Repairs and disrepair — Southern Housing

Southern Housing was formed in December 2022, when two housing associations — Optivo and Southern Housing Group — merged.^[1] It is now one of London's largest housing associations, a member of the G15 group, and says it has around 80,000 homes and over 167,000 residents across London, the South East, the Isle of Wight and the Midlands.^[4] If you signed up with Optivo, or with Southern Housing Group, Southern Housing is the same landlord now — and the rights on this page apply to you just the same.^[1]

"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 Southern Housing if all of these apply:

1. Southern Housing is your landlord. Check your tenancy agreement — the landlord named on it is what counts. If your tenancy predates December 2022, one of the former names, Optivo or Southern Housing Group, may appear on it.^[1]
2. Southern Housing 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, on your tenancy agreement, and on the legal timescales that now apply to damp and mould — Southern Housing's own repair targets are set out lower down.^[7]
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 Southern Housing building, you have rights too, though the route differs.

Before thinking about any legal claim, complain to Southern Housing. 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.

How Southern Housing's process works — and where. Report a repair or make a complaint through Southern Housing's own channels at southernhousing.org.uk/managing-your-home/compliments-complaints; since June 2025 it has used a single phone number and email address for all residents, whichever legacy organisation you first joined.^[8][11] It runs a two-stage process under the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code: it says it will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days, respond at stage 1 within 10 working days, and — if you are still unhappy — respond to a stage 2 review, carried out by a different member of staff, within 20 working days.^[8]

What to expect, on Southern Housing's own numbers. Complaint volumes by themselves are not evidence of wrongdoing — a landlord of this size handles enormous volumes of work. In 2024/25 Southern Housing received 8,116 stage 1 complaints and 2,285 stage 2 reviews, and reports that it responded within the Code's timescales to 90% of stage 1 complaints and 91% of stage 2 reviews.^[8] It received no complaint handling failure orders from the Ombudsman in the year.^[8] Its own tenant survey shows satisfaction with complaint handling remains low, so keep hold of your dates and references, and be ready to chase.

If the complaint doesn't fix it: the Housing Ombudsman. If you have been through Southern Housing's two stages and are still unhappy — or your complaint is not progressing — you can take it to the Housing Ombudsman. The service is free and independent, and you can contact the Ombudsman for advice at any point, not just at the end. The Ombudsman can do more than look into your complaint: it can order your landlord to carry out repairs, apologise, and pay you compensation. Using it costs nothing, you do not need a claims company or a solicitor to do it, and nobody takes a fee or a share of anything it awards you. Where this page quotes compensation figures, they are exactly that kind of outcome — sums recorded or ordered by the Housing Ombudsman 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.

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 Southern Housing 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 Southern Housing 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 Southern Housing formally, and usually arranging an independent inspection of your home. Most disrepair cases settle without anyone going to court.

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.^[13] 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.^[13] Even long-running problems can often still be claimed for, but it makes sense to check where you stand rather than assume. Go in with a realistic timescale, too: disrepair claims usually take months rather than weeks to resolve, and some take longer — which is one more reason to complain first and keep the pressure on for repairs while any claim runs.