Repairs and disrepair — Midland Heart

Before thinking about any legal claim, complain to Midland Heart. It is free, it is often the fastest way to get repairs moving, and it creates a written record of what you reported and when.

Report the repair. Report a repair through the My Home online portal, or call the Midland Heart Hub on 0345 60 20 540 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm).^[15] Emergencies must be phoned in, not sent by form or email: the same number takes emergency calls at any time, including weekends and bank holidays. If you smell gas, call 0800 111 999 straight away.^[15]

Report damp and mould by phone. Midland Heart asks you to call the Hub about damp and mould, so report it early and keep the reference.^[19]

Then complain, if it isn't fixed. Use the complaints form on midlandheart.org.uk, or the repair complaints form for a repair you have already reported.^[15]

How the two stages work. Each stage has its own target time:^[10]

• Formal complaint — Midland Heart acknowledges it within 5 working days and aims to answer within 10 working days of that.
• Formal review — if you are still unhappy, ask for one within 2 months; it aims to answer within 20 working days of acknowledging the request.^[10]

Limits on what a complaint covers. Midland Heart's policy lets it turn down complaints about issues more than 12 months old, unless the problem is ongoing. Any part of a complaint already in a court claim goes through the court instead. Injuries and health effects are handled by a separate route, not as a complaint.^[10]

If the complaint doesn't fix it: the Housing Ombudsman. After Midland Heart's two stages — or if your complaint is not progressing — you can take it to the Housing Ombudsman.^[10] It is free and independent, and it can order repairs, an apology and compensation. You need no claims company or solicitor to use it.

Free advice. Shelter and Citizens Advice both give free, independent housing advice at any point. 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, but not normally for a compensation-only 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 Midland Heart if all of these apply:

1. Midland Heart is your landlord. Check your tenancy agreement — the landlord named on it is what counts. Midland Heart's registered name is Midland Heart Limited.^[1]
2. Midland Heart knew about the problem. Usually that means you reported it — through My Home or the Hub — so keep your job reference numbers, emails, photos and any letters confirming a visit.^[15]
3. It failed to fix the problem in a reasonable time. What is "reasonable" depends on the problem — Midland Heart'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 Midland Heart home, your lease splits the repair duties differently, so the route is not the same — see the shared-owner question in the FAQs below.

A housing disrepair claim does two jobs: it can get the repairs done, and it can compensate you for what living with the problem cost. Depending on your situation, it may cover:

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

Free routes can award compensation too. The Housing Ombudsman's orders in its 2025-26 Midland Heart cases included compensation, alongside apologies and repairs.^[4] Midland Heart's own complaints process can award compensation, though it does not consider injuries to health, and where you owe rent it may be set against your account.^[10]

No one can put a reliable figure on a claim before the evidence has been looked at.

Step 1 — tell us what's happened. You answer some straightforward questions: what the problem is, when you reported it, what Midland Heart did (or didn't do), and how it has affected your household. Photos, job 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. They take it from there: advising you, notifying Midland Heart formally, and usually arranging an independent inspection of your home. Most disrepair cases settle without anyone going to court.

Midland Heart's own advice. Midland Heart publishes a page on disrepair claims. It says claims management companies may contact tenants to encourage a claim, that a legal claim can carry costs and risks, and that you should consider free advice from Shelter or Citizens Advice first.^[13] Whoever you talk to — us included — you should never be pressed to sign anything on the doorstep, and you can complain to Midland Heart directly at any stage.

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.^[23] 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.^[23] Even long-running problems can often still be claimed for, but it makes sense to check where you stand rather than assume.

How long a claim takes. Disrepair claims are rarely quick — which is one more reason to complain first and keep the pressure on for repairs while any claim runs.