Guide: What is a Housing Disrepair Claim?

If you have been reporting issues with your home to your landlord, and they have not been taking any actions towards repairing these, leaving you feeling ignored, you may want to consider bringing a housing disrepair claim against them.

Housing disrepair claims can be brought by tenants living in a rented property, usually owned by the Council or a Housing Association, that has fallen into disrepair as a result of the landlord’s failure to complete repairs that are being reported by the tenant. These include instances where the landlord has completed the repairs to a poor standard.

These claims can help ensure that your landlord completes the necessary repairs they are responsible for, and that compensation is paid to you for your landlord’s failure to maintain your home in a good state of repair and the distress and inconvenience that has been caused to you.

What do I need to bring a Housing Disrepair Claim?

Three main requirements must be met in order to bring a housing disrepair claim:

Your house must be in disrepair – In other words, some aspects of your home are in poor condition and need repair. Common examples of disrepair are often, but not limited to, mould and/or damp issues, rotten doors, loose tiles, faulty electrics, leaks, water damage, broken heating systems, cracks, damaged gutters, pipes and drains, broken windows, roof issues, pest infestations, defective/broken bathroom or kitchen appliances.

You must have reported the issues of disrepair to your landlord – Your landlord must have been put on notice of the issues of disrepair. Tenants would have usually reported these via telephone, email, online portals or face to face. A housing disrepair claim can only be brought for issues that have been reported.

Your landlord has failed to fix the issues in your home within a reasonable amount of time – There is not a fixed rule on what is considered to be a ‘reasonable amount of time’; this will depend on the disrepair in question and could change on a case-to-case basis. For example, for damp and mould issues, a reasonable amount of time would be between 4-6 weeks; while for issues such as lack of heating or water 1-2 days.

Overall, a Solicitor will be able to determine whether your landlord has been given enough time to carry out the required repairs.

No Win No Fee Agreement

A housing disrepair claim can be brought under a No Win, No Fee basis (also known as a conditional fee agreement). This agreement takes all the financial risk out of making a claim by protecting you from paying any legal fees, should your claim be unsuccessful.

You will not have to pay anything upfront and will only have to pay an agreed amount should your claim be successful. Your solicitor will also take out an insurance policy on your behalf which will cover any legal costs incurred in relation to your claim which, in many successful cases, your landlord will cover once your claim has settled.

Starting your Housing Disrepair Claim

When you first get in touch with us, we will start by taking a full account from you of the issues of disrepair in your home; including when and how these issues were reported and whether your landlord has been attempting any repairs. You do not have to worry about remembering the exact dates as we will be able to confirm these at a later stage from your landlord’s records. We will also consider any items (i.e. furniture), that got damaged by the disrepair (as we may be able to recover their cost).

Once we have assessed the initial information you have provided and have determined that you have a housing disrepair claim, we will proceed with sending a ‘letter of claim’ to your landlord. The letter of claim will detail the issues in your home, when and how these were reported, and any unsuccessful repair attempts made by your landlord. In the letter of claim we also ask your landlord to provide documents relating to your tenancy such as your tenancy agreement, repair logs, rent statement, call logs, and any documents needed to investigate your claim.

Your landlord will then have 20 working days to provide a response and the requested documents.

Once we have received your landlord’s records, we will carefully review the same to identify evidence of notice; in other words, when and how often the complained issues of disrepair have been reported. It is important to note that under housing disrepair law, a tenant has 6 years from the date the disrepair was complained of to bring a claim. This means that any reports made more than 6 years ago cannot be used as part of the evidence on your case.

At this stage, we would also ask you to provide photos and videos of the disrepair in your home for our experts to review. This will allow us to confirm whether the works required in your property are your landlord’s responsibility and whether they would exceed £1,000.00. This is important as it will allow us to determine whether we would be able to take your case to court should your landlord be uncooperative in trying to settle your claim outside of court.

Surveyor’s inspection

Once we have identified evidence of notice from your landlord’s records, and have received confirmation from our experts that the repair works required in your property are both your landlord’s responsibility and exceed £1,000.00, we will proceed with instructing an expert surveyor to inspect your property. This will be at a date and time that is suitable for you. Sometimes, this can be a joint inspection, in which our surveyor and your landlord’s surveyor inspect your property at the same time.

The surveyor will then prepare a detailed report outlining the issues of disrepair in your home, what caused them, the required repair works, and the costs associated with these.

Negotiations

Once we have received the surveyors’ report, we will be in a position to calculate the value of your claim. In doing so, we will be taking into account the severity of the disrepair in your home, the length of time the disrepair has been complained of and the amount of rent you have paid.

We will then provide you with a copy of the surveyor’s report and a breakdown of how the value of your case has been calculated. At this stage we will also propose an initial offer of compensation to present to your landlord to settle your claim.

If you are satisfied with the surveyor’s report and the proposed offer, we will proceed with providing your landlord with a copy of the Surveyor’s report and the offer of compensation. The offer will also include a timeframe in which the repairs detailed in our surveyor’s report should be completed.

Your landlord will then have 21 days to provide a response.

If at this stage your landlord was to accept the offer, your claim would conclude. We would then expect them to pay your compensation and complete the repairs in your property within the agreed timeframe.

On the other side, your landlord may decide to reject our offer and make their own offer. Your solicitor will carefully review any offers made and provide you with advice as to whether it is an offer worth accepting. Ultimately, our aim is to ensure that you are happy with any settlement that is reached with your landlord.

Court proceedings

Where it is not possible to reach an out of court agreement with your landlord, your solicitor will issue court proceedings on your behalf.

Your solicitor will be responsible for preparing the court documents and will ensure you are informed of the court process. As a significant majority of housing disrepair cases are resolved before reaching a final hearing, the chances of you having to attend a court hearing are relatively low. Furthermore, in most cases, a barrister will be instructed to present your claim on your behalf with the aim of achieving the most favourable outcome for your claim.

Should I bring a claim?

Living in a poorly maintained home is not only frustrating, but it can also negatively impact a tenant’s health and well-being; and being ignored by those responsible for those repairs only adds to the stress.

Many tenants fear that their landlord may evict them for bringing a housing disrepair claim; however, this is not the case. A landlord cannot legally evict a tenant for bringing such claim, as a tenant has the right to live in a safe and well-maintained property.

Most housing disrepair claims typically settle within 6-18 months and while navigating the legal process can, at times, seem complex, a housing disrepair solicitor will help bring a claim in the least stressful way possible to ensure that a landlord completes the repairs they are responsible for, and that compensation is rightly paid to the tenant for the distress and inconvenience they have had to endure.

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