Repairs and disrepair — Barnet Council

If you rent your home from Barnet Council and are living with damp, mould, leaks or repairs that never seem to get done, you have legal rights. If the council knew about a problem and failed to fix it in a reasonable time, you may have a disrepair claim.

"Disrepair" means problems with your home that your landlord is legally responsible for fixing but hasn't. Common examples include:

• damp and mould
• leaks — from the roof, pipes, or a flat above
• broken heating or no hot water
• rotten or draughty windows and doors
• cracked walls, unsafe ceilings or other structural problems
• faulty electrics.

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

1. Barnet Council is your landlord — you are a council tenant (if you rent from a housing association or a private landlord, your claim is against them, not the council).
2. The council knew about the problem. Usually that means you reported it — so keep your texts, emails, photos and repair reference numbers; they are the evidence any claim relies on.
3. It failed to fix the problem in a reasonable time. What is "reasonable" depends on the problem — the timescales lower down this page are a good guide.
4. You were affected — for example, your health suffered, your belongings were damaged, or part of your home became unusable.

Leaseholders of council-owned buildings have rights too — the route is a little different from a tenant's disrepair claim. Don't be thrown by the name on your letters: Barnet Homes, the council's ALMO, manages the homes day-to-day.^[1] Reporting a problem to Barnet Homes counts as telling your landlord — but where the council owns your home, the council is your landlord.^[1]

Before thinking about any legal claim, complain to the council. It is free, often the fastest way to get repairs moving, and it creates the written record any later claim relies on.

Where to report and complain. Repairs in the council's homes are reported to Barnet Homes, which publishes its repair timescales on its website at barnethomes.org.^[9] If a repair still doesn't happen, make a formal complaint through Barnet Homes' complaints page on the same site.^[8]

Barnet's complaints process — run by Barnet Homes. Complaints about your home are handled by Barnet Homes on the council's behalf.^[1][8] There are two stages: at stage 1, your complaint is acknowledged within 5 working days and answered in writing within 10 working days; if you are unhappy with the answer, you can ask for a stage 2 review, answered within 20 working days.^[8] Barnet Homes says it follows the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code.^[8] Although Barnet Homes runs the process, the landlord answerable for the outcome is the council.^[1]

If the complaint doesn't fix it: the Housing Ombudsman. After stage 2 — or if the council is not progressing your complaint — you can go to the Housing Ombudsman. The service is free and independent, and you can contact it for advice at any point. It can order your landlord to carry out repairs, apologise, and pay you compensation. Nobody takes a fee or a share of anything it awards — any compensation the Ombudsman orders is that kind of outcome, not a payout arranged by a claims company.

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

Complaining and claiming are not either/or. Complaining first is the right move in almost every case. If the repairs still don't happen, the record you have built makes any claim stronger, not weaker.

A housing disrepair claim can deal with two things: 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 the council to carry out the work;
• inconvenience and distress — compensation may be sought for the disruption of living with the problem;
• effects on health — for example where damp and mould have made a breathing condition worse;
• damaged belongings — clothes, furniture, carpets or electronics ruined by damp, mould or leaks;
• loss of use of part of your home — such as a bedroom or bathroom you could not safely use.

Every case is different, and no honest adviser can say what a claim is worth before looking at the evidence. A proper assessment starts from your record: what was reported, when, and what happened next.

Step 1 — tell us what's happened. You answer some straightforward questions: what the problem is, when you reported it, what the council did (or didn't do), and how it has affected your household. Photos, repair references and complaint responses 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. If your case needs a solicitor, 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 the council formally, and usually arranging an independent inspection of your home. Most disrepair cases settle without anyone going to court.

A note on time limits. Legal time limits apply to disrepair claims. A disrepair claim is normally a contract claim, and the usual limit is six years.^[11] If a claim includes compensation for injury to health — for example a breathing condition made worse by damp and mould — that part usually has a shorter, three-year limit.^[11] Even long-running problems can often still be claimed for, but check where you stand rather than assume. Disrepair claims usually take months rather than weeks, and some take longer. That is one more reason to complain first and keep pressing for repairs while any claim runs.