How to report disrepair and complain about a landlord

For most tenancies in England and Wales of less than seven years, the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 implies repairing obligations that cannot be contracted out of. The landlord must keep in repair the structure and exterior — walls, roof, windows, external doors, drains, gutters and pipes — and keep in repair and proper working order the installations for supplying water, gas, electricity and sanitation, including basins, sinks, baths and toilets, and the installations for space heating and heating water.

The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 went further for tenancies in England, adding an implied term that the property is fit for human habitation at the start of and throughout the tenancy. Fitness is assessed by reference to matters including damp, ventilation, water supply, drainage, natural light, stability, freedom from serious hazards and the state of repair. Crucially, a tenant can enforce this directly in the county court and ask for an order that works be done as well as damages — without needing the council to act first.

Separately, landlords must arrange an annual gas safety check by a Gas Safe registered engineer and give the tenant the certificate, must ensure the electrical installation is inspected and tested at set intervals in England and provide the report, must fit smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms as required, and must comply with fire safety duties in houses in multiple occupation, which usually also need a licence.

The obligation is normally triggered by notice. In most cases the landlord is not in breach until they know about the defect, which is why a written report and its date are the foundation of any later claim. Where the defect is in a part of the building the landlord retains control of, notice may not be needed, but do not rely on that.

What is not the landlord's responsibility: damage you or your visitors caused, your own belongings and furniture in an unfurnished let, minor decoration, and items you installed. Tenants also have a duty to use the property in a tenant-like manner — reporting problems promptly, keeping it reasonably ventilated and heated where practicable, not blocking vents, and allowing access for repairs.

Access is the point where disputes ossify. The landlord must give notice, normally at least 24 hours in writing, and visit at a reasonable time, and the tenant should not unreasonably refuse. A tenant who refuses access weakens their position badly; a landlord who cannot get access has a defence. If access is genuinely difficult, offer alternative dates in writing so the offer is on the record.

Report in writing, always, even if you also ring. Email or a message through the landlord's or agent's portal is ideal because it timestamps itself. If you can only ring, send a short email afterwards saying what you reported, when and what was agreed.

Describe the defect precisely and say what it is doing. 'Black mould covering approximately one square metre on the north wall of the second bedroom, present since October, worse after rain, my daughter has been prescribed an inhaler' is materially more useful than 'there is mould'. Name the room, the extent, the duration and the effect on health, safety or use.

Photograph and date everything. Take wide shots showing the room and close-ups showing the defect, and repeat them monthly while the problem continues so there is a visible progression. Video is useful for intermittent problems such as a leak, a boiler failing to fire or a window that does not close.

Keep a log: date reported, method, who you spoke to, what was promised, and what actually happened. If a contractor attends and does nothing, or attends and says the problem is your ventilation, record the date, the firm and what was said.

Ask for a timescale in writing and follow up when it passes. What counts as a reasonable time depends on severity — no heating in winter, no hot water, a dangerous electrical fault or a serious leak are urgent; a cracked tile is not — and the record of you asking is what later establishes delay.

Keep receipts for anything the disrepair costs you: replacement bedding ruined by damp, additional heating, a dehumidifier, a hotel while there was no heating, or belongings damaged by a leak. These are recoverable in a claim and are almost always thrown away.

Do not stop paying rent. Withholding rent does not create leverage; it creates rent arrears, a ground for possession, and a much weaker position everywhere else. There is a narrow, technical route allowing a tenant to do repairs and offset the cost against rent, but it has strict requirements and doing it wrongly is how tenants end up evicted for arrears. Take advice before attempting it.

Register a formal complaint if the landlord is a council or housing association. Their internal complaints process has defined stages and timescales, and completing it is a precondition of the Housing Ombudsman looking at the case. Say explicitly that you are making a formal complaint, so it is logged as one.

For a private tenant whose landlord will not act, the council's environmental health team is the strongest free lever. Councils assess hazards in housing under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, which scores hazards including damp and mould growth, excess cold, falls, fire, electrical safety and overcrowding, and classifies them as category 1 or category 2. Where a category 1 hazard exists the council has a duty to take enforcement action.

The council can serve an improvement notice requiring works within a period, a prohibition order restricting use of part or all of the property, a hazard awareness notice, or in urgent cases take emergency remedial action itself and recharge the landlord. It can also prosecute or issue civil penalties for non-compliance. Request an inspection in writing, describe the hazards and attach your evidence and the record of reporting to the landlord.

Social tenants — council and housing association — go through the landlord's own complaints process first, then to the Housing Ombudsman, which is free, investigates, and can order a landlord to apologise, do works and pay compensation. Its determinations are binding on member landlords. In England, Awaab's Law imposes specific timescales on social landlords for investigating and remedying damp, mould and other emergency hazards, and failure to meet them is itself a matter for complaint.

Where the complaint is about the council acting as a local authority rather than as your landlord — a failure to enforce against a private landlord, or homelessness decisions — the route is the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman rather than the Housing Ombudsman.

Private tenants have no ombudsman covering the landlord directly at present, but if a letting agent is involved they must belong to a government-approved redress scheme, and complaints about the agent's conduct can go there free of charge. Check which scheme they belong to — it must be displayed.

The court route is available directly under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 in England: a tenant can claim in the county court for an order that the landlord carries out works and for damages, without waiting for the council. Damages are typically assessed as a proportion of rent for the period the home was unfit, plus specific losses. Legal aid remains available in England and Wales for disrepair posing a serious risk to health or safety, which is one of the narrow categories that survived the 2013 cuts.

There is protection against being evicted for complaining. Where a private tenant in England complains in writing about disrepair and the council subsequently serves an improvement notice or takes emergency remedial action, a section 21 no-fault notice served within a protected period is invalid. The protection is real but conditional on the sequence — complain in writing first, then involve the council — which is another reason the written report matters.

Rent repayment orders are a separate and powerful remedy. Where a landlord has committed a specified offence — letting an unlicensed HMO or unlicensed property, failing to comply with an improvement or prohibition order, unlawful eviction or harassment — a tenant can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for repayment of up to twelve months' rent. The council can also apply where housing benefit or the Universal Credit housing element paid the rent.

Wales replaced the tenancy framework entirely. Under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 tenants and licensees are contract-holders with occupation contracts rather than tenancies, and the landlord must ensure the dwelling is fit for human habitation and keep the structure, exterior and specified installations in repair. Fitness in Wales is defined by regulations that include specific requirements such as working smoke alarms and electrical safety testing, and a dwelling that fails them is not fit. If it is not fit, rent is not payable for the period it was unfit — a materially different remedy from the English one.

Welsh landlords and agents must also be registered and licensed with Rent Smart Wales, which is a separate enforcement lever: an unlicensed landlord commits an offence and their ability to serve possession notices is affected.

Scotland uses the Repairing Standard under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006. Private landlords must ensure the property meets it — wind and watertight, installations in working order, fixtures and appliances safe, smoke and carbon monoxide detection, safe electrical installation and, since later amendments, additional requirements including safe kitchens and common doors. Scottish landlords must be registered with the local authority.

The Scottish enforcement route is distinctive and strong: a tenant applies directly to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland, Housing and Property Chamber, which can inspect and make a Repairing Standard Enforcement Order requiring the work. There is no need to persuade the council to act first, and applying is free. Failure to comply is an offence and can lead to a rent relief order reducing the rent payable.

Northern Ireland has its own framework, with the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and district councils holding enforcement roles for unfitness and disrepair, and its own landlord registration scheme. The statutory tests and the routes differ from Great Britain, so use nidirect and the Housing Executive rather than GOV.UK for Northern Ireland matters.

Across all four nations the practical sequence is the same even where the institutions differ: written report, reasonable time, formal complaint, then the statutory body. What changes is which body, and in Scotland and Wales the tenant's direct route is stronger than in England.

Harassment and illegal eviction are criminal offences, not merely breaches of contract. Changing the locks, cutting off gas, electricity or water, removing doors, entering repeatedly without notice, threatening behaviour and putting pressure on a tenant to leave are all capable of being offences, and councils have tenancy relations officers who can and do prosecute.

A landlord cannot evict without following the correct procedure: a valid notice, then a court possession order, then, if necessary, county court bailiffs or High Court enforcement officers. Only they can carry out an eviction. A tenant told to be out by a date in a letter is not required to leave on that date, though staying has consequences that are worth understanding before deciding.

If you are threatened with illegal eviction, ring the council's tenancy relations or housing options team immediately, and Shelter's helpline. Emergency injunctions are available and legal aid covers this category.

Retaliatory eviction in the ordinary sense — being served notice after complaining — is constrained but not eliminated in England. The statutory protection applies where the sequence of written complaint and council enforcement action is followed. Reform in this area has been an active area of legislation, so check the current position, because the availability of no-fault possession has been changing.

Where the landlord is a social landlord and the problem is how the complaint was handled rather than the repair itself, the Housing Ombudsman can consider the complaint handling separately, and frequently finds maladministration in that alone, with compensation attached.

Keep your own tenancy clean while you are in dispute. Pay the rent, allow access with proper notice, respond to correspondence and do not give the landlord an independent ground for possession. Disrepair claims are won by tenants whose own conduct is unimpeachable, and lost by tenants who stopped paying.

Get free help early. Shelter, Citizens Advice, council tenancy relations officers and law centres all handle disrepair, and legal aid for disrepair posing a serious risk to health remains in scope in England and Wales. The advice is free, and the cases that go badly are usually the ones where the tenant acted alone for a year before asking.