When you rent a property, it becomes your home – and your home should be a comfortable, safe place to be. If this hasn’t been your experience and your landlord has ignored your complaints about any housing disrepair issue in your home, you might be eligible to make a claim for compensation.
When Can You Claim?
Your landlord has a legal duty to ensure the property you rent from them is of an acceptable standard. If it isn’t and you’ve informed them about the matter, then you can make a claim.
As a guide, you will be able to claim compensation in the following situation:
- Your home has worsened significantly since the time you moved in
- You have notified your landlord in writing of the issues
- You have given your landlord reasonable time to remedy the situation
- Your landlord has failed to carry out the necessary repairs to your home
What Can You Claim For?
You can claim for the suffering and stress caused by the disrepair. This includes any physical impact the level of disrepair had on your health and wellbeing, the inconvenience of having to move out if you had to vacate the property, as well as any damage to your possessions as a result of the housing disrepair.
How Much Housing Disrepair Compensation Can You Claim?
When you make a housing disrepair claim, the amount you are awarded depends on the length and severity of the disrepair, as well as the impact it has had on you and the members of your household.
The pain and suffering caused by living in a home in a state of disrepair, will be factored into your compensation amount, as will whether you had to move out of your property because of the disrepair.
As a guide, the following factors influence how much compensation you receive:
- The rent you paid while living with disrepair issues
- Length of disrepair
- Severity of disrepair
- Impact on your health and wellbeing
- Impact on your household’s health and wellbeing
- If you had to move out
The rent you pay is used to calculate the compensation amount. You will be awarded a percentage of the rent you paid while your home was in a state of disrepair. This applies even if your rent is paid by the local council in the form of housing benefits and you can still claim compensation.
The percentage of rent paid depends on the severity of the disrepair. If your home is totally uninhabitable, you will receive 100% of the rent paid. However, this is rare and usually it is between 25% and 50% of the rent paid for the property during the period of disrepair.
How We Can Help You With Your Housing Disrepair Claim
Our specialist solicitors have the experience and expert legal knowledge to help clients with a range of housing disrepair claims.
We will discuss your situation during an initial no-obligation consultation, free of charge, to help you put a value on your claim, and offer various funding options including working on a No Win No Fee basis.
Should you decide to go ahead with making your housing disrepair claim, we will support you throughout the claims process and provide advice and guidance at every stage to ensure your experience is as stress-free and successful as possible.
To speak to one of our solicitors about making a housing disrepair claim, please contact us on Freephone 0800 988 3674 or via a Mobile 0333 200 4465 or complete a Free Online Enquiry and we will soon be in touch.
