Repairs and disrepair — Harlow Council

Before thinking about any legal claim, complain to the council. It is free, 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 claim relies on later.

Report the repair. Repairs are done by HTS (Property & Environment) Ltd, a council-owned company.^[12] Phone the Repairs Centre on 01279 446666, which the council says is best for urgent repairs. You can also report through your MyHome account (opens in new tab), by email to repairs@htsgroupltd.co.uk, or by visiting the Civic Centre, which has a free phone line to the Repairs Centre.^[12]

Damp and mould. Report damp, condensation or mould by email or phone.^[12] The council's damp and mould policy sets out how it will meet its duties under Awaab's Law.^[14]

In an emergency. An emergency is a repair that puts health or safety at risk or could seriously damage the property. Call the Repairs Centre; the council gives the same number for emergencies outside office hours.^[12] If life is at risk, call 999.

Then make a formal complaint if reporting has not fixed it. HTS follows the council's complaints policy.^[17]

• A problem with a repair: call 01279 446655 first; the council aims to reply in writing within 10 working days.^[17]
• Stage 1: use the online complaint form (opens in new tab). It is acknowledged within 3 working days, with a full reply within 10.^[17]
• Stage 2: fill in the form again within 28 days of the stage 1 reply; the council aims to reply within 20 working days.^[17]

If the complaint doesn't fix it: the Housing Ombudsman. The Ombudsman is free and independent. It will usually expect the council's process to be finished before it formally investigates. It can order the council to carry out repairs, apologise and pay you compensation — and nobody takes a fee or a share of anything it awards you. Shelter and Citizens Advice also offer free housing advice, and a local law centre can tell you whether you qualify for legal aid. For disrepair, legal aid can be available where there is 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 — and if the repairs still don't happen, the record you have built makes any claim stronger, not weaker.

Council tenants have a legal right to a home that's kept in repair. If Harlow Council has known about a problem for a while and hasn't sorted it, that failure can be grounds for a disrepair claim — and, separately, grounds to escalate a complaint.

Repairs a landlord is responsible for — "disrepair" in the legal sense — commonly include:

• damp, mould or condensation caused by a defect, such as a leaking roof or blocked gutters
• a leak, whether from the roof, a pipe, or the flat above
• no heating or hot water
• windows or doors that let in draughts or won't shut properly
• structural problems: cracked walls, sagging ceilings, unsafe floors, or crumbling brickwork that lets water in
• electrical faults.

Four things generally need to be true for a claim against Harlow Council to stand up:

1. You're a council tenant of Harlow Council — a housing association or private tenancy is a claim against that landlord instead.
2. You told the council, and it knew. A report — by phone to the Repairs Centre, through MyHome, by email, or logged with a repair reference — is what starts the clock; keep a record of every contact.
3. A reasonable amount of time passed without it being fixed. There's no single cut-off, but the council's own published targets (see the repairs FAQ) are a useful yardstick.
4. The disrepair actually affected you — your health, your belongings, or your ability to use part of your home.

Leaseholders in council-owned blocks have a different, related route rather than a standard tenant's disrepair claim.

Two separate things sit behind a disrepair claim: forcing the repair itself, and putting a value on what living with it has meant for you. Depending on the facts of your case, a claim can address:

• the outstanding repair — the court can order Harlow Council to carry it out;
• the disruption — compensation for the stress and inconvenience of living with an unfixed problem;
• a health impact — such as a respiratory condition that damp or mould has made worse;
• ruined possessions — carpets, furniture, clothes or appliances damaged by leaks, damp or mould;
• space you couldn't use — a room made unsafe or unusable, like a mouldy bedroom or an unusable bathroom.

There's no standard figure, and any adviser who quotes one before seeing your evidence should be treated with caution. What a claim is actually worth turns entirely on the record: what you reported, when, and what the council did next.

First, a few questions. Tell us what the problem is, when you first reported it to Harlow Council, how the council responded (or didn't), and what it's meant for your household day to day. Anything you've kept — photos, repair reference numbers, complaint replies — strengthens your answers.

Then, a free written view. We check your situation against the legal tests set out on this page and tell you plainly whether a claim looks realistic, and how strong. There's no charge and no obligation for this step.

If it stacks up, an independent solicitor takes over. Where a case needs legal representation, we're upfront about that before you agree to anything, and hand you to an independent, regulated law firm — not us — to run it: formal notice to the council, usually an independent inspection of the property, and negotiation from there. Court is the exception rather than the rule; most disrepair claims settle beforehand.

Time limits matter. A disrepair claim is normally treated as a contract claim, with a limitation period of six years.^[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] Don't assume an old problem is out of time without checking. Claims typically run over months, not weeks, so keep reporting the fault and pushing the council to fix it while any claim is ongoing.