What happens during a claim

Typical stages

• Initial checks and gathering of evidence.
• Formal contact with the landlord.
• Independent inspection of the property where needed.
• Negotiation, and court only if necessary.

How long does each stage take?

We cannot tell you how long a claim will take, and anyone who gives you a confident figure before seeing the facts is guessing. What can be said precisely is what the rules require at each stage, because the **Pre-Action Protocol for Housing Conditions Claims (England)** sets its own periods.

• The landlord should normally reply to the Letter of Claim within **20 working days** of receipt, and receipt is deemed to be two days after the date of the letter.
• Failing to reply within that period, or at all, is itself a breach of the protocol.
• Where an inspection is needed, the property should be inspected within **20 working days** of the landlord’s response.
• A single joint expert’s report should be sent to both sides within **10 working days** of the inspection.
• Where a joint inspection is used instead, the agreed schedule of works should be sent within **10 working days** of it.

Those periods govern the pre-action stage only — the correspondence and inspection that happen before any claim is issued. They are not a total, and they do not bind what follows.

What makes a case run longer

The variation between cases is mostly explained by a handful of things, none of which is the specialist working faster or slower:

• Whether the landlord responds within the protocol period, or has to be chased.
• Whether the cause of the defect is agreed. A disputed cause — condensation versus penetrating damp is the classic — usually means expert evidence, and that adds an inspection and a report.
• Access. Appointments that cannot be kept, by either side, are the most common single source of delay.
• The scale of the works. A replacement roof is not a resealed window.
• Whether the landlord disputes liability at all, or only the amount.

If you are asking because a repair is urgent rather than because you are choosing between options, the faster routes are usually the free ones — your landlord’s complaints procedure, the Housing Ombudsman for social tenants, or environmental health for a serious hazard. See free help options.