You reported the mould six weeks ago, with photos. Your landlord said they'd look into it. Nothing happened, and now the black patches on your bathroom ceiling have spread to the bedroom wall. Your landlord is likely to be in breach of their legal obligations.
Damp and mould in a rented home are a health hazard, and the law treats them as one. In England, under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, your landlord has to keep the property in repair and fit to live in. The Housing Act 2004 gives your council the power to inspect and force repairs. Around 1 in 10 privately rented homes in England has damp, and many of those tenants may have a claim they have not yet made.
If you rent in Wales, different law applies. Your landlord's duties come from the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, as our guide to fitness for human habitation in Wales explains. Awaab's Law does not apply there, though Welsh social landlords have had their own hazard timescales under the Welsh Housing Quality Standard since 1 April 2026.
What is your landlord legally required to do about damp and mould?
The Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires landlords to keep the structure and exterior of a property in repair, which includes walls, roofs, windows, and drainage systems. Under the Housing Act 2004, your council can rate serious damp and mould as a Category 1 hazard and require repairs.
Landlords are responsible for rising damp, penetrating damp from a damaged roof or wall, and condensation caused by broken heating or ventilation, or serious enough to make the home unfit to live in. If the mould comes entirely from how a tenant uses the home, such as drying laundry indoors with the windows shut and a working extractor fan switched off, the picture gets more complicated.
The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 sits on top of these duties. Serious damp or mould can make your home unfit to live in, whether it comes from condensation, rising damp, or a structural fault. The main exception is unfitness caused wholly or mainly by your own breach of the tenancy. You can enforce this in the county court yourself.
The Renters' Rights Act 2025 will also bring the Decent Homes Standard to private rentals from 2035.
Does Awaab's Law cover private renters yet?
Awaab's Law is named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died in 2020 in a social housing flat in Rochdale. The coroner found he died from a severe respiratory condition caused by prolonged exposure to mould in his home.
Awaab's Law is in force for social landlords in England, in phases from 27 October 2025. A social landlord must investigate an emergency hazard and carry out emergency safety work within 24 hours, investigate significant damp and mould within 10 working days, and complete the safety work within 5 working days of the investigation ending.
For private landlords, Awaab's Law is not in force yet. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 extends it to private lettings in England, but no date has been set. The government is consulting on the timescales until 18 December 2026. If you rent privately, you cannot yet hold your landlord to those fixed 24-hour or 10-day deadlines.
What you can rely on now is the standard that already applies to private landlords. Once your landlord knows about the damp, they must put it right within a reasonable time, and what counts as reasonable depends on how serious the hazard is.
A written, dated report is the easiest way to prove when your landlord found out. A text, an email, or a WhatsApp message with a timestamp and a photo is evidence. A phone call is hard to prove.
How much compensation can a tenant claim for damp and mould?
Most claims are for two kinds of damages. General damages compensate you for living with the problem. They cover the period your landlord was in breach, which usually starts once they knew about it and a reasonable time to fix it had passed. Courts often value this as a reduction in rent, sized to how much of the home was affected and how badly. Our guide to damp and mould compensation amounts shows how that turns into a figure.
Special damages cover costs you can prove, such as ruined belongings, medical costs linked to the damp, or alternative accommodation. Keep receipts.
A damp property alone does not qualify for a rent repayment order. The landlord must have committed a specific offence, for example failing to comply with a council improvement notice or prohibition order, or renting out an unlicensed HMO. The First-tier Tribunal can then order your landlord to repay up to the rent you paid while the offence was running, less any Universal Credit or Housing Benefit.
The ceiling is 12 months for offences before 1 May 2026 and 2 years for offences from that date. Because the order only reaches rent paid during the offence, the 2-year ceiling is not reachable in practice until 2028.
How to build a damp and mould claim your landlord cannot ignore
A claim lives or dies on evidence. Work through these steps in order.
- Put every report in writing. If you've only spoken on the phone, send a follow-up email: 'Further to our call today, I am writing to confirm I reported the mould on the bathroom ceiling and bedroom wall.'
- Photograph the damage. Use timestamps, include damaged belongings, and repeat every week if it gets worse.
- Bring in environmental health. Your council's environmental health team can inspect for free and serve an improvement notice if it finds a Category 1 hazard. If the council itself is your landlord, it cannot serve a notice on itself, so rely on the Awaab's Law deadlines, its complaints process and then the Housing Ombudsman.
- Send a letter before action. It sets out the problem, when you reported it, and the compensation you want.
You don't need a solicitor to put the problem in writing. Remedy can help you write to your landlord asking for the repair, citing the legislation that applies to your home.
When can you sue your landlord for damp or mould?
A letter before action settles many cases. If your landlord still does nothing, or paints over the mould without fixing the cause, court is the next step.
For general and special damages, you claim in the county court. Rent repayment orders go to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber).
Either way, you need a bundle. It holds your tenancy agreement, the timeline of reports, photographs, any environmental health report, and medical evidence.
What tenants get wrong about mould and damp responsibility
The most expensive mistake is accepting blame for condensation. Landlords often say mould is the tenant's fault for 'not ventilating properly.' Sometimes that is true, but if the home has no working extractor fan in the bathroom or kitchen, windows that don't open, inadequate heating, or poorly insulated walls that stay cold, the cause may lie with the building, and serious mould can make the home unfit to live in.
You can commission an independent survey to establish the cause, or ask the council to inspect. Don't settle for your landlord's opinion on whose fault it is.
If you have already reported the damp and your landlord hasn't acted, 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. If you rent from a council or housing association, Remedy can help you use your landlord's complaints process and then the Housing Ombudsman instead. 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.
