Significant Performance Failures

If you are a tenant of a registered social landlord (RSL), such as a housing association or co-operative, or if you are a council tenant, you can report a significant performance failure (SPF) to us.

A group of tenants or an individual acting on behalf of tenants, such as a representative of a registered tenants’ organisation, can also report an SPF to us.

Complaints about your landlord

An SPF is not an individual tenant complaint about services. If you have a complaint, for example if you are unhappy about how your landlord carried out repairs to your own home, then you should raise this directly with your landlord through its complaints procedure. You can get a copy of the complaints procedure from your landlord.

What should I do if I think there is an SPF?

If you think there is an SPF you firstly need to raise the issue directly with your landlord. You should give your landlord the chance to respond within its published timescale and reasonable time to address the issue. If your landlord has not dealt with the issue then you can report an SPF to us.

How do I report an SPF?

To report an SPF, you should complete the form attached.  You should tell us exactly what the issue is and demonstrate that it significantly affects a number of the landlord’s tenants. You should also tell us when you raised it with the landlord and how the landlord responded. We will contact you within five working days of receiving your reported SPF to tell you what we will do and our timescales.

What will we do?

We will:

  •  look at the information to decide whether it is, or could be, an SPF;
  •  ask you for further information if we need it;
  •  ask the landlord for information if we need it;
  •  decide whether we need to contact other regulatory bodies;
  •  keep you updated about progress and tell you when we aim to make a decision; and
  •  write to tell you and the landlord our decision and the reasons.

We will decide whether it is an SPF as quickly as possible. The length of time it takes will depend on:

  • how complex the issue is;
  • the amount of information we need to gather and look at; and
  • how quickly we get the information we need.

 For more information on Significant Performance Failures please click here to view the 2022 factsheet.