What counts as housing disrepair?

The short answer

Housing disrepair is when something in your home that your landlord is responsible for has broken or worn out, they know about it, and they haven't fixed it within a reasonable time.

What your landlord must repair

For most council and housing association tenancies in England, the law (section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985) says your landlord must keep in repair:

• the structure and exterior: roof, walls, foundations, floors, ceilings, windows, external doors, gutters and drains;
• the installations for water, gas and electricity: pipes, wiring, tanks, sinks, baths, toilets;
• heating and hot water: boilers, radiators and water heaters.

Your tenancy agreement may add more, such as kitchen units or internal doors.

Fit to live in

Since 2019 and 2020, landlords in England must also make sure your home is fit for human habitation, at the start of the tenancy and all the way through it. A home can be unfit because of serious damp and mould, no adequate heating, poor ventilation, pests, unsafe stairs or electrics, among other things, even if nothing is technically "broken".

What doesn't count

• damage you or a visitor caused (though the landlord may still have to fix it and recharge you);
• your own belongings and appliances, like a washing machine you bought;
• problems the landlord doesn't know about. That's why reporting properly matters.

When you can claim

You can usually claim if the landlord was told about the problem, had a reasonable time to fix it, and didn't, or only patched it up. What's "reasonable" depends on how serious it is. In England, Awaab's Law now sets legal deadlines for many hazards. Awaab's Law.