of expectations - such as making a complaint or approaching the Housing Ombudsman.

You have a right to be safe in your home

As a social housing landlord, we have a legal duty to provide safe and habitable properties for our customers that meet health and safety legislation.

This includes ensuring that your home is free from serious hazards, including damp and mould, as required by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), the Housing Act 2004, and the Social Housing Regulation Act 2023.

You have a right to a good quality home that meets the Decent Homes Standard, and a good neighbourhood to live in

As your landlord, we're committed to keeping your home in good repair and ensuring that our neighbourhoods are looked after and are good places to live, work, visit, and play. 

We'll provide you with notice of any visits to carry out repairs or maintenance or to view the condition and state of repair of the premises.

You have a right to know how your landlord is performing

We're committed to being a transparent landlord and showing our customers how we're performing in various areas.

We publish information relating to a number of service areas, including repairs, complaints, safety, and how we spend the money we generate, so you can hold us to account.

Our website contains lots of readily available information you can access, including our annual report.

You have the right to have your complaints dealt with promptly and fairly, with access to the Housing Ombudsman (who will give you swift and fair redress when needed)

We want you to be happy with the services you receive and we value your feedback. We welcome both positive and negative comments as they help us to improve and learn from our experiences.

We want to:

• listen to your feedback, good or bad,
• deal with complaints efficiently and effectively,
• keep you up to date with progress,
• and be open and honest about the process.

If we fail to deliver on our promises, you are with in your rights to complain.

If you would like:

• steps on how to make a complaint, leave a compliment, or make a suggestion,
• details on how we're learning and improving,
• and details on how to approach the Housing Ombudsman (if you still aren't satisfied with how we've dealt with your complaint)..