Decision

Easy Housing Association (4670) - Regulatory Judgement: 27 July 2026

Updated 27 July 2026

Applies to England

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Easy Housing Association (Easy) following enforcement action and ongoing regulatory engagement. We have concluded that there are grounds to propose exercising our power to de-register Easy from the register of social housing providers under section 118 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (HRA 2008).

As Easy owns fewer than 1,000 social homes, it is a small landlord. We do not issue grades to small landlords and only publish or update regulatory judgements where we consider there to be serious weaknesses or failings in a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our standards.

Summary of the decision

In accordance with section 118(2) of the HRA 2008, we have provided Easy with notice, warning it that we are considering removing it from the register pursuant to section 118(1), and the opportunity to make representations to us during the notice period. We shall consider any representation made during this period before reaching a decision on compulsory de-registration.

We have a statutory duty to maintain the register of social housing providers. Under section 118(1) (aa) of the HRA 2008, we may remove a private registered provider from the register if we think it has failed to meet the standards under section 193, 194 or 194C.

We have concluded that Easy has failed to meet the Governance and Financial Viability Standard and has not resolved serious regulatory concerns following enforcement action and ongoing intensive regulatory engagement. Despite efforts by Easy’s board (and a newly appointed Chair since 20 April 2026), Easy has failed to take adequate action to comply with the terms of the enforcement notice issued to it in July 2025.  

Easy has failed to comply with the Requirement to Appoint a Manager which has been in place since July 2025. Easy initially appointed a manager on 12 November 2025, however the Appointed Manager’s contract was terminated by Easy on 23 December 2025. While Easy states it intends to appoint a replacement manager to meet our requirements this has not happened to date.

Easy has failed to co-operate adequately with statutory appointments to its board which were made in July 2025 and have been subsequently renewed in January 2026 and July 2026.

Easy has failed to demonstrate that it has effective governance and probity arrangements, an appropriate, robust and prudent business planning, risk and control framework and that it is managing its affairs with an appropriate degree of skill, independence, diligence, effectiveness, prudence and foresight. Easy has also failed to demonstrate that it is managing its resources effectively to ensure its viability is maintained while ensuring social housing assets are not put at undue risk. 

Further, we conclude that, despite the intention of the board to review Easy’s rents, Easy has failed to provide adequate assurance that it meets the Rent Standard and/ or demonstrate how any of its homes meet the definition of Social Housing.   

How we reached our judgement

This regulatory judgement is based on a review of all the relevant information we obtained during our responsive engagement with Easy as well as information provided by Easy in its regulatory returns.

This regulatory judgement updates, and is intended to be read in conjunction with, the enforcement notice published in July 2025 and regulatory notice published in March 2023 and is a result of ongoing regulatory engagement with Easy.                                                           

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Easy was registered in August 2011 and designated as a not-for-profit provider. Easy is a private company limited by guarantee and is also registered with the Charity Commission. Easy report to have 378 units of social housing. It operates in Birmingham and the London Borough of Croydon. Easy provides housing through lease agreements with private landlords.

Easy’s annual accounts for period ended 31 March 2025 reported a turnover of £5.38m for the year and it employs 16 full-time equivalent staff.

Our role and regulatory approach

We regulate for a viable, efficient, and well governed social housing sector able to deliver quality homes and services for current and future tenants.  

We regulate at the landlord level to drive improvement in how landlords operate. By landlord we mean a registered provider of social housing. These can either be local authorities, or private registered providers (other organisations registered with us such as non-profit housing associations, co-operatives, or profit-making organisations). 

We set standards which state outcomes that landlords must deliver. The outcomes of our standards include both the required outcomes and specific expectations we set. Where we find there are significant failures in landlords which we consider to be material to the landlord’s delivery of those outcomes, we hold them to account. Ultimately this provides protection for tenants’ homes and services and achieves better outcomes for current and future tenants. It also contributes to a sustainable sector which can attract strong investment. 

We have a different role for regulating local authorities than for other landlords. This is because we have a narrower role for local authorities and the Governance and Financial Viability Standard, and Value for Money Standard do not apply. Further detail on which standards apply to different landlords can be found on our standards page. 

We assess the performance of landlords through inspections and by reviewing data that landlords are required to submit to us. In Depth Assessments (IDAs) were one of our previous assessment processes, which are now replaced by our inspections programme from 1 April 2024. We also respond where there is an issue or a potential issue that may be material to a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our standards. We publish regulatory judgements that describe our view of landlords’ performance with our standards. We also publish grades for landlords with more than 1,000 social housing homes. 

The Housing Ombudsman deals with individual complaints. When individual complaints are referred to us, we investigate if we consider that the issue may be material to a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our standards.  

For more information about our approach to regulation, please see Regulating the Standards.

Further information

• Regulating the standards
• Regulatory standards for landlords

Related documents

• Decent Homes Standard