Hyde

The Housing Ombudsman investigates complaints about social landlords, calling a serious failing "maladministration" — or "severe maladministration" in the most serious cases.

The December 2024 special report. In December 2024 the Ombudsman published a special report on Hyde — an in-depth investigation it carries out under paragraph 49 of its Scheme when its casework suggests a systemic, or wider and repeated, failure rather than a one-off.^[2]

What it found. Looking at cases decided between April 2023 and June 2024, the Ombudsman made 353 findings across 137 determinations, 281 of them maladministration — including 23 findings of severe maladministration — and put Hyde's overall maladministration rate at 82%.^[2] For the condition of people's homes it recorded a maladministration rate of 84%, against a national rate of 74%.^[2]

What that looked like in one home. An elderly woman with breathing difficulties reported a leak causing mould and failing electrics. The Ombudsman said this was an emergency, but Hyde "eventually completed all the necessary work after 20 months" — by which time her doctor confirmed she was eating her meals in bed. It found severe maladministration, called Hyde's £900 offer inadequate, and ordered £3,350.^[2]

The conclusions. The Ombudsman wrote that "residents have experienced the same problems repeatedly over a number of years".^[2] It noted encouraging recent steps, but said it had "not yet been able to see evidence of significant notable improvement", and made 11 recommendations.^[2]

Later cases. The Ombudsman has continued to publish decisions on Hyde since the report's June 2024 cut-off. They include severe maladministration over damp and mould in September 2024 (£2,300), and maladministration over leaks and damp and mould in May 2025 (£500) and August 2025 (£1,933).^[4][5][6] In December 2025 it found severe maladministration over noise a shared owner had reported for more than three years (£1,000).^[7]

What Hyde has said and done. Hyde apologised "to those customers where we could have done things better", and said it had doubled the staff handling complaints and brought its two main repairs contracts in-house, in 2022 and 2023.^[2] It also reported spending an extra £2 million in 2023 on damp and mould, dealing with more than 1,000 reports, and setting up a dedicated damp and mould team and six-month follow-up visits.^[2]

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is the government body that checks social landlords meet required standards for safe, decent homes. Since 2024 the RSH has been inspecting social landlords and giving each a consumer grade from C1 (the strongest) to C4.

Hyde's grade is C1. In a judgement published on 25 March 2026 — its first consumer-standards inspection of Hyde — the Regulator graded Hyde Housing Association Limited C1, the strongest consumer grade, alongside G1 for governance and V2 for financial viability.^[1] The Regulator said "this is the first time we have issued a consumer grade in relation to this landlord", and concluded that overall Hyde is "delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards".^[1] On repairs, it wrote that "Hyde provides an effective repairs service to tenants and takes action to improve the service and outcomes for tenants when issues occur"; on safety, that "Hyde provided evidence-based assurance that it has appropriate systems in place to ensure the health and safety of its tenants".^[1]

How the C1 grade and the special report fit together. These two findings come from different bodies, looking at different things over different periods, and it is worth holding both. The Housing Ombudsman's special report (December 2024) looked back at casework from April 2023 to June 2024 and found widespread failings in how Hyde had handled repairs and complaints in that period — concluding that residents had "experienced the same problems repeatedly over a number of years".^[2] The Regulator's C1 grade (March 2026) is a later, forward-looking inspection of how Hyde is run now, and it is the top consumer grade.^[1] The C1 does not overturn or erase what the Ombudsman found, and it does not mean every problem has been dealt with — in December 2025, months before the C1 judgement was published, the Ombudsman found severe maladministration over noise a shared owner had reported to Hyde for more than three years.^[7] Equally, the Ombudsman's historic findings are not the Regulator's current verdict on how Hyde is governed today. If you are living with unresolved damp, mould or disrepair in a Hyde home right now, what matters is your own situation and your own evidence — not the grade on the door.

A housing association's repair duties are just as strong as a council's — and they do not depend on its track record.

Repairs. Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, Hyde must keep the structure and exterior of your home in repair — the roof, walls, windows and doors — and keep the installations for heating, hot water, gas, electricity, water and sanitation in proper working order. This applies to almost every tenancy and cannot be signed away in a tenancy agreement.

Fitness for human habitation. Under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 (section 9A of the 1985 Act), your home must also be fit to live in — free from serious hazards, including damp and mould that could harm your health.

Awaab's Law. Awaab's Law now sets legally binding timescales for social landlords, housing associations included, to investigate hazards such as damp and mould and make homes safe — the disrepair page sets them out.^[8]

Hyde's own repair and damp timescales. Hyde also publishes its own target times for emergency and routine repairs, and its own damp and mould response times — the disrepair page lists the figures.^[11][12]

Where to report and complain. Report a repair through Hyde's repairs service, and make a complaint through its two-stage complaints process at hyde-housing.co.uk/contact-us/making-a-complaint.^[11][13]