Can I withhold rent until my landlord does the repairs?

Why the instinct is understandable — and why it is dangerous

You may be paying substantial rent while the boiler does not work, mould keeps returning, water comes through the roof, a bedroom cannot be used, or the landlord has simply stopped replying. It feels logical to say: if they are not doing their part, I will stop doing mine.

English housing law does not generally treat rent and repairs as obligations that cancel each other out. Your landlord may be in breach of their repair duties while you remain obliged to pay rent. If you simply stop, the unpaid sums become arrears — and you have turned one problem into two.

What arrears can cost you

Section 21 was abolished for the reformed English private rented sector on 1 May 2026, but the rent-arrears grounds remain. The serious-arrears ground can apply where the threshold is met both when the notice is served and at the possession hearing — generally at least three months’ rent where rent is paid monthly, or thirteen weeks’ where it is paid weekly or fortnightly. The notice period is four weeks, and it is a mandatory ground where the requirements are met.

There are also discretionary grounds covering other rent arrears and persistent late payment, where the court decides whether possession is reasonable. So “I will stop paying until they fix it” is not a safe enforcement strategy. It is the most reliable way to lose the argument.

Three things people mean by “withholding rent”

1. Withholding

Simply keeping back money that would otherwise be due. Your rent is £900, the boiler has been broken six weeks, you do not pay this month. That creates £900 of arrears. There is no general English rule that outstanding repairs make that rent disappear.

2. Repair and deduct

A common-law procedure where a tenant arranges a repair that was legally the landlord’s responsibility, pays for it, and later recovers the properly incurred cost from future rent. It involves a careful process and a real sequence of warnings. It is not permission to stop paying.

3. Set-off

Where a landlord claims arrears and the tenant has a valid damages claim from the same tenancy, the damages may in some circumstances be set against the arrears. This commonly arises in possession and disrepair litigation. What it is not is a calculator: a tenant cannot safely decide “my claim is worth £4,000, so I will not pay the next £4,000”. The landlord may dispute whether there was a breach at all, how long it lasted, whether notice was given, whether they had a reasonable chance to repair, and what the loss is worth.

How repair and deduct works in England

This route should be used cautiously, and it suits small, clearly defined repairs far better than major work. The commonly recommended procedure runs broadly as follows.

• Tell the landlord in writing: what is wrong, where, when you found it, how serious it is, and any immediate safety consequence. Keep photographs.
• Give them a genuine opportunity to act. What is reasonable depends on the problem — a dangerous electrical fault and a dripping tap are not equivalent.
• Write again if nothing happens, recording that the repair is still outstanding and what it is doing to your household.
• Warn the landlord before you arrange anything yourself. Repair-and-deduct should never be a surprise invoice presented afterwards.
• Obtain quotations from suitable contractors — three is the usual advice — and send them to the landlord with a final opportunity to do the work.
• If they still do not act, use a competent contractor, and only for work that was genuinely the landlord’s responsibility.
• Keep quotations, invoices, receipts, payment records, before-and-after photographs and all correspondence. Ask for reimbursement.
• Only if reimbursement is refused, and the legal requirements are met, deduct the properly incurred cost from future rent — and stop once it is recovered.

Why it can still go wrong

• The repair might not legally be the landlord’s responsibility, in which case recovering the money may be difficult.
• The landlord may argue the work was unnecessary, that they were not given enough time, that a cheaper repair existed, that the contractor overcharged, or that you improved rather than repaired.
• You become responsible for the contractor you instruct. Poor work or damage creates a new dispute, with you on the wrong side of it.
• Major works — structural, roofing, rewiring, extensive damp treatment, significant plumbing — are usually unsuitable and should go down an enforcement route instead.

Ask for a rent reduction instead

This is different from withholding, and it is the option most tenants overlook. You can ask a landlord to agree a temporary reduction where serious disrepair or ongoing works substantially interfere with your use of the property — a bedroom that cannot be used, prolonged loss of heating or hot water, major building work, or parts of the home being inaccessible.

The landlord does not have to agree. If they do, record it in writing: the normal rent, the reduced rent, when it starts, how long it lasts, and whether it affects any separate compensation claim. Do not rely on “don’t worry about the rent for a while” said on the phone.

You may also hear the term rent abatement, which generally refers to a reduction reflecting loss of use or enjoyment. That may be relevant when damages are assessed. It still does not mean a tenant can pick their own percentage and deduct it.

What to do instead, if you keep paying

Withholding rent is not your only leverage, and it is the weakest one. Depending on your landlord and circumstances you can report the repair formally and keep a chronology, make and escalate a formal complaint, contact the council’s housing or environmental health team, ask them to investigate serious hazards, use the Housing Ombudsman route where it applies, or take advice about a housing-conditions claim.

Wales: when rent is legally not required

Wales has to be treated separately, and the difference is real rather than cosmetic. Occupation contracts contain a supplementary term derived from regulation 11 of the Renting Homes (Supplementary Provisions) (Wales) Regulations 2022, and the wording is unusually direct: the contract-holder is not required to pay rent in respect of any day or part day during which the dwelling is unfit for human habitation.

That is a genuine statutory rent rule, not a discretionary compensation mechanism. But it turns entirely on whether the dwelling is legally unfit — and that is a legal test, not a description of how bad the property feels. It is not another way of saying the home is unpleasant, that a repair is outstanding, that there is mould somewhere, or that the landlord has been slow.

Coastal Housing and Beacon Cymru: the rule and its limit

Two High Court judgments explain an important part of the Welsh rent rule, and they are not unrelated cases. Beacon Cymru Group Ltd was formerly Coastal Housing Group Ltd, and the 2025 judgment was a later stage of the same litigation. Together they answer two different questions: is rent payable while a dwelling is legally deemed unfit, and if the rent was paid anyway, can it be recovered afterwards? The answers are different.

Coastal Housing Group Ltd v Mitchell [2024] EWHC 2831 (Ch)

The first judgment concerned landlords who had failed to give contract-holders the required electrical condition reports. The homes were not shown to be physically dangerous. Nevertheless the statutory regime meant that the failure caused the dwellings to be treated as unfit for human habitation, and the court held that rent was therefore not payable during the period of deemed unfitness.

The court declined to draw a sharp line between a home that is physically unfit and one that legislation says must be treated as unfit because a regulatory requirement was not met. Its reasoning included a practical point: if failing to provide the required document had no consequence for rent, a landlord would have little incentive to comply.

That is an unusually clear illustration of why fitness is a legal test. A home can be deemed legally unfit because a statutory requirement has not been satisfied, even where the physical installation is perfectly safe.

Beacon Cymru Group Ltd v Mitchell [2025] EWHC 2477 (Ch)

The later judgment dealt with the next question. The contract-holders had actually paid the rent during periods when, under the earlier ruling, it had not been required. Could they recover it? The High Court rejected the restitution claims on the facts before it — the homes were physically safe, the contract-holders received the accommodation they expected, they had not suffered the relevant loss merely because a report had not been supplied, and the requirements for recovering the money by restitution were not established.

The practical distinction matters. Regulation 11 can mean a contract-holder is not required to pay rent falling due during the qualifying period. It does not automatically mean all rent previously paid during that period can later be reclaimed. Coastal established the rent consequence of legal unfitness; Beacon Cymru limited what could automatically be recovered retrospectively where the rent had nevertheless been paid.

If you are already withholding rent

Do not leave it and hope. The position is recoverable, but only if you deal with it deliberately.

• Work out the figures exactly: rent due, rent paid, amount withheld, the date of each payment and each missed one, and the running total. Do not estimate.
• If you still have the withheld money, keep it available. If a court later decides the rent was payable, you will need it to clear the arrears.
• Preserve the housing-condition evidence — photographs, videos, repair reports, emails, texts, complaints, inspections, contractor records, council correspondence, and anything showing when the landlord knew.
• Do not ignore a possession notice or court papers. Deal with them promptly.
• Tell your adviser about the disrepair, because it may be relevant to a counterclaim, damages, set-off, the true amount owed and the possession case itself.