Repairs and disrepair — Lambeth Council

Before thinking about any legal claim, complain to the council. It is free, you do not need anyone to do it for you, and it is often the fastest way to get repairs moving. It also creates a written record of what you reported and when — which is exactly the evidence a claim relies on later, if you need one.

Report the repair first. Before anything else, report the repair so the council has a dated record and a chance to fix it. You can report a repair online through your MyHousing tenant account, or by phone on 020 7926 6000 (Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm, Saturday 8am to 1pm); for an emergency out of hours, call 020 7926 6666.^[15]

Lambeth's complaints process. The council runs a two-stage complaints process, and offers to try to sort things out informally first. At stage 1, the relevant service investigates and gives a written response within 10 working days of acknowledging your complaint. If you are unhappy with the answer, you can ask for a stage 2 review — an independent final review — which is acknowledged within 5 working days and answered within 20 working days of that acknowledgement.^[10]

If the complaint doesn't fix it: the Housing Ombudsman. If you have been through the council's process and are still unhappy — or it is not progressing your complaint — you can take it to the Housing Ombudsman, free and independent, at any point.^[10] The Ombudsman can order your landlord to carry out repairs, apologise and pay compensation, with no fee to pay and nobody taking a share of any award. Where this page quotes compensation figures, they are sums the Ombudsman recorded or ordered in its published casework, not payouts arranged by a claims company.

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

"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 Lambeth Council if all of these apply:

1. Lambeth Council is your landlord — you are a council tenant (if you rent from a housing association or a private landlord, your claim is against them, not the council).
2. The council knew about the problem. Usually that means you reported it — so your texts, emails, photos, and repair reference numbers are gold. Keep them.
3. It failed to fix the problem in a reasonable time. What is "reasonable" depends on the problem — the council's own published repair timescales are a good guide.
4. You were affected — for example, your health suffered, your belongings were damaged, or part of your home became unusable.

Leaseholders of council-owned buildings have rights too, though the route to enforce them is a little different. Some Lambeth homes are run day-to-day by a Tenant Management Organisation, but where the council owns the home, the council remains your landlord.^[2]

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 council 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 tell you what a claim is worth before looking at your evidence — so we won't. What we can do is assess your situation properly and tell you, plainly, whether it looks strong.

Step 1 — tell us what's happened. You answer some straightforward questions: what the problem is, when you reported it, what the council 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. 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 the council formally, and usually arranging an independent inspection of your home. Most disrepair cases settle without anyone going to court.

A note on time limits. Contract-based disrepair claims usually have a six-year time limit. Claims for injury to health usually have a shorter, three-year limit, running from the injury or later date of knowledge. Exceptions can apply: get advice about your deadline rather than assume an ongoing problem keeps every part of a claim in time.^[16] Go in with a realistic timescale, too: disrepair claims usually take months rather than weeks to resolve, and some take longer — one more reason to complain first and keep the pressure on for repairs while any claim runs.