Housing Disrepair Claims
Repairs Enforced and Compensation Recovered
If your council or housing association will not fix damp, mould, a leak or a broken heating system, a disrepair claim does two things. It compels the works under a schedule with dates attached, and it recovers damages for the period you lived with it.
We act for social housing tenants in England and Wales. If cost is what has been stopping you, our page on how a claim is funded without payment from you sets out exactly what you would and would not pay.
A housing disrepair claim is a civil claim brought by a tenant against a landlord that has failed to carry out repairs it is legally responsible for. It relies principally on Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and Section 9A of the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018. A successful claim produces two outcomes rather than one: a court enforceable requirement to carry out the works, and damages for the period the tenant lived with the defect. The claim depends on the landlord having had notice, meaning you told them and gave a reasonable opportunity to put it right.
Not Every Repair Problem Is a Disrepair Claim
A claim needs three things. There has to be a defect in something the landlord is responsible for repairing, the landlord has to have had notice of it, and a reasonable period has to have passed without the defect being properly resolved. Miss any one of those and there is no claim, however frustrating the situation is.
That rules out some things people expect to be covered. A job reported last week is not a claim yet. Damage you caused is not the landlord's responsibility. Neither is a property that is simply old and tired rather than defective. What does count is a defect you reported that keeps coming back, or one that was logged as fixed when it plainly was not.
We say this at the assessment rather than after months of correspondence. If the evidence will not carry a claim, you will be told so, and we would rather lose the enquiry than run something that fails. Our step by step guide to how a claim is built covers what each stage actually requires.
The Three Tests
- A repairing defect
In the structure, exterior or installations the landlord must maintain - Notice
You told them, and there is a record of it - A reasonable period passed
And the defect is still there, or returned
Notice is the one people most often cannot evidence, and the one that matters most.
The Law a Disrepair Claim Relies On
Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 is the backbone of most claims. It requires the landlord to keep the structure and exterior in repair and the installations for water, gas, electricity, sanitation, space heating and hot water in working order. It is implied into almost every residential tenancy and cannot be contracted out of or passed to a maintenance company.
Section 9A of the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 does something different. It requires the dwelling to be fit for human habitation throughout the tenancy, and it does not require the property to be in disrepair at all. A home that cannot be heated to a reasonable temperature, or where mould has taken several rooms, can be unfit without any single component having broken. Choosing the wrong route is a common reason claims take longer than they should, and our comparison of Section 11 and Section 9A explains which suits which defect.
Awaab's Law, under the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, applies to social landlords in England and adds fixed deadlines for investigating serious hazards, confirming findings in writing and beginning work. A missed deadline is a breach measured in dates rather than opinion. The deadlines are set out in one place in our guide to the statutory timescales at each stage.
Wales is different. The Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 replaced tenancies with occupation contracts, and the fitness duty there comes with its own regulations covering twenty nine hazards plus specific requirements on alarms and electrical inspections. Our page on disrepair claims under Welsh law covers the differences, which are substantial enough that English procedure does not transfer.
Who We Act For
Telling you now saves you a fortnight waiting for an answer.
We can help
- • Council tenants, including ALMO managed stock
- • Housing association tenants of any registered provider
- • Contract holders in Wales under the Renting Homes Act
- • Former tenants, within the limitation period
- • Households where someone has been made ill by the conditions
We cannot help
- • Private rented sector tenants
- • Leaseholders and shared ownership buyers
- • Owner occupiers and mortgage holders
- • Tenants in Scotland or Northern Ireland, where the law differs substantially
- • Claims falling entirely outside the limitation period
How Housing Disrepair Compensation Is Calculated
There is no fixed payout, and be cautious of any firm quoting you a figure before it has seen your evidence. Damages are built from three separate heads.
| Head of claim | What it covers and how it is worked out |
|---|---|
| General damages | The distress, inconvenience and loss of use of your home. Usually expressed as a proportion of the rent paid across the period of disrepair. In long running cases this is normally the largest element. |
| Special damages | Money you actually lost. Carpets, furniture, clothing and electricals ruined by damp or water, plus additional electricity spent on dehumidifiers or temporary heaters. |
| Personal injury | A separate element where the conditions caused or worsened a health problem, supported by medical evidence rather than assertion. |
For general damages, the courts have broadly approached severity in bands. These are an indication of how the assessment works rather than a promise of outcome, and every claim turns on its own facts.
| Severity of the disrepair | Indicative proportion of rent for the affected period |
|---|---|
| Mild, such as a small area of damp or a minor cosmetic defect | Roughly 15 to 25 per cent |
| Moderate, such as ongoing damp in one room or intermittent heating failures | Roughly 25 to 50 per cent |
| Severe, affecting several rooms or presenting a health risk | Roughly 50 to 75 per cent |
| Very severe, where the property is close to uninhabitable | Roughly 75 to 100 per cent |
Two points follow from this that tenants frequently miss. The longer the period, the larger the award, which is why delay costs money as well as comfort. And because the calculation runs on rent, the amount is not arbitrary and can be estimated reasonably well in advance. Our compensation calculator gives an early indication, and our longer explanation of how an award is arrived at works through the arithmetic.
The Clock That Is Already Running
A disrepair claim generally reaches back six years from when the breach began, and a personal injury element three years from when you knew the injury was connected to the property. That sounds generous until you consider how these cases actually run.
A defect that has been reported and patched for a decade is common. In that situation the earliest and often worst period, when nothing was being done at all, may already sit outside the window. The damages are calculated across the recoverable period, so losing the first four years can halve the value of an otherwise strong claim.
This is the one cost of waiting that no funding arrangement can remove. It is also the reason we would rather assess a case early and tell you it is not ready than have you come back in two years having lost part of it. If you are weighing up whether to complain again first, our comparison of the Ombudsman route against a legal claim sets out what each achieves and how long each takes.
Worth Knowing
Complaining and claiming are not alternatives. You can do both, and in practice the complaint responses frequently become evidence in the claim, particularly where a complaint was upheld and nothing was repaired afterwards.
You also do not need to have exhausted the complaints procedure before taking legal advice. What a claim requires is notice, not a completed complaint.
Disrepair We Bring Claims For
These rarely arrive alone. A heating failure produces damp, damp produces mould, and structural gaps that let water in let rodents in too. One claim covers all of it, and our overview of disrepair in council and association properties covers what tends to occur together.
How a Housing Disrepair Claim Works
Four stages, nothing to pay at any point unless the claim succeeds.
Free Assessment
We review your repair history and the condition of the property, then tell you honestly whether the claim is worth running, including when it is not.
Evidence and Survey
We compile your reports, reference numbers and photographs, and instruct and fund an independent surveyor to establish the cause.
Letter of Claim
A formal letter of claim goes to the landlord under the pre action protocol, with a schedule of works and a deadline for disclosure of the full repair history.
Repairs and Settlement
We press for the works to be completed under a dated schedule and negotiate the damages owed.
Before any of that, put the problem in writing if you have not already. Our guide to wording a complaint so it cannot be closed off covers how, and creating that record is what makes everything afterwards possible.
What These Claims Look Like in Practice
Illustrative examples of the case types we handle. Details are composite and do not describe a single identified client. Outcomes appear in our record of settled claims.
A family reports mould repeatedly and is told each time it is condensation from cooking and drying washing. An independent surveyor instructed on the claim finds failed insulation and a dead extractor fan. The breach is established and damages run from the first report rather than the survey date.
The same defect is attended four times across three winters, treated at the surface and closed each time. A closed job is not a completed repair where the cause was never addressed, and the four records become the strongest evidence in the file because each independently proves notice.
A boiler fails in November and plug in heaters are provided while parts are awaited. Space and water heating are named expressly in Section 11, and temporary heating does not discharge the duty. The claim covers the period without heat and the electricity the household absorbed.
A stage two complaint is upheld, a modest payment offered and the complaint closed as resolved while the defect remains. An upheld complaint is strong evidence rather than a remedy, and accepting a goodwill payment does not prevent a claim.
Why Tenants Instruct Us
We Assess Before We Accept
If the evidence will not carry a claim we say so at the assessment rather than after months of correspondence. An honest no is worth more than a hopeful maybe.
Independent Survey Evidence
We do not rely on the landlord's own contractor. An independent surveyor establishes the cause, which is what turns a disputed complaint into a provable claim.
Social Housing Only
Every case is built around social landlord duties, the statutory deadlines and the Ombudsman framework. We do not split our attention across the private sector.
Can You Take Action Against a Council
Yes, and it is the question tenants ask most often, usually because the landlord is also the local authority they rely on for other things. It makes no difference in law. A council acting as a landlord carries the same statutory duties as any other landlord, it budgets for disrepair claims as a known cost, and nothing about your other dealings with the authority is affected.
What people are frequently really asking is whether the years of living in it count for anything beyond the ruined carpet. They do, and that is general damages, the largest element in most long running claims. It covers the distress, the anxiety and the loss of use of rooms you could not heat or occupy.
It does not require a medical diagnosis, though one supports a separate injury element on top. Our guide on suing the council for emotional distress sets out how that part of a claim is valued and what the courts actually look at.
Worth Knowing
Tenants itemise the damaged belongings and stop there, treating the years of living with it as something you simply absorb. That is the most commonly under claimed part of a disrepair case.
Our overview of distress as a head of claim explains the difference between general damages and a personal injury element.
The Evidence That Decides a Claim
What to Gather Now
- Every job reference number, with the date reported and whether the same defect has been attended before.
- Dated photographs across seasons, because damp that recedes in summer and returns each autumn tells a surveyor more than one image does.
- Complaint stage responses, which frequently concede delays the landlord later disputes.
- GP records where the conditions triggered or worsened a health problem in the household.
What Most People Get Wrong
Tenants think they have to prove what is causing the damp. They do not. That is the surveyor's job, and we fund it. What has to be proved is notice, meaning the landlord knew, and every job reference does that work.
Mould also establishes itself behind furniture and inside voids before it is visible, so an inspection that finds nothing proves nothing. Our guide to finding mould you cannot see covers the signs.
Housing Disrepair Claims, Common Questions
What counts as housing disrepair
A defect in something the landlord is legally responsible for repairing, principally the structure, the exterior and the installations for water, gas, electricity, sanitation, heating and hot water. Damp and mould, leaks, broken heating, faulty electrics, structural cracking and pest entry through the building fabric all qualify. Wear that is cosmetic rather than defective generally does not.
How much compensation can I get for housing disrepair
There is no fixed figure. General damages are usually assessed as a proportion of the rent paid across the period of disrepair, scaled to severity, with separate sums for belongings destroyed and any personal injury. The longer the period and the more of the home affected, the higher the award.
Does a housing disrepair claim cost anything
Nothing at the outset and nothing if it does not succeed. We fund the independent survey and the other disbursements, and they are not reclaimed from you if the claim fails. If it succeeds, a capped success fee is deducted from the damages at a percentage agreed in writing beforehand.
Do I have to complain before I can claim
No. What the claim requires is notice, meaning you told the landlord and gave a reasonable opportunity to act. A formal complaint is useful because it creates a dated record and the Ombudsman expects it, but you do not have to exhaust the procedure before taking legal advice.
How long does a housing disrepair claim take
Most settle within four to nine months depending on how the landlord responds. The pre action protocol gives a defined window to reply to the letter of claim. Urgent repairs are often agreed considerably sooner than the damages, because landlords will do the works while compensation is still being negotiated.
Can I claim for a leaking roof or faulty electrics specifically
Yes. Roofs sit squarely within the structure and exterior, and electrical installations are named in Section 11. Water reaching light fittings or sockets is an emergency category hazard rather than a routine repair, and if it has been logged as routine that classification is worth challenging in writing.
Will my landlord evict me for claiming
Bringing a disrepair claim is not a ground for possession. A secure council tenant or an assured housing association tenant can only be removed through the courts on a statutory ground, and complaining about the condition of your home is not one of them.
Can I claim after I have moved out
Yes, for the period you lived with the disrepair, subject to the limitation period. Former tenants frequently assume the right ends when the keys go back, and it does not.
Bringing a Claim, Step by Step
Most tenants who never claim give the same reason, and it is not that they think the landlord is right. It is cost, closely followed by the assumption that nothing will come of it. Both are addressable, and the second one less often than people expect. The people who would act for you are introduced on our page about the practice.
Report in Writing, Every Time
Phone calls are the weakest evidence in a disrepair claim. A call generates a job number, but the note on the system rarely reflects what you described, and months later it reads as two or three words. Put it in writing, name the room and the wall, and state explicitly that the problem is recurring rather than new. Every written report is a dated record that the landlord knew.
Keep the Appointment Record Too
This is the part people throw away. Note every appointment offered, every one missed, every visit where the operative arrived without the right parts, and every day you took off work for a visit that achieved nothing. That record is specific, dated and extremely hard for a landlord to dispute, and in contractor led services it demonstrates sustained notice better than photographs.
Escalate With a Deadline, Not Indefinitely
Once repairs reports stop producing results, move to the formal complaints process rather than raising another job. It forces a dated response at defined stages and puts someone above the repairs desk in front of the file. Where tenants lose ground is staying inside it while each stage response buys another month. Give it the published deadlines plus a short margin, and treat a second missed stage as the point to escalate.
Know Who Else Can Act
The landlord is not the only body involved. Environmental health can act on serious hazards even where the council is itself the landlord, the Housing Ombudsman reviews complaint handling once the internal procedure is exhausted, and the Regulator of Social Housing oversees registered providers. None replaces a claim, but each adds pressure. Our overview of the organisations that can act against a landlord explains what each can actually do.
Do Not Clean the Evidence Away
One practical point once a claim is in contemplation. Washing mould off a wall removes the proof and changes nothing about the cause, which sits in the structure. Photograph thoroughly before touching anything and leave affected areas alone until the survey is done. Internal treatments applied over an unresolved defect fail within a season, as our guide to why internal damp treatments rarely hold explains.
Do Not Withhold Rent
This comes up constantly and the answer does not change. Withholding rent does not force a repair, it puts you in arrears and hands the landlord a ground for possession. There is a narrow formal set off procedure with strict requirements, and it should never be attempted without advice. Arrears do not reduce the landlord's repairing duty, so claiming while in arrears is perfectly possible, although part of any award may be set against what you owe.
What You Actually Recover
A successful claim has two halves and tenants consistently underestimate the first. The works are enforced, normally under a schedule with dates attached, so the defect is resolved rather than patched again. Damages then cover the period you lived with it, calculated as set out above. If the conditions have affected someone's health, our guide to the symptoms damp and mould produce covers what to raise with a GP and why the record matters.
If your repair has been outstanding for months, or the same job keeps being closed and reopened, get it assessed rather than wait for another winter. Contact our team and we will tell you within 24 hours whether the claim is worth running.
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What Could Your Claim Be Worth
Damages depend on how long the disrepair has run, the rent paid during it, the belongings damaged and the effect on your household. We give you a realistic range once we have seen the evidence, not before.
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