Repairs and disrepair — Gentoo

Before thinking about any legal claim, report the repair to Gentoo 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 builds a written record of what you reported and when — the evidence any later claim relies on.

Report the repair. Call Gentoo on 0191 525 5000 and choose option 2 (Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5pm, Friday 8:30am to 12:30pm), or report some repairs through My Gentoo.^[13] Emergency repairs can be reported on the same number 24 hours a day — always phone an emergency in.^[13]

Damp and mould. Report it by phone as soon as you can. Gentoo says it will arrange a damp inspection where needed, and allocate you a case co-ordinator to help throughout the repairs.^[14]

Then complain, if it isn't fixed. Complain by email to feedback@gentoogroup.com, through the enquiry form on Gentoo's complaints page, at a local office, or by letter to its Customer Voice Team.^[13]

How long each stage takes. Gentoo acknowledges a complaint within 5 working days and aims to respond at stage one within 10 working days. If you are still unhappy, you have fifteen working days to appeal to stage two, which it aims to answer within 20 working days.^[10]

Complain in time. Gentoo's policy says it does not usually accept complaints made more than twelve months after the problem happened.^[10]

Then the Housing Ombudsman. Once you have Gentoo's stage two response — or if it has missed its timescales — you can take the complaint to the Housing Ombudsman.^[10] It is free and independent, and can order repairs, an apology and compensation. You need no claims company or solicitor to use it.

Free advice. Shelter and Citizens Advice give free housing advice at any point, and a law centre can tell you whether you qualify for legal aid. For disrepair, legal aid can cover making a landlord deal with a serious risk to health or safety, but not normally a compensation-only claim.

"Disrepair" is a problem Gentoo is legally responsible for fixing that has not been fixed. Common examples include:

• damp and mould;
• leaks — from the roof, pipes or a flat above;
• heating or hot water that has stopped working;
• windows and doors that are rotten, draughty or will not close;
• cracked walls, sagging ceilings or other structural faults;
• unsafe or faulty electrics.

Gentoo says it is responsible for fixing faults that cause damp, such as broken gutters, pointing, roofs and pipes.^[14] You may have a claim against Gentoo if all four of these apply:

1. Gentoo is your landlord. Check your tenancy agreement — the landlord named on it is what counts. Gentoo's registered name is Gentoo Group Limited.^[1]
2. Gentoo knew about the problem. Usually that means you reported it. Gentoo confirms repair appointments by text, so keep those texts, your repair references and a note of each call.^[13]
3. It did not fix it in a reasonable time. That depends on the problem; Gentoo's own response targets, in the FAQs below, are a useful yardstick.
4. It affected you or your household — your health, your belongings, or your use of part of the home.

Shared owners and leaseholders have rights too, but the route differs — see the shared-owner question in the FAQs below.

A disrepair claim asks for two things: the work done, and money for what the disrepair has cost you. What it can include depends on your circumstances:

• an order for the repairs — a court can require Gentoo to do the work;
• distress and inconvenience — for the disruption of living with the problem;
• harm to health — for example a breathing condition made worse by damp and mould;
• ruined belongings — furniture, clothes, bedding or carpets spoiled by damp or leaks;
• rooms you could not use — a bedroom or bathroom that was unsafe or unusable.

The free route can pay compensation too. In 2025-26 the Ombudsman's orders against Gentoo included compensation, apologies and repairs.^[4] In the 2025 damp and mould case, part of what it ordered was for the family's loss of use of their home, worked out as a share of the rent.^[5]

No honest figure can be put on a claim until someone has looked at the evidence — see the compensation question in the FAQs below.

Step 1 — tell us what's happened. You answer some straightforward questions: what the problem is, when you reported it, what Gentoo 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 — and we will be upfront about that before you commit to anything. The firm then writes to Gentoo formally and usually arranges an independent survey of your home. Most disrepair cases settle without a court hearing.

Gentoo's warning about claims companies. Gentoo says claims management companies may contact its tenants, claim to work for it and send a surveyor to the home, and that it has no connection with them.^[15] Check who you are dealing with before you sign anything, never sign on the doorstep, and remember you can still complain to Gentoo at any stage.

Your complaint and a claim can run side by side. Gentoo's policy keeps working on a complaint while a claim goes through the pre-court steps, and closes it once court proceedings are issued or a resolution is agreed. It also takes a complaint out of its process if you bring a separate legal claim, such as a personal injury claim, about the same issue.^[10] Keep reporting repairs and chasing them either way.

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.^[19] 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.^[19] A problem that has gone on for years can often still be claimed for, but check where you stand rather than assume. Claims usually take months, which is another reason to keep pushing for the repairs themselves.