Private landlord disrepair claims

If your private landlord will not act

Report in writing, keep evidence, and consider contacting your local council’s Environmental Health team about serious hazards. The rules on ending a tenancy and on eviction after a complaint changed significantly in England in 2026, so if you are worried about eviction get specialist advice quickly — a specialist can talk you through your options.

Your landlord’s duties are the same. The routes out are not.

The repairing duties themselves barely differ by who owns the property. Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 implies the same obligations into most private tenancies, and the fitness duty under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 applies too. What changes completely is what you can do when the landlord does not act.

The Housing Ombudsman is almost certainly not open to you

This catches people out more than anything else on this page. The Housing Ombudsman can consider a complaint from anyone who has, or previously had, a landlord and tenant relationship with a landlord that is **a member of its Scheme** — and in practice its members are social landlords, councils and housing associations.

A private landlord is very unlikely to be a member, though membership is possible voluntarily. If you want to be certain rather than assume, check whether your landlord appears on the Ombudsman’s member list before spending time on that route. For nearly all private renters the answer will be no, and the council is where to go instead.

Environmental health is your enforcement route

Your local council assesses serious hazards in any tenure under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, and its powers matter most to private renters precisely because the Ombudsman route is closed. A council can inspect, and where it finds a serious hazard it can require works. Ask for an inspection in writing and keep the reference.

If a letting agent manages the property, that opens a route the landlord alone does not. Since 1 October 2014 it has been a legal requirement for letting agents and property managers in England to belong to one of two government-approved redress schemes — the Property Redress Scheme or The Property Ombudsman — with a fine of up to £5,000 for operating without one.

That scheme handles complaints about the **agent’s conduct**: failing to pass reports to the landlord, ignoring correspondence, poor administration. It does not rule on the state of the building, so it is not a substitute for environmental health on a hazard. If your agent cannot tell you which scheme it belongs to, that is itself worth reporting to the council.

Awaab’s Law does not apply to private landlords

The fixed investigation and repair timescales under Awaab’s Law apply to social landlords in England only. Is scheduled to come into force on 30 November 2026 for Phase 2, and that expansion widens the hazards covered — it does not widen the law to the private sector.

For a private renter the test remains whether repairs were done within a reasonable time of the landlord being told, which depends on severity, risk and the circumstances rather than on a fixed number of days. Our page on Awaab’s Law explains the position for anyone unsure which side of that line they are on.

Asking for repairs and the fear of eviction

The reason many private renters never report a repair is the fear of being asked to leave for it. Since 1 May 2026 the private rented sector in England has operated under the Renters’ Rights reforms, which moved assured shorthold tenancies onto an assured periodic footing and abolished section 21 no-fault possession for the sector.

That matters here because the old fear — a no-reason notice arriving shortly after a complaint — rested on section 21 being available. It does not follow that eviction is impossible, and the grounds that remain are a question for someone advising on your specific tenancy. If you are worried, get that advice before you decide not to report a hazard: an unreported defect is both unfixed and undocumented.