Housing Disrepair Claims Now Open to Private Renters

Since the inception of our Housing Disrepair department, we have assisted thousands of social housing tenants who have suffered with disrepair – but poor living conditions are not exclusive to social housing tenants alone. We have always wanted to represent private tenants as well, but historically there were several reasons which made it much harder for law firms like ours to do so.

Since the inception of our Housing Disrepair department, we have assisted thousands of social housing tenants who have suffered with disrepair – but poor living conditions are not exclusive to social housing tenants alone. We have always wanted to represent private tenants as well, but historically there were several reasons which made it much harder for law firms like ours to do so.

One large reason for this was the relative insecurity of private tenancies. For years, when a private tenant brought a claim against their landlord, many simply evicted their tenants using the highly controversial Section 21 No Fault Eviction process. If the tenant no longer lived in the property, the claim would often collapse and the landlord was able to escape censure and simply find a new tenant to replace them. This meant that many private renters simply chose not to make a formal claim for fear of this process happening. Given the desperation for housing, landlords had no real difficulties in replacing the complaining tenant.

The byproduct of this was that there was no real market for private tenant redress and very few firms were able to provide a service which protected their client from adverse costs. However, due to a change in the law, this is a situation we hope to reverse. 

In short, the exact same way as a Housing Disrepair claim for a social housing tenant!

The process starts with the tenant submitting information about their ongoing disrepair issues to a law firm, who assess the evidence provided. If they assist private tenants like Pabla & Pabla do, then they will consider the information to see if they can take on the claim.

Every law firm works a little differently, but most need to check the same things to see if they can take on the case, these being :

1. Evidence of the landlord being notified of the disrepair. This could be a screenshot of phone messages or saved emails. To succeed with a disrepair claim, the landlord needs to know about the disrepair and had longer than a “reasonable” amount of time without completing the repair.
2. A copy of the tenancy agreement. This could be a digital or physical copy and is checked to ensure the landlord owns the property where the tenant resides, and is legally responsible for the repairs.
3. Evidence of the disrepair. This could be photographs or videos, showing the full extent of the disrepair.