The new tenant redress scheme — how to complain about your landlord
For the first time in England, every private landlord must belong to an approved redress scheme. The scheme handles complaints from current, prospective, and former tenants, and can require landlords to apologise, pay compensation, or take corrective action. This guide explains what it is, what it covers, and how to use it.
What the scheme is
Section 105 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 makes membership of an approved redress scheme mandatory for all private landlords in England (or for their letting agents, where one is used). The scheme handles complaints about a landlord's conduct in connection with their letting business — anything from unaddressed repairs to inappropriate behaviour during viewings to unfair handling of a tenancy ending.
The scheme is funded by mandatory landlord membership fees and is free to use for tenants. There's no court process involved. Decisions are made by independent investigators and adjudicators based on documentary evidence and the parties' representations.
The scheme is similar in concept to the Property Ombudsman scheme that has covered letting agents for many years, but extends the same principles directly to landlords.
What the scheme can do
If a complaint is upheld, the scheme can require the landlord to:
- Apologise in writing.
- Pay compensation, capped at a level set by the scheme regulations (broadly equivalent to the consumer ombudsman schemes in other sectors).
- Take specific corrective action — for example, completing repairs, returning a deposit, or reimbursing fees.
- Comply with mediation between the parties.
The scheme cannot order a landlord to evict another tenant, change rent levels (this is a tribunal matter), or override decisions of the courts. But within its remit it has real teeth — landlords who repeatedly fail to comply with scheme decisions can lose their membership, and operating as a landlord without scheme membership is itself a breach of the Act.
Who can complain
Three categories of person can use the scheme:
Current tenants can complain about anything related to their current tenancy. This is the largest category and covers most situations.
Former tenants can complain about issues arising from their past tenancy — typically issues that came to light at the end of the tenancy, like deposit deductions or alleged damage claims.
Prospective tenants can complain about conduct during the application or viewing process. This is the newest and most interesting category. A prospective tenant is defined as someone who has requested information about a property being marketed for rent, visited or requested to visit the property, or made an offer to rent it. Simply browsing a listing online doesn't count — there has to be some active engagement.
What kinds of complaints the scheme handles
In broad terms, anything related to the landlord's conduct of their letting business. The most common categories:
- Unaddressed repairs and disrepair issues.
- Failure to handle a deposit correctly (this overlaps with the deposit protection scheme adjudication, but the redress scheme can address related issues like delays or communication failures).
- Inappropriate or excessive entry to the property without proper notice.
- Discrimination in the application process, including refusal of tenants on benefits or with children.
- Harassment or pressure to leave outside of formal eviction proceedings.
- Failures to provide gas safety certificates, electrical safety certificates, EPC, or the prescribed tenancy information.
- Disputes about the handling of viewings during a sale or re-letting process.
Anything that involves a court process directly — possession proceedings, claims for unpaid rent, breaches of contract going to civil claim — generally goes through the courts rather than the redress scheme.
How to make a complaint
The process is roughly:
Try to resolve it with the landlord first. Most schemes require evidence that you've raised the issue with the landlord and given them a reasonable opportunity to respond. A short written complaint by email is usually enough.
If it's not resolved within a reasonable period (typically eight weeks), submit it to the scheme. You'll need to provide details of the complaint, copies of any correspondence, and evidence supporting your claim.
The scheme investigates. They'll request the landlord's response and may request further information from you. Most cases are resolved within a few months.
You receive a decision. If the complaint is upheld, the decision will specify what the landlord must do. If it isn't upheld, the decision will explain why.
When to use the scheme and when not to
The redress scheme is well suited to disputes that are factually contested and don't involve a clear legal issue requiring a court — situations where the question is whether the landlord's conduct fell short of reasonable standards.
It's not well suited to:
Disputes where you need an urgent injunction or order. The scheme isn't fast enough for emergency situations.
Disputes about possession. If your landlord is trying to evict you, that goes to the County Court, not the scheme.
Disputes about rent levels. Rent challenges go to the First-tier Tribunal.
Criminal matters. Harassment, illegal eviction, and similar conduct should be reported to the police and to the local authority.
What this means for your situation
If your landlord is selling and you're worried about how they're handling the process — viewings without proper notice, pressure to leave early, failure to maintain the property during the sale process, refusal to engage with reasonable requests — the redress scheme is a route you didn't have before.
Most situations don't require it. Most landlord-tenant interactions, even during sales, are conducted reasonably. But if something genuinely goes wrong and the landlord won't engage, the scheme is a free, independent mechanism that has actual authority. Knowing it exists, and being prepared to use it, often shifts a difficult situation more than actually using it does.
How to find out which scheme covers your landlord
Once the scheme is fully operational (it's being implemented through 2026 and 2027), every landlord will be required to display their scheme membership details on any tenancy agreement and on any property listing. You can also ask your landlord directly — they're required to provide the information on request. If your landlord can't or won't tell you which scheme they belong to, that's itself a basis for complaint, either to the local authority or to the relevant scheme directly.
For the most up-to-date information on which schemes are approved and how to access them, the GOV.UK website is the authoritative source.