Two law partners at a legal firm have outlined a five-step process which tenants can use to complain to their landlords about alleged disrepair of their property.
Sophie Bell and Farzana Chowdhury - who are described as “experienced housing law partners at Hodge, Jones & Allen” - says that recent government data shows that whilst 31 per cent of social renters considered making a complaint from 2019-2021, one in six of those did not actually end up making a complaint. And amongst private tenants, some 17 per cent considered making a housing disrepair complaint, yet nearly a quarter of those ultimately did not.
The lawyers claims that private renters were concerned about the repercussions, with 19 per cent concerned about causing problems with their landlord, 17 per cent saying it was ”too much hassle to complain” and 18 per cent saying they believed nothing would be done as a result of a complaint anyway.
The pair say tenants should not withhold rent but should follow this five-step process to complain.
"1. Determine the disrepair - Before making the complaint, you need to determine if the issue you are facing is due to disrepair, as a landlord is not responsible for all problems in the home. The landlord is responsible for the structure and exterior of the building and also the supply of water, gas, and electricity. Issues such as leaks, dampness and mould may fall under the disrepair depending on their cause. If in doubt, seek legal advice.
"2. Notify your landlord - It’s vital that you inform the landlord about the disrepair issues in your property as no claim can be brought unless this has been done. This is referred to as providing your landlord with ‘notice’ and should be done in writing via letter, email, or text message. Keeping records of correspondence can be important down the line if a claim is needed. The hope is that the landlord carries out the repairs at this stage, but it’s not always the case.
"3. Letter of claim - If a reasonable time has passed, you have not had a response, or your landlord refuses to carry out the necessary works, the next step is to send a ‘letter of claim’ to your landlord. This would usually be asking for repair work to be carried out and to pay some compensation. You can draft this letter yourself or you can instruct solicitors at this stage to send a letter of claim on your behalf. This letter invites the landlord to put forward proposals to settle the case without the need to go to court proceedings. They have 20 working days to respond.
"4. Obtain an expert report - After 20 working days without a response, you can get your legal representative to instruct an expert to inspect the property and produce a report of the disrepair. The expert will advise on how long the works will take and a schedule of repair can be produced.
"5. Make a claim to the county court - If the matter cannot be resolved through contact with the landlord, or they have refused to carry out the works or pay compensation, the disrepair claim can then be issued in the county court."
Bell and Chowdhury add that “the ideal scenario for renters is that the disrepair issue is resolved in the initial stages of the complaint when you provide the landlord with notice. If this does not take place, you may be entitled to compensation for the delays.”
They go on to say that tenants may claim compensation for any reasonable financial loss and expenses incurred as a result of the disrepair, including damage to belongings; distress and inconvenience suffered due to the disrepair; and “any personal injury you or a member of your family have suffered, as a result of the disrepair, though the evidence of causation will need to be very strong.”
As a caveat, the pair remind tenants that if unsuccessful at court, they may be required to pay their landlord’s legal fees.
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It’s rubbish there’s no legal Profession / £300.00 per hour and charge you £16.00 (min) for 3 minute phone call or part there off and you paying for your own phone.
Another big scam being committed by GREEDY solicitors, who are just out to swallow as much money as they can, wouldn't be so bad if their fees were on a level playing field to what a working person makes, but some charge up to £550 an hour plus vat , its rediculous, one cant even pick up the phone as one just hears the timer ticking and money gushing out of ones pockets
They are the modern day highway robbers.
Ambulance chasers.
Landlords should note the name of the firm and ensure they avoid this lot.
Interesting to see this is what they advise tenants to do. If I had the sort of bad relationship with tenants whereby they would even consider this, then they would be ex-tenants at the first opportunity.
Sounds to me they are really talking about the ''social'' housing sector which is where the repair issues generally are, good luck with picking a fight with councils and housing associations they have the resources to fight back and courts are more likely to side with them
The article highlights one of the many things that is wrong with the landlord and tenant relationship. The simple quickest and most effective way to deal with landlords who refuse or are slow to do repairs is for the tenant to do it themselves and charge the landlord by deducting it from the rent. No need to use expensive solicitors, waste time in litigation or involve the council housing standards department who will not enforce against their own council. The government talk about making tenants responsible and this is the justification for paying them directly the housing part of their universal credit, why not make the tenant’s responsibility for simple repairs as well?
It is not generally known, but if you look on the shelters website it explains the process the tenant must follow when doing their own repairs. As landlords we criticise Shelter but Shelter is the only body I know who tells tenants the simple solution to their problems. By the way this is the approach taken in many American states so the model already applies. There are just too many greedy snouts in the trough preventing a pragmatic low-cost solution to tenant’s repair problems with landlords who will not carry out repairs.
I appreciate that getting the tenants to do their own repairs is not the solution in every case and problems can arise taking this approach. Many of the complaints I get from tenants about repairs are down to the tenants neglect or carelessness. In another words the tenant creates the disrepair. The most common being forcing doors and mould. The mould is caused by tenants failing to ventilate and heat the property and they can easily remove the mould themselves.
The litigation, confrontation, policing and enforcement approach to dealing with landlords is not the way to deal with landlords and it does little to help their tenants.
Jim Haliburton
The HMO Daddy
Very true and sensible Jim, but it leaves the greedy solicitors out in the cold
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