Housing Disrepair
Millions of people across the UK rent their accommodation from landlords, councils and housing associations, yet only 97% of tenants are familiar with their rights.
If your rented accommodation, be it a house, flat or an apartment is in need of repairs and your landlord isn’t taking any steps to repair the property, then you may be eligible to recover compensation from your landlord. Your landlords are required by law to keep accommodation in an adequate state of repair.
At Sebastian Rowe Solicitors your Housing Disrepair Claim will be dealt with by an experienced Solicitor with many years of experience. Our Solicitors know the ins and out of investigating such claims and to get you the maximum compensation you deserve.
When your rented accommodation is in need of repair for it to be safe for tenants to live in then your landlord is required by law to ensure that your accommodation;
If you have the following issues, have reported them to your landlord and nothing has been done then this would be classed as a housing disrepair claim.
The starting point is to check your tenancy agreement as this will outline both yours and your landlords responsibilities, however the repairs listed above are your landlords responsibilities. Tenants are usually responsible for making repairs for and appliances they own, damage caused by the tenant or there family and minor repairs agreed in the tenancy agreement.
Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 imposes a statutory duty on landlords when it comes to the maintenance of a property.
The Defective Premises Act 1972 and The fitness for Habitation Act 2018 gives Tenants additional Protection.
The statutory duties are rules which the landlord cannot avoid and are in place to ensure your home is safe.
Once reported to your Landlord any faults must be repaired within a reasonable time, if not you may be legally entitled to compensation.
Living in Faulty premises can increase your chances in some situations of developing illnesses and injury and in some instances death when some disrepairs are left unaddressed. Other risks can include increased bills and damage to personal belongings.
The first and utmost important step in making a claim is to collect the necessary evidence. You need evidence of the neglect and evidence of your attempts to inform the landlord about the neglect.
You need to ensure that you always report repairs to your landlord immediately and then give them a reasonable amount of time to reply to you. If an urgent repair is required i.e. a water leak then your landlord should repair this within 24 hours if on the other hand if the repair is related to a small crack in the wall then the reasonable time could be as long as 3 months.
Always keep records of your contact with the landlord and ideally you should make contact by email or SMS as this would show exactly when any complaints were made.
If your landlord refuses to deal with the repairs then legal action should be considered.
This is dependant on your landlord and how responsive they are. On average such claims can take between 3 to 6 months to be completed.
The amount of compensation varies on a number of factors such as;
We work on a no win no fee basis so you’ll only pay any fees if you win. Our fees would be 25% +VAT of any compensation recovered.
For more information about making a housing disrepair claim please contact us on 0161 820 3316, email us or fill in our online contact form and a member of our team will be in touch and help you with any questions you have.
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