Kensington and Chelsea Council

The Housing Ombudsman is the independent body that investigates complaints about social landlords. When it finds a landlord got things wrong, it makes a finding of "maladministration" — or "severe maladministration" for the most serious failings.

The 2024-25 performance report. The Ombudsman's landlord performance report for Kensington and Chelsea covers cases it decided between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025. Across 19 cases decided, of 38 findings counted, 22 were maladministration — a rate of 57.9%, against a national rate of 71% (and 77% for landlords of a similar size and type).^[1] Two findings were severe maladministration, the Ombudsman's most serious category, both about the condition of people's homes; repairs to leaks, damp and mould was the single largest area of failure, with 11 findings.^[1]

Across the year the Ombudsman made 61 orders and recorded £25,752 in compensation — of which £8,460 was ordered on cases about the condition of homes — and made no complaint handling failure orders.^[1] The council complied with all the orders the Ombudsman checked within three months.^[1]

A rising rate. The Ombudsman's own restated figures show the council's maladministration rate rising over each of the last three years — around 38% in 2022-23, 54% in 2023-24 and 58% in 2024-25.^[1]

What this looked like for a resident. In a decision published in August 2024, the Ombudsman found severe maladministration over recurring leaks, damp and mould in a resident's home: a leak first reported in December 2020 was handled reactively, and the resident reported it around eleven times over nearly three years before making a formal complaint. It recorded poor record keeping, delays in arranging a specialist survey, and unfinished mould works, and ordered the council to pay that resident around £8,000 for loss of enjoyment of the home, on top of further sums for distress and inconvenience.^[6] In a separate decision published in February 2024, it again found severe maladministration, over roof leaks that persisted for around fourteen months during and after planned works.^[7]

What tenants say. In the council's own tenant satisfaction survey for 2025/26, around 66% of tenants said they were satisfied with the overall service, around 71% with the repairs service, and around 31% with how the council handles complaints.^[5]

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.

Kensington and Chelsea's grade is C3. In a judgement published on 27 August 2025 — the regulator's first consumer grade for the council — the Regulator of Social Housing graded Kensington and Chelsea Council C3: "There are serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed."^[3]

“There are serious failings in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed.”^[3]

Regulator of Social Housing, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (00AW) – Regulatory Judgement: 27 August 2025 (27 August 2025)

What the judgement found. Unusually, the regulator's concern was not the council's day-to-day repairs service but the condition and decency of its housing stock. It found that around a third of the council's homes did not meet the Decent Homes Standard, the government's minimum standard for social housing, and that only around 40% of homes had had an individual stock-condition survey in the previous five years.^[3] At the same time, the regulator found the council was meeting the other safety and quality requirements — including health and safety compliance across gas, fire, electrical, water, asbestos and lifts — and met the standard covering transparency and accountability to tenants.^[3] It also described the council's repairs and maintenance service as operating without a backlog of repairs and meeting its targets for emergency and urgent repairs.^[3] The council had itself referred the stock-condition issue to the regulator before the inspection, and the regulator said it was not proposing to use its enforcement powers at this time.^[3]

What the council has said and done. The council says it aims to be fully compliant with the Decent Homes Standard by 2030, to complete a full survey of the condition of its housing stock by 2026 and then re-inspect around 20% of its homes each year, and reports that it has already invested more than £200 million in its homes.^[3]

No regulatory notice in force. Separately, as at the date this page was last checked, the Regulator of Social Housing has no regulatory notice — a formal published finding of a breach — in force against the council.^[8] Regulatory grades are reviewed from time to time and may change — the date above is the one that matters.

Whatever a landlord's track record, its legal duties are the same — and they are strong.

Repairs. Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, Kensington and Chelsea Council 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 council 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, including councils, to investigate and fix damp, mould and other emergency hazards — the disrepair page sets them out.^[9]

Complaint handling. The council must run a complaints process that meets the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code, and put things right when it gets them wrong. How to complain — and the council's own repair timescales — are on the disrepair page.