Your boiler has been broken for six weeks. The bedroom wall is covered in mould. Your landlord has replied to three messages with some variation of "we'll look into it" and done nothing. You already know this is wrong. What you might not know is that since 2019, you have had the right to take your landlord to court for it directly, without waiting for the council to act.
The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 added Section 9A to the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. It requires that every rented property in England be fit for human habitation at the start of the tenancy and throughout it. If it isn't, that is a breach of contract, and you can sue for compensation or an order forcing the repairs.
This law gives renters a more direct route to a remedy than most realise, and it is worth knowing how it works before your landlord's next "we'll look into it".
What the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 says
The Act amends the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 to create an implied term in every tenancy agreement in England. Your landlord must ensure the property is fit for human habitation at the start of the tenancy and remains fit throughout. This applies regardless of how you pay rent, and it covers both private landlords and social housing providers. It is an England law. Wales has its own fitness rules under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016.
A property is "unfit" if it is so far defective in one or more of the matters the Act lists that it is not reasonably suitable for occupation in that condition. Those matters include structural stability, damp, natural lighting, ventilation, water supply, drainage, food-preparation facilities, and the prescribed health and safety hazards. If a defect, or a combination of them, makes the home not reasonably suitable to live in, the threshold may be met.
One practical point worth grasping is that the Act asks whether the property is reasonably suitable for occupation, judged against a statutory list of matters such as damp, ventilation, and fire safety. That list includes the prescribed hazards, which are the same hazards councils assess under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), so a council hazard finding feeds directly into an unfitness argument.
Landlords cannot contract out of this obligation. Any clause in your tenancy agreement that tries to waive it is unenforceable. The law is clear on this, and it applies automatically to your tenancy without you needing to negotiate it in.
What counts as an unfit home under the Act?
Mould and damp are the most common triggers. The English Housing Survey 2024-25 found that 9% of dwellings, around 2.3 million homes, still contained a Category 1 hazard under HHSRS. That is the kind of hazard the Act is designed to address.
Beyond mould, the following have been accepted in claims:
- Structural instability, such as cracks in load-bearing walls, subsidence, or collapsing ceilings
- Inadequate heating, from no central heating to a broken boiler left unrepaired for weeks
- Fire safety failures like missing smoke alarms, blocked escape routes, or faulty electrics
- Pest infestations of mice, cockroaches, or rats that the landlord has not addressed
- Sewage or drainage problems, including blocked drains backing up into the property
- A lack of clean water supply from broken pipes or contamination
Defects that are cosmetic or minor inconveniences generally do not meet the threshold. A dripping tap or a scuffed wall does not make a property unfit. The question is whether the defect creates a real risk to health or safety.
The Act also covers a property that was unfit at the start of the tenancy, including where the defect was not obvious on viewing. For a defect inside your own home a landlord is generally not liable until they know about it, so tell them in writing as soon as you find it and keep the copy. What you then have to prove is that the defect existed and made the property not reasonably suitable to live in.
For a deeper look at specific disrepair scenarios and what landlords are obligated to fix, see our guide on landlord disrepair claim compensation UK.
How is a fitness claim different from a housing disrepair claim?
This is where renters get confused, and it matters.
A traditional housing disrepair claim relies on the statutory implied repairing covenant in Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which covers repairs to the structure, exterior, and installations. The Pre-Action Protocol for Housing Conditions Claims (England) sets out a formal pre-action procedure. You send a letter before claim, the landlord has time to inspect and respond, and both parties exchange expert reports before anything goes to court.
The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 is different in two ways. First, it covers a broader range of hazards. A property can have a working boiler and intact walls and still be unfit if severe mould has rendered a bedroom unusable. Second, and more usefully for tenants, the standard is whether the home is fit to live in overall, not only whether it is structurally adequate.
In practice, most solicitors run both claims together because they overlap considerably. If your landlord has failed to repair a structural defect and that failure has made the property unfit, you have arguments under Section 11 and Section 9A at the same time.
There is one important procedural note. While the Act does not technically require you to give formal notice before suing, courts expect it. Send a written complaint, describe the defect clearly, and give a reasonable timeframe for a response, typically 14 to 28 days for urgent issues. If you skip this step, a judge may penalise you on costs even if you win.
For the full procedural picture, our housing disrepair protocol UK tenant guide covers the pre-action steps in detail.
How much compensation can you claim under the Act?
Courts award two main types of remedy under the Act: an injunction forcing the landlord to carry out repairs, and damages for the period the property was unfit.
Damages are calculated as a percentage of rent for the period of unfitness, based on how severely the defects affected your enjoyment of the property. Awards commonly run from 25% to 50% of rent for the affected period, with the top of that range reserved for defects that made most of the home unusable.
To put that in practice, if your rent is £1,400 per month and your property had severe mould in two rooms for 12 months, a 40% reduction would produce a damages award of £6,720. That is not a small sum.
You can also recover consequential losses, including the cost of alternative accommodation if you had to leave temporarily, damage to personal belongings caused by the disrepair, and medical costs directly attributable to the condition of the property.
Watch the value carefully. If you are claiming damages alone, the ordinary small-claims limit of £10,000 applies. The £1,000 threshold only bites where you also ask the court to order the repairs: then the claim stays in the small-claims track, with its limited legal costs, only if both the repair cost and the damages are £1,000 or less. Above the relevant limit the claim goes to the fast, intermediate or multi track, where more turns on costs, so it is worth getting your claim assessed before you file.
How to build a strong fitness claim
Document everything before you do anything else. Take dated photographs and video of every defect. Keep a written diary of when you reported problems, what you said, and what response you received. Save every text, email, and WhatsApp message.
Then contact your local council's environmental health department. They will inspect for free and can issue an improvement notice if they identify a Category 1 or Category 2 hazard. That notice is strong legal evidence because it is an independent, official assessment. If your landlord ignores it, they are now ignoring both a contractual obligation and a statutory notice.
Send a formal letter before claim. This should describe the defects, reference the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, state that the property is unfit, and give a deadline for the landlord to respond and commit to a repair schedule. 14 days is a reasonable deadline for urgent issues. Keep a copy and send it by recorded post or email so you have proof of delivery.
If the landlord does not respond or refuses to act, the next step is to issue a claim in the County Court, which you can do yourself.
For claims where the primary issue is mould, see our guide on mould and damp landlord obligations and tenant claims for specific advice on that category.
What landlords cannot do once you raise a claim
Once you assert your rights under the Act, your landlord cannot lawfully evict you in retaliation. Section 21 'no-fault' evictions were abolished on 1 May 2026 under the Renters' Rights Act 2025, so your landlord can no longer serve one at all. Any eviction notice served shortly after you make a disrepair complaint is a red flag.
Because Section 21 is gone, a landlord cannot hand you a no-reason notice for complaining. To evict, they must now use a valid legal ground under the Housing Act 1988 and prove it. If they use the moving-in or selling ground and then re-let or re-market the property within 12 months, the council can fine them up to £7,000, rising to £40,000 or prosecution for a repeat breach, and you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a rent repayment order of up to 2 years' rent. For a full breakdown of your protections, see our article on landlord retaliation eviction UK tenant rights.
Landlords also cannot lawfully enter the property without proper notice to inspect or carry out repairs. Entry without your permission, except in genuine emergency, is a separate legal issue. If a landlord is using inspection visits as pressure after you raise a claim, that behaviour has its own legal consequences.
If you receive a Section 8 notice after raising a fitness for human habitation claim, do not ignore it. Respond in writing, note the timing relative to your complaint, and get advice on how to answer it. Remedy's section 8 eviction defence UK tenant guide covers how to respond.
Landlords who ignore disrepair complaints increasingly lose when a tenant takes it further, whether through the courts or, for social tenants, the Housing Ombudsman.
If your landlord has left your home unfit and won't put it right, Remedy can check whether the Act applies, estimate what your claim is worth, and help you draft the letter before claim.
