Repairs and disrepair — Incommunities

Before thinking about any legal claim, report the problem and complain to Incommunities. It is free, you do not need anyone to do it for you, and it is often the fastest way to get repairs moving — and it creates a written record.

Report the repair. Incommunities takes repair reports:^[15]

• by phone on 0330 175 9540 — the line runs an emergency repairs service 24 hours a day;^[15]
• by email to repairs.hotline@incommunities.co.uk;
• online, through the customer portal (opens in new tab), where you can log and track repairs.^[15]

Report damp and mould. Incommunities has a Damp Response Team: email dampresponseteam@incommunities.co.uk or call the same number.^[17]

How Incommunities' complaints process works. If a first report does not put things right, ask customer services to record a complaint, or use the complaint form (opens in new tab) on its website. It says it acknowledges a complaint within 2 working days and aims to reply at Stage 1 within 10 working days of that. If you are still unhappy, Stage 2 aims to reply within 20 working days. Complain within 12 months of the problem where you can.^[11] Its policy stops handling a complaint once court proceedings for a disrepair claim are issued, so use the complaints process first.^[12]

If the complaint doesn't fix it: the Housing Ombudsman. If you are still unhappy after both stages — or your complaint is not progressing — you can take it to the Housing Ombudsman. The service is free and independent, and can advise you at any point. It can order your landlord to carry out repairs, apologise and pay you compensation.

Free advice. Shelter and Citizens Advice 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.

Incommunities' own view. Incommunities warns tenants to be careful of disrepair claim companies. It says tenants have a legal right to claim, but asks them to come to it first.^[18]

Complaining and claiming are not either/or. Complaining first is right in almost every case — and if the repairs still don't happen, your record makes any claim stronger.

"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 Incommunities if all of these apply:

1. Incommunities is your landlord. If you rented from Sadeh Lok, your tenancy moved to Incommunities in December 2021.^[2] If Incommunities only manages your home for Bradford Council, the council is your landlord, though it asks you to report problems to Incommunities first.^[1]
2. Incommunities knew about the problem. Usually that means you reported it — so your texts, emails, photos and repair reference numbers matter. Keep them.
3. It failed to fix the problem in a reasonable time. What is "reasonable" depends on the problem. Incommunities' own published repair 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 an Incommunities home, you have rights too, though the route is different — 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 Incommunities 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 kitchen you could not properly use.

Incommunities also has its own route for belongings. In a 2025 damp and mould case, the Ombudsman noted that Incommunities' compensation policy puts damaged belongings under its public liability guidance, and found it had told the resident how to claim through its insurers.^[5] Keep receipts and photos of anything ruined.

No reliable figure can be put on a disrepair claim before the evidence has been looked at. An 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 Incommunities 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. If your case needs a solicitor, we connect you with an independent, regulated law firm — and we will be upfront about that before you commit to anything. They take it from there: advising you, notifying Incommunities 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.^[21] 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.^[21] Even long-running problems can often still be claimed for, but it makes sense to check where you stand rather than assume. Disrepair claims usually take months rather than weeks to resolve. Incommunities itself warns that once solicitors are involved, messages often have to go through them, which can slow repairs down.^[18] So keep reporting repairs to Incommunities directly while any claim runs.