# UK Housing Ombudsman Decisions Watchdog (`hllerdgn80/uk-housing-ombudsman-decisions-watchdog`) Actor

Watch the Housing Ombudsman Service's public Decisions Archive for new maladministration findings against social landlords in England — by landlord name or decision date. Official free register, no login required.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/hllerdgn80/uk-housing-ombudsman-decisions-watchdog.md
- **Developed by:** [Halil Erdogan](https://apify.com/hllerdgn80) (community)
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.01 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## UK Housing Ombudsman Decisions Watchdog

Watches the **Housing Ombudsman Service's** public Decisions Archive
(housing-ombudsman.org.uk/decisions) — the official record of investigation findings
against social landlords in England: local councils, housing associations and ALMOs
(Arm's Length Management Organisations). Every decision states whether the Ombudsman
found maladministration, severe maladministration, service failure or no
maladministration, plus the full determination text and any orders/recommendations
made to the landlord.

No login, no API key, no scraping tricks — this actor reads the same public HTML pages
a visitor's browser would, respecting `robots.txt` (which explicitly allows this path).

### What you get

One row per decision matching your filters:

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `case_ref` | Housing Ombudsman case reference number |
| `landlord` | The landlord the decision was made against |
| `landlord_type` | e.g. "Local Authority / ALMO or TMO", "Housing Association" |
| `decision_type` | e.g. "Investigation" |
| `occupancy` | Tenure at the time, e.g. "Secure Tenancy" |
| `decision_date` | ISO date (`YYYY-MM-DD`) the decision was issued |
| `decision_date_raw` | The date as published, e.g. "28 August 2026" |
| `maladministration_level` | Parsed from the determination: "severe maladministration", "maladministration", "service failure", "no maladministration / reasonable redress", or null if not detected |
| `determination` | The Ombudsman's own "We found: ..." findings text |
| `reasons` | The "Summary of reasons" text |
| `recommendations` | Orders/recommendations made to the landlord |
| `decision_url` | Link to the full decision on housing-ombudsman.org.uk |
| `watch_label` | Your own tag, copied onto every row |
| `status` | `ok`, `invalid_input`, `http_error`, `network_error` or `parse_error` |

### Input

- **Landlord name contains** — free text matched against the landlord name (e.g. `Clarion`, `London Borough of`). Leave empty for all landlords.
- **Decision date from / to** — `YYYY-MM-DD`, filters on the decision's issue date. Needs "Fetch full detail" on.
- **Fetch full detail for each case** — when on (default), the actor also opens each decision's own page for landlord type, occupancy, decision type, date, the maladministration finding and the full determination/recommendations text (one extra request per row). Turn off for a faster, list-only run (landlord name + case reference + URL only).
- **Label for this watch** — a tag copied onto every row, useful when several scheduled watches share one dataset.
- **Maximum decisions to return** — stops paging once this many rows are collected (default 30, max 500).

### Example uses

- Track every new maladministration finding against a specific landlord for a local newsroom, tenants' union or watchdog site.
- Feed a law firm's or claims handler's lead list for housing disrepair cases.
- Build a landlord accountability/compliance tracker for insurers or investors in social housing.

### Notes

- Leave every filter empty to pull the newest decisions across all of England.
- The Decisions Archive lists newest first, 10 per page, with no server-side date filter —
  this actor pages through the archive and filters by date locally once "Fetch full
  detail" opens each decision page (the list page alone carries no date).
- This actor covers **England** (Housing Ombudsman Service jurisdiction) only. It does
  not cover the separate Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (see
  `spso-decision-watchdog`) or the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.

# Actor input Schema

## `landlord` (type: `string`):

Free text matched against the landlord name, e.g. 'Clarion', 'London Borough of', 'Notting Hill Genesis'. Leave empty to include every landlord.

## `dateFrom` (type: `string`):

YYYY-MM-DD. Only decisions dated on or after this date. Needs 'Fetch full detail for each case' switched on (the list page itself carries no date).

## `dateTo` (type: `string`):

YYYY-MM-DD. Only decisions dated on or before this date. Needs 'Fetch full detail for each case' switched on.

## `fetchDetail` (type: `boolean`):

When on, the actor opens each decision's own page to also collect landlord type, occupancy, decision type, date, the maladministration finding, the Ombudsman's determination text and recommendations (one extra request per row). When off, only landlord name, case reference and the decision URL are returned, which is faster and lighter.

## `watchLabel` (type: `string`):

Just a tag copied onto every output row (e.g. 'Clarion watch') so several scheduled watches can be told apart in one dataset or across runs.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Stops paging through the Decisions Archive once this many rows have been collected.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "fetchDetail": true,
  "maxItems": 30
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("hllerdgn80/uk-housing-ombudsman-decisions-watchdog").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("hllerdgn80/uk-housing-ombudsman-decisions-watchdog").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call hllerdgn80/uk-housing-ombudsman-decisions-watchdog --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,hllerdgn80/uk-housing-ombudsman-decisions-watchdog"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/H1EZmZXqtnsxJTy1T/builds/nLvWsVsERF3MjR8Ay/openapi.json