Housing disrepair helplines: who to call for free

Emergencies: call these first

• Gas leak or carbon monoxide. Call the National Gas Emergency Service free on 0800 111 999. HSE also says to open doors and windows and, if you know where it is, turn the gas off at the meter.
• Power cut. Call 105, the free UK-wide power cut line.
• Fire, or anyone in immediate danger. Call 999.
• A repair that cannot wait, such as a serious leak. Call your landlord’s emergency repairs line if it has one, and report it in writing as well so there is a record.

This page is information, not an emergency service.

Free advice by phone

• Citizens Advice (England). Adviceline 0800 144 8848, usually 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, not on public holidays. Free from mobiles and landlines. Relay UK: 18001 then 0800 144 8848.
• Citizens Advice (Wales). Advicelink 0800 702 2020, 8am to 7pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 1pm on Saturdays. Free from mobiles and landlines. Relay UK: 18001 then 0800 702 2020.
• Shelter (England). 0808 800 4444, free, Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm, closed at weekends and on bank holidays. The line is for people who are homeless, have nowhere to stay tonight, are at risk of abuse or harm at home, or are worried about losing their home in the next two months. For other problems, including repairs, Shelter points people to its online advice.
• Shelter Cymru (Wales). 08000 495 495, 9am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, for urgent situations such as having nowhere to sleep or being evicted. If it is not urgent, Shelter Cymru suggests its online advice or its webchat.
• Civil Legal Advice. 0345 345 4345, Monday to Friday 9am to 8pm and Saturday 9am to 12:30pm. This is the legal aid phone service. It helps with housing if you are homeless or at risk of being evicted and qualify for legal aid, and you can ask it to call you back so you do not pay for the call. Relay UK: 18001 then 0345 345 4345.

Legal aid for disrepair. GOV.UK lists serious disrepair among the problems legal aid can cover. GOV.UK’s legal aid checker tells you whether you might qualify, and its “Find a legal aid adviser” search, with Housing chosen, lists the advisers near you. See free help options for the order to try things in.

Complaints about a council or housing association

Use your landlord’s complaints procedure first. Once it has finished, or if your landlord is not responding, a council or housing association tenant can go to the ombudsman.

• Housing Ombudsman (England). 0300 111 3000, 9am to 5pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and 9am to 3.30pm on Thursday. It deals with complaints about landlords that are members of its scheme, which include councils and housing associations, and has a live chat on its website while the phone line is open.
• Public Services Ombudsman for Wales. 0300 790 0203, 10am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, charged at the normal landline rate.

For a landlord in England, the complaint deadline calculator works out when it has to answer each stage of your complaint.

Your council

Your council’s environmental health team can inspect hazards such as damp, mould, excess cold and unsafe electrics, and require a private landlord or housing association to put them right. It cannot take that action against itself, so council tenants use the complaints route above. Each council has its own number: GOV.UK’s “Find your local council” gives you its website. See environmental health housing inspections.

If damp or mould is affecting your health

• NHS 111. Call 111 if you think you need medical help right now.
• Asthma + Lung UK helpline. 0300 222 5800, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. For urgent needs it says to call NHS 111, and to call 999 straight away for severe difficulty breathing.

If you rent from a council or housing association in England, Awaab’s Law gives your landlord fixed deadlines for damp and mould. The Awaab’s Law deadline checker shows the dates, counted from the day your landlord found out.

What calls cost

Numbers starting 0800 and 0808, and 105, are free from landlines and mobiles. GOV.UK puts numbers starting 03, such as 0300 and 0345, at up to 16p a minute from a landline and 3p to 65p a minute from a mobile, and says some calls may be free as part of your call package. Civil Legal Advice will call you back if you ask.

Before you call

• When you first told your landlord about the problem, and how. Keep copies of letters, emails and texts.
• What your landlord has done since, with dates.
• Dated photos of the problem.
• Whether anyone’s health is affected.

The repair timeline puts your dates in order and the evidence checklist lists what to keep. Both are free, and what you type stays on your device.

Is RemedyBridge a helpline?

No. RemedyBridge does not run a phone helpline, and it is not an advice service or a law firm. It is a free website for tenants: guides that cite their sources, and free tools that work out your landlord’s deadlines and fill in your letters.

If you would like a person to contact you, the free check asks a few anonymous questions. If your situation may be suitable, you can leave your details and ask for a call at a time that suits you. A person reads every enquiry and, with your permission, may introduce you to a specialist solicitor, who decides whether they can help.

Some services that call themselves a housing disrepair helpline are businesses that pass enquiries to solicitors, as we may with your permission. Before you give any service your details, check who runs it and what it will do with them.