Most tenancy disputes begin the same way: you report a problem, you wait, nothing happens. You follow up, you get a vague response or no response. The repair that was needed in October is still outstanding in January, and in the meantime, you are living with a leaking roof, a broken boiler, persistent damp, or a faulty electrical installation.
Your landlord has legal obligations. The fact that they are not meeting them does not mean you are powerless — it means you have a set of escalating options, each with genuine legal force. Understanding those options, in the right order, is how you resolve the situation without losing your tenancy or inadvertently weakening your own position.
This guide explains what landlords are legally required to repair, how to report the problem in a way that creates a usable record, and how to escalate from informal request to formal enforcement to legal action — with honest guidance at every stage about what each step involves.
What Your Landlord Is Legally Required to Repair
Before escalating any dispute, it helps to be clear about which repairs are unambiguously the landlord’s responsibility and which may be shared or your own.
Under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, landlords are required to:
- Keep the structure and exterior of the property in repair — walls, roof, foundations, windows, external doors, guttering, and drains
- Maintain the installations for water, gas, and electricity — including pipes, wiring, and the equipment connected to them
- Keep space heating and water heating in working order — a broken boiler or radiator is explicitly the landlord’s responsibility
- Maintain sanitation installations — sinks, baths, showers, and toilets
The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 adds a broader obligation: the property must remain safe, healthy, and fit to live in throughout the tenancy. This covers hazards including damp and mould, structural instability, pest infestation, excess cold, and faulty electrical wiring — regardless of whether the specific problem is listed in Section 11.
What is not the landlord’s responsibility:
- Fair wear and tear — gradual deterioration from normal use cannot be charged to tenants
- Damage you caused — if you broke something, you are responsible for the cost of repair
- Appliances you own — if you brought a washing machine or other appliance, the landlord does not need to repair it
- Minor maintenance — changing light bulbs, replacing batteries in smoke alarms, bleeding radiators, and similar small tasks are typically tenant responsibilities
If you are unsure whether a specific repair falls on your landlord, Shelter’s online housing adviser or Citizens Advice are both free resources that can help you identify liability before you escalate.
Step 1: Report the Repair in Writing and Keep Everything
The most important thing you can do before any other step is to create a written record. Verbal reports do not protect you. An email, a text message, or a written letter creates a dated record that can be used in any subsequent dispute, council inspection, or legal proceeding.
When reporting repairs:
- Describe the problem clearly and specifically — “there is a leak from the bathroom ceiling into the bedroom below, which has been active since [date] and has produced a damp patch approximately one metre in diameter”
- Include the date you first noticed the problem
- Attach photographs with timestamps where possible
- Send to the landlord directly and, if you have a letting agent, to the agent as well
- Keep a copy of everything you send
Give the landlord a reasonable deadline to respond — the law requires landlords to act within a “reasonable time”, which varies by urgency. For emergency repairs affecting health or safety (no heating in winter, structural danger, electrical fault), 24 to 48 hours is the appropriate expectation. For non-urgent but significant repairs, two to four weeks is generally considered reasonable.
If you have a letting agent, you can also complain directly to the agent if the landlord is unresponsive. Letting agents are required to be members of a redress scheme — either the Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme — and you can escalate to those schemes if the agent is not responding appropriately.
Read also- How do you rent your house
Step 2: Follow Up Formally If There Is No Response
If a reasonable deadline passes without action or a meaningful response, send a formal follow-up letter. The tone should remain factual and non-confrontational — the purpose is to build a clear documented record, not to begin a dispute.
Your follow-up letter should:
- Reference your original report with the date it was sent
- State that the agreed or reasonable deadline has passed without action
- Give a clear further deadline — typically 14 to 21 days for non-emergency repairs
- State that if repairs are not completed by that date, you will report the matter to the local authority’s environmental health team
At this stage, you can also explicitly mention the relevant legislation — Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, or the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 — to make clear that you are aware of your rights. This sometimes prompts a response that a general request did not.
Shelter provides letter templates specifically designed for tenants requesting repairs, which are legally accurate and free to use.
Step 3: Report to the Local Authority Environmental Health Team
If formal requests have not produced action, the most powerful next step is to contact your local council’s environmental health team. This is more effective than it may sound — councils have statutory powers to act, and a formal council notice creates real legal consequences for a landlord.
What happens when you contact environmental health:
- An environmental health officer (EHO) can visit your property and formally assess the hazard
- Under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), they assess risks to health and safety in residential properties
- If they identify a Category 1 hazard — the most serious classification, covering risks such as excess cold, damp and mould, structural instability, or faulty electrics — they are legally required to take enforcement action
- This can include an improvement notice requiring the landlord to carry out specific repairs within a defined timeframe, a prohibition order restricting use of part of the property, or emergency remedial action carried out at the landlord’s cost
Landlords who ignore a council improvement notice commit a criminal offence. The council can also carry out the remediation themselves and recover the costs from the landlord. This is a meaningful threat, and many landlords who have been unresponsive to tenant requests act promptly once a council notice is served.
Protection against retaliatory eviction:
If a council serves a formal improvement notice or emergency remedial action notice on your landlord, you gain specific protection against retaliatory eviction. Under the Deregulation Act 2015, a landlord cannot validly serve a Section 21 no-fault eviction notice for six months after the council has taken formal enforcement action. From 1 May 2026, Section 21 evictions are abolished entirely under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 — removing this risk for all tenants.
Step 4: The First-Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber)
If council involvement has not resolved the situation, or if you want to seek compensation for harm or financial loss caused by the disrepair, the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) is a formal but accessible route.
The Tribunal can:
- Order the landlord to carry out specific repairs within a set timeframe
- Reduce your rent until repairs are completed
- Award compensation for loss or harm caused by the disrepair
This is a less formal process than the county court and is designed to be accessible for tenants without legal representation. However, it is still a formal legal process, and gathering good evidence — written correspondence, photographs, council reports, expert assessments — strengthens your case significantly.
Step 5: Legal Action Through the Courts
Taking your landlord to court is a last resort and genuinely should be treated as one. It can be expensive, time-consuming, and emotionally draining — even when you have a strong case.
Before initiating court proceedings, you must send a formal letter of claim giving the landlord 20 working days to carry out the repairs or reach an agreement. Citizens Advice provides a template letter of claim for housing disrepair on GOV.UK. If no agreement is reached within 20 working days, you can begin proceedings.
Courts can order:
- A mandatory injunction requiring the landlord to carry out specific repairs within a defined period
- Compensation for harm, inconvenience, and any financial loss you have suffered as a result of the disrepair (including damage to your belongings, health effects, and costs you incurred)
- A rent abatement — a reduction in rent for the period during which part of your home was uninhabitable
You will need legal advice before starting court action. Citizens Advice, Shelter, and local housing advice centres provide free or low-cost guidance. Legal aid may be available depending on your income.
Read also- What Are My Rights as a Landlord?
What Not to Do
Two common tenant responses to non-responsive landlords create legal risk rather than resolving the problem:
Do not withhold rent without legal advice. Stopping rent payments creates arrears in law, regardless of the landlord’s failure to repair. Those arrears give the landlord grounds for possession proceedings. The courts treat arrears and disrepair as separate matters — one does not cancel out the other. If you withhold rent and the landlord applies for possession, your disrepair claim does not automatically offset the arrears. Always take legal advice before stopping any rent payment.
Do not carry out repairs yourself without following the correct procedure. In very limited circumstances, tenants can arrange repairs and deduct the cost from rent — but this requires you to have given your landlord repeated written notice, received no response, followed a strict procedure, and to be certain the repairs are unambiguously the landlord’s responsibility. Doing this incorrectly can expose you to a claim for costs by the landlord. Always get legal advice first.
For free legal advice on housing disrepair, check: Shelter England — what to do if your landlord won’t do repairs
London-Specific Considerations
For London tenants, several factors are worth noting. London boroughs tend to have more active private rented sector enforcement teams than many other areas, particularly inner-London councils that have invested in housing enforcement capacity. The Greater London Authority has also been involved in efforts to improve private rented sector conditions across the capital.
London’s higher average rents (and higher property values generally) also mean that disrepair compensation awards — which are calculated as a proportion of rent for the affected period — tend to be higher in London than the national average, which can make a legal claim more financially meaningful.
For official guidance on private renting repairs, check: GOV.UK — private renting repairs
Conclusion
If your landlord will not do repairs, you have a clear sequence of escalating options — each with more formal legal force than the last, and each requiring a documented record of what you have already done.
Report in writing first. Follow up formally if there is no response. Contact the council’s environmental health team if the situation persists — the powers available to them are real and often produce results that tenant requests alone do not. The First-tier Tribunal and the courts are available as further steps if needed, with the ability to order repairs, award compensation, and reduce rent for the period the property has been substandard.
Do not withhold rent without legal advice. Do not carry out repairs yourself without following the prescribed procedure. Document everything throughout, and do not hesitate to access the free advice services — Shelter, Citizens Advice, and local housing organisations — that exist specifically to support tenants in this situation.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a landlord legally have to carry out repairs?
Can my landlord evict me for reporting repairs?
No — retaliatory eviction is legally restricted. Under the Deregulation Act 2015, a landlord who receives a formal council improvement notice cannot validly serve a Section 21 no-fault eviction notice for six months. From 1 May 2026, Section 21 evictions are abolished entirely under the Renters' Rights Act 2025, removing this mechanism completely.
Can I contact the council about my landlord without telling my landlord first?
Yes — you have the right to contact your local authority's environmental health team at any point. However, having a written record of having reported the problem to your landlord first strengthens your position in any subsequent council inspection or legal proceeding. In practice, giving your landlord a documented opportunity to act first is advisable before involving the council.
