Repairs and disrepair — emh

Before thinking about any legal claim, report the problem to emh and, if it is not fixed, complain. It is free, you can do it yourself, and it is often the fastest way to get repairs moving. It also leaves a dated record of what you reported.

Report the repair. Report a repair through MyHomeOnline (opens in new tab), by email to customerservices@emh.co.uk, by WhatsApp on 01530 276 003, where you can share photos, or by phone on 0300 123 6000. That line also takes emergencies out of hours and at weekends. If you smell gas, call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999.^[15] For damp and mould, emh says a rapid response team investigates reports.^[17]

Then complain, if it isn't fixed. Complaints go through emh's two-stage process, set out on its complaints page (opens in new tab).^[12] Complain by phone, by email to complaints@emh.co.uk, through MyHomeOnline or in writing. According to emh:

• Stage 1: it aims to acknowledge a complaint within 5 working days and respond within 10 working days of acknowledging it;
• Stage 2: if you are unhappy with the response, you can escalate it within four weeks, and it aims to respond within 20 working days.^[12]

Complain promptly. emh's policy says it may turn down a complaint about something that happened more than 12 months ago, but it will use its discretion and will look at older reports of a problem that keeps coming back. If it refuses, it says it will explain why, and you can go to the Housing Ombudsman.^[12]

If the complaint doesn't fix it: the Housing Ombudsman. Once you have been through both stages — or if your complaint is not progressing — you can take it to the Housing Ombudsman. The service is free and independent, and you can contact it for advice at any point. It can order a landlord to carry out repairs, apologise and pay compensation.

Your local council. Although emh is not a council, your council's environmental health team can still inspect a home with a serious hazard.

Free advice. Shelter and Citizens Advice give 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, but 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 emh if all of these apply:

1. You rent from emh. Check your tenancy agreement: a claim is brought against the landlord it names. That may be emh Homes (formally emh Housing and Regeneration Limited), the group company that lets and manages emh's homes.^[1]
2. Your landlord knew about the problem. Usually that means you reported it. A repair logged on MyHomeOnline, an email to customer services or a WhatsApp message with photos each leaves a dated record, so keep the reference numbers.^[15]
3. It failed to fix the problem in a reasonable time. What is "reasonable" depends on the problem; emh's own repair targets, in the FAQs below, are a useful guide.
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 an emh 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 emh 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.

The Ombudsman's decisions about emh recognise the same kinds of harm. In a July 2025 decision it ordered emh to pay £1,425, including £300 it had already offered, over its handling of damp and mould, boiler faults, a flood, leaks, gutter repairs and the complaint. It also ordered a fresh inspection after three months, to check the damp and mould had not come back.^[5] That came through the free complaints route, not a court claim.

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 emh did (or didn't do), and how it has affected your household. Photos, the reference numbers from MyHomeOnline or your emails, and emh's written reply at each complaint stage all help.^[12]

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. If it needs a solicitor, we connect you with an independent, regulated law firm — and we will be upfront about that before you commit to anything. The firm takes it from there: it advises you, writes to emh formally, and usually arranges for an independent surveyor to inspect your home, separately from anyone emh sends. 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.^[18] 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.^[18] Even long-running problems can often still be claimed for, but it makes sense to check where you stand rather than assume.

Claims take time. Disrepair claims are rarely quick — one more reason to complain first and keep asking for repairs while any claim runs.