Repairs and disrepair — Guinness

If you rent from The Guinness Partnership and are living with damp, mould, leaks or repairs that never get done, you have legal rights. If Guinness 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 The Guinness Partnership if all of these apply:

1. Guinness is your landlord. Check your tenancy agreement — the landlord named on it is what counts. For most residents that is The Guinness Partnership Limited; some older estates still carry The Guinness Trust name. If you rented from Shepherds Bush Housing Association, your landlord became The Guinness Partnership when the two merged in March 2025.^[11]
2. Guinness 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 — Guinness's own published timescales, in the FAQs below, are a good 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 a Guinness building, you have rights too — the route is a little different from a tenant's disrepair claim.

Before thinking about any legal claim, complain to Guinness. It is free, you can do it yourself, 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 any later claim relies on.

Where to report and complain. Report the repair to Guinness first, through the contact routes on its website, guinnesspartnership.com — for emergencies, its Responsive Repairs Policy commits to a reporting line available around the clock.^[13] If reporting doesn't get it fixed, make a formal complaint under Guinness's Complaints Policy, published on the same site.^[12]

How Guinness's process works. Guinness runs a two-stage complaints process under its Complaints Policy (February 2025). It says it "will acknowledge, define and log the complaint within 5 working days of receiving it". At stage 1 it commits to a written response within 10 working days of that acknowledgement. If you are unhappy, you can ask for a stage 2 review — a final written response within 20 working days of its acknowledgement, from someone who has not previously considered your complaint.^[12]

If the complaint doesn't fix it: the Housing Ombudsman. After Guinness's two stages — or if your complaint is not progressing — you can go to the Housing Ombudsman. It is free and independent, and you can ask its advice at any point, not just at the end. It can order Guinness to carry out repairs, apologise, and pay you compensation — and nobody takes a fee or a share of anything it awards you.

If you want free, independent advice, Shelter and Citizens Advice both offer 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.

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 Guinness Partnership 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 Guinness 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. We will be upfront about that before you commit to anything. The firm takes it from there: advising you, notifying The Guinness Partnership 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.^[17] 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.^[17] 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 to resolve — one more reason to complain first and keep the pressure on for repairs while any claim runs.