Repairs and disrepair — Anchor

Before thinking about any legal claim, report the problem and complain to Anchor. It is free, and it is often the fastest way to get repairs moving. It also creates a written record of what you reported and when — the evidence a claim relies on later, if you ever need one.

Report the repair. If your scheme has a local manager, tell them first. Otherwise call Anchor's repairs desk on 0800 731 2020 — 8am to 6pm on weekdays and 8am to 4pm on Saturdays.^[9] For an emergency outside those hours, contact Anchor on Call on 0300 123 7101, or pull your emergency cord if your home has one.^[12] Report damp or mould straight away — Anchor asks residents not to wait.^[10]

Make a complaint. Anchor has a two-stage process, run by its Customer Relations team on 0800 731 2020 or at Customer.Relations@Anchor.org.uk.^[11] It aims to log and acknowledge a complaint within 5 working days, and to give a Stage 1 answer within 10 working days of that. You can then ask for Stage 2, usually within 30 days, which it aims to answer within 20 working days.^[11] A relative, friend or advocate can complain for you.^[14]

Anchor's own preliminary figures for 2025-26 show 62.4% of Stage 1 complaints from renting residents answered within the Ombudsman's timescales.^[8] So keep a note of the dates, and chase if an answer is late.

If the complaint doesn't fix it: the Housing Ombudsman. Once you have been through both stages, you can take the complaint to the Housing Ombudsman. It is free and independent, and it can order a landlord to do repairs, apologise and pay compensation. Anchor's policy notes that the Ombudsman does not cover residents who own the freehold of their home.^[14]

Free advice. Shelter, Citizens Advice and Age UK offer free housing advice. A local law centre can tell you whether you qualify for legal aid — for disrepair, it can be available to make a landlord deal with a serious risk to health or safety, though not normally for a compensation-only claim.

"Disrepair" means problems with your home that your landlord is legally responsible for fixing but hasn't. In retirement housing that can include:

• damp and mould
• leaks from the roof, pipes or a flat above
• broken heating or no hot water
• faulty electrics, or a door entry or alarm system that doesn't work
• rotten or draughty windows and doors
• cracked walls or unsafe ceilings.

You may have a claim against Anchor if all of these apply:

1. Anchor is your landlord. The landlord named on your tenancy agreement is what counts.
2. Anchor knew about the problem. Usually that means you, a relative or your local manager reported it — so keep texts, emails, photos and repair references.
3. It failed to fix the problem in a reasonable time. What is reasonable depends on the problem; Anchor's own published timescales, in the FAQs below, are a useful guide.
4. You were affected — your health suffered, belongings were damaged, or part of your home became unusable.

Own your home on a lease? Anchor also sells homes on a lease and through shared ownership.^[13] If you own rather than rent, your rights depend on your lease and the route is different — see the leaseholder question in the FAQs below.

A housing disrepair claim does two jobs: getting the repairs done, and recognising what living with the problem has cost you. Depending on your situation, a claim may cover:

• the repairs themselves — a court can order Anchor to carry out the work;
• inconvenience and distress — the disruption of living with the problem;
• effects on health — for example where damp and mould have made a breathing condition worse;
• damaged belongings — furniture, carpets, clothes or electrical items ruined by damp, mould or leaks;
• loss of use of part of your home — such as a bedroom, bathroom or kitchen you could not safely use.

No reliable figure can be put on a claim before the evidence has been looked at. What a claim is worth depends on how serious the disrepair was, how long it lasted after Anchor knew, and how it affected you.

Step 1 — tell us what's happened. You, or a relative with your permission, answer some straightforward questions: what the problem is, when it was reported, what Anchor did or didn't do, and how it has affected you. Photos, repair references and complaint letters all help.

Step 2 — get your free report. We assess your answers against the legal tests on this page and give you a clear written view of whether you may have a claim and how strong it looks. Your first conversation with us is always free.

Step 3 — if your case is strong, we connect you with an independent, regulated law firm — and we will be upfront about that before you commit to anything. They take it from there: advising you, notifying Anchor formally, and usually arranging an independent inspection of your home. Most disrepair cases settle without anyone going to court.

A note on time limits. A disrepair claim is normally treated as a contract claim, and because an unfixed repair is usually a continuing breach, a claim can usually reach back six years from when it is issued.^[15] Where part of the claim is for an injury to health, that part usually has a shorter, three-year limit.^[15] Claims usually take months rather than weeks, so keep pressing for the repairs while any claim runs.