Housing Disrepair Claims

A Housing Disrepair Claim is a claim made against your Council or Housing Association for their failure to keep your property up to legal standards of repair.

If your property is affected by disrepair and your Council or Housing Association have failed to complete the repairs within a reasonable period despite continuous complaints exceeding 3 months (or 12 weeks), you are able to commence a Housing Disrepair Claim. 

We assist Council and Housing Association tenants whose property is affected by any of the following defects:

• Damp, mould and/or fungal growth

• Flooding and/or water Leaks

• Roof issues

• Structural defects (cracking, movement, sinking flooring, etc.)

• Dry rot

•      No heating or hot water

• Problems with guttering and/or drains

For more information, start your claim online or contact us on 0800 610 2223.

1. To commence a Housing Disrepair Claim, we initially arrange a telephone conversation between you and one of our friendly legal experts. This is a free, no-obligation conversation where you may discuss the issues you are experiencing. 

2. We then request you send through any images/videos of the disrepair at your property. You may send these either via email or WhatsApp.

3. As soon as we have received your images/videos, we then send your no win, no fee agreement through to your email address for electronic signature. 

4. Once signed and returned, we then draft and send a Letter of Claim detailing the issues at your property through to your Council or Housing Association. They are given a 20-day deadline to respond with a copy of your tenancy file.

5. During this time, we arrange for a surveyor to attend your property to carry out a full evaluation to establish exactly which works are required.

6. Once we are in receipt of an inspection report together with a copy of your tenancy file, we may then move towards settlement, which is works to be completed within a set timeframe together with compensation to be paid. 

See our related blog post: Why are complaints important? 

For more information, start your claim online or contact us on 0800 610 2223.

No. Our services are completely free to tenants. Our legal fees are paid by the Council or Housing Association upon successful completion of your claim. 

If your claim is unsuccessful, our fees will simply be wiped, yet we will still work towards getting those works completed at your property. 

Of any compensation awarded from your claim, you will receive 70% (plus all works completed in full), whilst we take 30% of any compensation. 

For example, if your claim settles for £1,000.00, you will receive £700.00.

We would not put our clients in a position where they would have to pay a penny.  

For more information, start your claim online or contact us on 0800 610 2223.

We calculate the compensation owed to you by establishing your first complaint made regarding the disrepair, and then estimating when we expect works to be completed at your property. This period is known as the “liability period”. 

We then assess how much rent has been paid at your Council or Housing Association property during this timeframe. A percentage of this is deducted based on how many living spaces in your property are affected by the disrepair. 

As a brief example, if you have been complaining for 1 year (minus 4-8 weeks) regarding damp affecting 50% of your property, and you pay £400.00 in rent per month, the formula would look like this:

11 months x £400.00 rent per month – 50% inconvenience = £2,200.00 (amount repayable).

We also seek to claim additional compensation for “special damages”, which include items, furniture, decorations, and possessions which have become damaged due to the disrepair. If you have suffered loss of earnings due to the disrepair, or if your utility bills have increased due to the disrepair, this can also be claimed for as part of your special damages. 

For more information, start your claim online or contact us on 0800 610 2223.

If you have been complaining about disrepair at your Council or Housing Association property for more than 3 months, and no works have been undertaken (or works have been undertaken but have not been sufficient enough to rectify the disrepair), you may be eligible to start a Housing Disrepair Claim.

To check eligibility, see our blog post: Am I eligible to start a claim? 

For more information, start your claim online or contact us on 0800 610 2223.

Your Council or Housing Association cannot evict you for commencing a Housing Disrepair Claim. 

They can, however, counterclaim against you if you have high rent arrears or have breached the terms of your tenancy agreement (such as with nuisance behavior, drug abuse, or making modifications to your property without first receiving consent, etc.). For this reason, we do not accept tenants with high rent arrears or those who have breached the terms of their tenancy agreement.

As part of your tenancy agreement, your Council or Housing Association are required to keep your property up to legal standards of repair. 

Here at MLA Solicitors, our job is to ensure those works are completed and that you are compensated for the stress and inconvenience. Our purpose is not to worsen the relationship between you and your Council or Housing Association.

Unfortunately, we do not accept clients whose tenancy is less than 1 year old. 

For more information, start your claim online or contact us on 0800 610 2223.