How long does a Housing Disrepair claim take?

Want to start a Housing Disrepair claim, but worried about how long it will take? This article discusses the Housing Disrepair claim process, and the steps both the claimant and solicitor can take to make the process as quick as possible.

If you are experiencing a Housing Disrepair issue, no matter how severe it is, you would want it to be repaired as soon as possible. Making a Housing Disrepair claim via a law firm is one way of doing that. But this raises the obvious question: how long does a Housing Disrepair claim take from start to finish?

A Housing Disrepair claim can take as short as a couple of months from start to finish, but sometimes it can take a lot longer. It depends on a few different factors, which we will now explain.

Before starting a claim, it is important that you have made complaints to your landlord first. Ideally, this should be done in writing so that you can demonstrate exactly when the landlord first became aware of the disrepair. If you try to bring up a claim, but the landlord is not aware of the existing defect, the court will not support your case.

At the start of a claim, we will engage the landlord in the “pre-action protocol”. During this process, we will send a “letter of claim” which details every defect in your home. Once the landlord has responded, expert evidence from a surveyor will be obtained to assess and value the cost of any relevant repairs.

If all parties are happy with the surveying evidence, then we will attempt to agree a settlement offer for a schedule of works and financial compensation with your landlord. If the landlord is willing to work with us and accept liability for the disrepair, the remedial works can be carried out swiftly, without the need to proceed to court.

At Pabla & Pabla, our Housing Disrepair department settles more than 90% of our cases without the need for the help of the court. It is within everyone’s interests to settle the claims in this way, if possible, mostly so that the repairs can be made quickly. That is, at the end of the day, the reason for starting a claim.

However, if the landlord is uncooperative, sometimes we must issue proceedings and take the case to a court. This adds a lot of time to the process, because of the current delays within in the court system.

I can hear you asking: how long does it take?!

Unfortunately, it is still impossible to put a hard timeframe on how long the process takes. Factors like the complexity of the case and how cooperative the landlord is, all impact how long the case takes.

At Pabla & Pabla, we will support your claim from start to finish. If you have been complaining to your landlord about an ongoing problem with your home and they’re still not listening, we can support you to bring a Housing Disrepair claim against them. It can sometimes take time but could be the fastest way to enact repairs after complaints have been ignored by your landlord.

However, the best-case scenario is that you bring a claim against your landlord, who cooperates with the process, and agrees to repairs quickly. If you choose Pabla & Pabla as your solicitors, your dedicated case handler will regularly be in touch with every detail about the progress of your claim.

Our priority is remedying your disrepair, and part of that priority is making sure the works are done swiftly.