Repairs and disrepair — believe housing

Before thinking about any legal claim, report the problem to believe housing and, if it is not fixed, complain. Both are free, often the fastest way to get repairs moving, and create the written record a claim relies on later.

Reporting a repair. Report a non-emergency repair through the customer portal (opens in new tab) or the believe housing app, or call 0300 1311 999. The same number takes emergency repairs 24 hours a day. For damp or mould, call it in normal business hours and say so plainly.^[9]

Making a complaint. Use the form on believe housing's complaints page (opens in new tab), email hello@believehousing.co.uk, call or text 0300 1311 999, or use the app or portal.^[8]

How the complaints process works. There are two stages:

• Stage one — believe housing says it acknowledges a complaint within 5 working days and sends a full written response within 10 working days of acknowledging it.
• Stage two — if you are unhappy with that response, ask for a review within six months; it says a senior adviser reviews the complaint and responds within 20 working days of acknowledging your request.^[8]

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. The landlord's complaints page says you can contact the Ombudsman for advice at any stage.^[8] The service is free and independent. It can order a landlord to carry out repairs, apologise and pay compensation.

Your local council. Although believe housing is not a council, the council where you live can still send its environmental health team to inspect a home with a serious hazard.

Free advice. Shelter and Citizens Advice both offer free, independent housing advice, and 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.

"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 believe housing if all of these apply:

1. Your landlord is believe housing. Check your tenancy agreement — the landlord named on it is what counts. If it names County Durham Housing Group, Dale & Valley Homes, Durham City Homes or East Durham Homes, believe housing is now your landlord: those organisations came together as believe housing in April 2019.^[13]
2. The landlord 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. For damp and mould, Awaab's Law sets legal timescales; for other repairs, believe housing's own targets are a guide — both are in the FAQs below.
4. You were affected — for example, your health suffered, your belongings were damaged, or part of your home became unusable.

If you are a shared owner or a leaseholder in a believe housing home, you have rights too, though your repair rights depend on your lease — see the shared-owner and leaseholder question in the FAQs below.

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 believe housing 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.

Compensation through a complaint. You can also get compensation through believe housing's own complaints process, without any claim. Its annual complaints report says it paid £52,857 in compensation across 2025-26.^[7] If its offer seems too low, the Housing Ombudsman can review it and order more.

What a claim is worth can only be assessed from the evidence — see the compensation question in the FAQs.

Step 1 — tell us what's happened. You answer some straightforward questions: what the problem is, when you reported it, what believe housing 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 will be upfront about that before you commit to anything. They take it from there: advising you, notifying believe housing 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, with a limitation period of six years from when the landlord should have fixed the problem.^[16] Where part of the claim is for an injury to health — damp-related breathing problems, for instance — that element usually carries a shorter, three-year limit instead.^[16] Even long-running problems can often still be claimed for, but it makes sense to check where you stand rather than assume.

How long a claim takes. Disrepair claims are rarely quick — which is one more reason to complain first and keep asking for the repairs while any claim runs.