Your boiler has been broken for six weeks. You've reported the mould on the bedroom wall three times. Your landlord replies with vague promises and nothing changes. That is a disrepair claim, and you may be owed compensation for it.
Disrepair compensation in England is mostly a share of the rent you already paid while the disrepair went unfixed, plus separate damages for any injury and for damaged belongings. It is money back, not a lower rent bill going forward.
This guide covers tenants in England. Renting in Wales? Your repair and fitness rights sit in the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 instead, and our guide to unfit homes in Wales covers them.
How is housing disrepair compensation calculated in England?
The first part is general damages, compensation for the inconvenience of living with the disrepair. Courts usually work it out as a share of the rent you paid for each month it affected your use of the home. No statute fixes that share, but moderate cases commonly land between a quarter and a half. To fix the percentage, courts look at how much of the home was affected, how long the problem lasted, when you reported it, and whether the landlord had a reasonable time to fix it.
Where a home is unfit for human habitation under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, it can run to the whole rent, and in the worst cases a court can go higher if it gives clear reasons. Take a tenant paying £1,200 a month whose serious damp problem was ignored for 8 months. At half the rent, plus the 10% the Court of Appeal adds to damages like these, that is about £5,300 from this element alone, and more if the home was unfit.
The second part is special damages, meaning provable out-of-pocket losses such as damaged clothing or furniture, prescription costs, and higher energy bills from a broken boiler. If the conditions made you ill, damages for the injury itself are a third part, valued separately and not as a share of your rent.
What makes a disrepair claim worth more or less
There is no fixed price per problem. The type of hazard tells you how seriously a court is likely to treat it.
Damp and mould claims turn on documented health impact. Mould causing respiratory symptoms or aggravating asthma is treated far more seriously than a patch that stains a wall, especially where a GP has linked your symptoms to the property.
Roof leaks, escapes of water, broken windows, structural defects and subsidence tend to go unfixed for months, so the period you can claim for is often long. See leaks and water damage or broken windows and doors.
Broken heating or no hot water is judged heavily on duration and season. A boiler left unfixed through winter is a much stronger claim than one broken in late spring. More on a landlord who won't fix your boiler.
Electrical hazards weigh more where the landlord has also broken the electrical safety certificate rules.
Gas safety failures are among the most serious hazards. An unsafe gas installation is usually disrepair and can make the property unfit. A missed annual safety check breaches the gas safety regulations, but on its own it is neither disrepair nor a Rent Repayment Order offence. See the breakdown on gas safety certificate breach and tenant compensation.
Does Awaab's Law apply to private renters yet?
Not yet. Awaab's Law sets binding repair timescales, but since 27 October 2025 it has covered social housing in England only. A social landlord must make an emergency hazard safe within 24 hours and investigate significant damp and mould within 10 working days. The full deadlines are in our guide to Awaab's Law timescales for social tenants.
The Renters' Rights Act lets the government extend Awaab's Law to private renting in England. No start date has been set, and a consultation on the timescales and when they start runs until 18 December 2026.
If you rent privately in England, your claim rests on the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 duty to keep the property in repair, and the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, which lets you sue directly where a home is unfit to live in. Awaab's Law and private renters covers where the law is heading.
Cost is not a defence. A landlord who says repairs are 'too expensive right now' is still in breach.
What evidence you need to claim compensation
Good evidence gets a faster, fairer settlement. At minimum, keep:
- Written reports of the disrepair, ideally by email or text so you have a timestamp.
- Dated photographs and video, taken when the problem first appears and at regular intervals after.
- Your landlord's responses, or screenshots of their silence.
- Medical evidence if you're claiming for injury.
- Receipts for damaged belongings if you're claiming special damages.
For problems inside your home, the period that matters starts once your landlord knew about the problem and had a reasonable time to fix it, not when the problem began. For a part the landlord keeps, such as the roof or common parts of a block they own, it starts as soon as the disrepair does.
A phone call counts as notice in law, but it is hard to prove. If you phoned about a broken boiler in March but can only show an email from May, you may end up claiming from May. Send that email.
Time limits apply. A disrepair claim generally has 6 years, but a claim that includes an injury usually has 3 years from when you knew the illness was linked to your home.
How to make a disrepair claim in England
Disrepair claims in England go to the County Court. Before issuing one, you're expected to follow the Pre-Action Protocol for Housing Conditions Claims (England), which requires you to send a formal Letter of Claim, often called a letter before action, and normally gives your landlord 20 working days to reply. Our guide to the housing disrepair protocol walks through it.
Many claims settle at that stage.
Remedies available to you include:
- Damages, the compensation figure worked out above
- A court order requiring the landlord to carry out repairs
- Costs. On the small claims track each side mostly pays its own. A claim that includes repairs stays there only if the repair works and the damages are each £1,000 or less. Above that it usually goes to the fast track, where the landlord usually pays a large part of your legal fees if you win, and you risk paying theirs if you lose.
Reporting the disrepair to your council's environmental health team runs alongside a claim. The council can compel repairs but cannot pay you compensation.
When a disrepair claim overlaps with a Rent Repayment Order
In England, a Rent Repayment Order is a separate route that applies when your landlord has committed a specific housing offence, such as running an unlicensed HMO or ignoring an improvement notice. If your landlord also runs an unlicensed HMO, you can bring both claims, and they stack. Our guide to Rent Repayment Orders for unlicensed HMOs covers that route.
If your landlord has ignored repairs you reported in writing, you may well have a claim, and the open question is its size.
Remedy can help you report the problem to your landlord in writing, ask your council's private housing or environmental health team to inspect, and keep a dated record of what happened. Remedy does not give a legal assessment of disrepair compensation or bring claims for you. If you want advice on compensation, you can contact a solicitor or advice charity listed in our legal help directory. Each one is independent, and you contact them directly.
