Reporting Repairs To Your Social Housing Landlord Really, Really Matters, But Can You Ever Bring A Housing Conditions And Disrepair Claim If You Did Not Report The Problem?

It is very important as a tenant that you tell your landlord about any defects in your home. Why?

1. You are usually required to do so under your tenancy agreement, and failing to do so would mean you are in breach.
2. So, your landlord knows about the issues and can take action accordingly, and
3. Normally, your landlord is not contractually obliged to carry out repairs or remedial works to the defects unless they are put on notice.

The third point is crucial, particularly if you need to bring a claim against your landlord if they fail to carry out necessary repairs to your home.

What do I need to establish to have a successful housing disrepair claim against my landlord?

To have a successful housing disrepair claim against your landlord, you need to be able to establish the following:

1. You would need to prove there are/were defects in your home.
2. You would need to prove that these defects are the responsibility of your landlord. Your tenancy agreement will set out whether your landlord is responsible for the defect: either through an “express” term (i.e. it is written in your tenancy agreement) or an “implied” term (i.e. the law automatically sets this as a term of your tenancy agreement).
3. You would normally need to prove your landlord knew about the defect. We will call this ‘the notice requirement’.
   *We’ll touch on the ‘normally’ at the end of this blog. *
4. You would need to prove that even though your landlord knew about the defect, they did not fix it within a reasonable timeframe and therefore are in breach of your tenancy agreement.
5. To be successful in getting compensation, you would need to prove that, as a result of your landlord’s breach, you suffered a “loss of amenity”. This will sometimes involve showing that you suffered distress, loss or inconvenience as a result of the property conditions.

If you can prove 1-4, there is a good chance you will have a claim for repairs, so long as your landlord does not have any other defences, they can successfully rely on.

Defendant landlords will often argue that the tenant never told them about the defects in their home; and so, the tenant does not have a claim.

The same ‘notice’ requirement may apply to claims in respect of housing that is unfit for human habitation, but in the recent High Court judgment in Harvey v Heaver the court decided not to make a ruling on that question.

Now let’s focus on this notice requirement in more detail.

The Notice Requirement:

Why do you need to prove notice to have a disrepair claim? It’s really just a case of common sense. How can your landlord fix an issue in your home if they didn’t even know about it? A scrupulous, court-fearing landlord would need to visit you every day to check your home was free of defects to avoid this breach—and, quite frankly, that would just be very annoying, not to mention possibly a breach of your quiet enjoyment.

The majority of tenants are fully aware of this and do report issues in their home to their landlord. It is uncommon that tenants contact solicitors seeking to make a claim when they think their landlord has no clue about the defects inside their home. If they do, a (good) solicitors’ firm will politely inform them that this is not something they can assist them with and that they should report the problems to their landlord.

So why are some potential-Claimants still unable to fulfil this notice requirement?

What is very common is a tenant will know their landlord is aware of the issues because they’ve told the landlord several times over the phone; contractors and housing officers have attended their home; the issues have been raised during gas safety checks or routine appointments; or the defects have been discussed in detail in person.

The landlord clearly knows about the defect. The problem is sometimes tenants do not have any evidence to show it.

Ultimately, the burden of proof is on the tenant as the Claimant to prove their landlord was aware of the defects. It is, therefore, important that you keep hold of any records and correspondence showing you made your landlord aware that a repair issue exists. Where any verbal communications take place, try to take a note of this in a diary or follow up with the landlord in writing.

Where do I get notice evidence from?

Your home is in appalling condition and in disrepair and your landlord hasn’t done anything. You’ve made formal written complaints, and it’s looking like legal action is necessary, but you can only find a few examples of evidence of notice, and these are only recent. It doesn’t reflect the years and years of considerable time and effort you’ve spent reporting these issues repeatedly to your landlord. So, what do you do?

• If your landlord is an organisation (if they are a social housing landlord, they will be), make a Subject Access Request and request a copy of your housing file and repair records.

Or

• Write a Pre-Action Letter to your landlord about the issues affecting your home and request that they provide all relevant documents in relation to the issues, including emails and repair logs. The Pre-Action for Housing Conditions Protocol sets out what should be included in a Pre-Action Letter and how your landlord should respond. Your landlord should be providing you with all relevant records or documents requested by you within 20 working days. If you decide to instruct solicitors, they will be able to draft this letter for you.

A copy of your housing file, particularly where contact logs and correspondence are included, should hopefully reveal instances you’ve called and reported disrepairs.

I’ve requested the above and I still can’t find sufficient evidence of notice…

You should speak with a legal professional or solicitor and seek advice as to whether you have a disrepair and housing conditions claim against your landlord and raise any concerns with them about notice.

We should also touch on the broader realities of why, at times, tenants struggle to fulfil the notice requirement.

• Landlord’s poor record keeping: sometimes landlords fail to maintain accurate, accessible and up-to-date records. Unfortunately, this can leave tenants’ complaints and reports lost in the system, with no reliable record they were ever made. If you are reliant on your landlord’s records to prove notice, this can really make it difficult to prove you’ve fulfilled the notice requirement.
• Reporting fatigue: You stop reporting. Reporting issues can be exhausting. You report an issue 10, 20, 100 times, and no one does anything. So why bother? Particularly, if you know your complaints are going into the abyss due to poor record keeping.
• Bad experience in the past: If you’ve previously had a bad experience after reporting repairs, this might put you off. Whether it’s poor customer service or poorly carried out and disruptive repair works, you may just find the prospect of doing it all again too much to cope with.
• You report the issue only once. This ought to be enough, but in reality, this can cause difficulties, particularly if the notice falls outside the limitation period, or if the sudden stop in reporting within the records makes it appear as though your landlord had indeed fixed the issue.
• You are unaware of an issue and so don’t report it. This can also happen when, for example, a tenant reports damp and mould but doesn’t report a separate defect which may be contributing to the damp and mould, such as blown double glazing, which is causing condensation to occur. You might not know the window glazing is blown, and so you don’t report the windows. Your landlord might then try to argue that although they knew about the damp, you did not tell them about the windows.
• Your landlord’s reporting system is not accessible: It can be more difficult to report repairs if your landlord’s website page does not include any contact details for reporting issues, if phone calls have long queues, if the only option is to use a website to report repairs, or if there is no nearby housing office. This might particularly be the case if you have a disability which makes the usual methods of reporting difficult.

Whilst we appreciate the realities of why tenants stop reporting issues, we strongly encourage tenants to continue telling their landlords about any defects affecting their home, as this will ensure they can rely on their rights to repairs. If you feel your landlord’s reporting system is inaccessible, particularly if this is due to a disability, you may want to consider making a request for a reasonable adjustment when it comes to reporting. You might also want to consider seeking legal advice on whether your landlord’s repairs reporting policies or practices may be discriminatory.

So – if you didn’t report the issues to your landlord and therefore do not fulfil the notice requirement, then what? Does that mean your landlord is not liable at all? This is where it gets a bit complicated, but depending on the defect and where it is, not necessarily…

Normally, you will need to prove your landlord had notice of a defect; but there are specific circumstances where you don’t.

And confusingly, cases where a tenant does not need to report a defect are not “exceptions” to the notice requirement. They reflect the general rule; it is the “notice requirement” that is, in fact, the exception.

There will be more on this in our second blog, which will cover the question: can you ever bring a housing conditions and disrepair claim against your landlord if you did not report the problem?