Repairs and disrepair — Stoke-on-Trent City Council

Before thinking about any legal claim, complain. 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 first. Use the council's online repair form (opens in new tab) or call the repairs line on 01782 234100, which is open 9am to 4pm, Monday to Friday.^[12] Report damp, mould or condensation through the council's damp and mould form for council tenants (opens in new tab).^[12]

In an emergency, phone. Emergency repairs can be reported on 01782 234100 at any time, day or night.^[12] For a suspected gas leak, also call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999,^[12] and for a life-threatening situation, call 999.

Then make a formal complaint if reporting has not fixed it. Use the council's online feedback form (opens in new tab), email RMS.feedback@stoke.gov.uk about a repair, or call 01782 234234.^[18] The council's policy has two stages:

• Stage 1 — acknowledged within 5 working days, with a response within 10 working days after that.^[18]
• Stage 2 review — ask within 10 working days of the stage 1 reply; it should be answered within 20 working days of being acknowledged.^[18]

The policy excludes matters where legal action has already started — another reason to complain first.^[18]

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.

Free advice. 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 the 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 rising damp, a leaking roof or missing insulation
• a leak, whether from the roof, a pipe, or the flat above
• no heating or hot water
• holes or gaps that let pests in
• 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 the council to stand up:

1. You're a council tenant of Stoke-on-Trent City Council — a housing association or private tenancy is a claim against that landlord instead.
2. You told your landlord, and it knew. A report — through the online form, by phone, or logged as 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 FAQ on how long repairs take) 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 the 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, 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 for it to be fixed while any claim is ongoing.