Repairs and disrepair — Thirteen

Before thinking about any legal claim, report the problem to Thirteen and, if it is not fixed, complain. 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 to report a repair. Report a repair through the My Thirteen website at mythirteen.co.uk, by phone on 0300 111 1000, or by email to customerservices@thirteengroup.co.uk. Emergency repairs must be reported by phone.^[12] For damp and mould, Thirteen has its own online form, where you can upload photos.^[13]

How Thirteen's complaints process works. Complain online at thirteengroup.co.uk/compliments-and-complaints, by phone, by email to customer.relations@thirteengroup.co.uk, or at one of Thirteen's Touchpoint stores. Thirteen says it acknowledges a complaint within 1 working day and aims to resolve it at Stage 1 within 5 working days, unless it tells you it will take longer. If you are unhappy with the outcome, you can ask for Stage 2, where a senior member of staff reviews the complaint; Thirteen aims to reply within 10 working days.^[10]

If the complaint doesn't fix it: the Housing Ombudsman. If you have been through Thirteen's two stages and are still unhappy — or your complaint is not progressing — you can take it to the Housing Ombudsman.^[10] The service is free and independent, and you can contact it for advice at any point. It can order your landlord to carry out repairs, apologise, and pay you compensation, and you do not need a claims company or a solicitor to use it.

Free advice. Shelter and Citizens Advice both give free housing advice. 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, uneven floors or other structural problems
• faulty electrics.

You may have a claim against Thirteen if all of these apply:

1. Thirteen is your landlord. Check your tenancy agreement — the landlord named on it is what counts.
2. Thirteen knew about the problem. Usually that means you reported it. A repair logged on My Thirteen, an email, or the damp and mould form with photos attached each leaves a dated record, so keep the reference numbers.
3. It failed to fix the problem in a reasonable time. What is "reasonable" depends on the problem; Thirteen's own repair targets, in the FAQs below, are a useful 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 Thirteen building, you have rights too, though the route is a little 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 Thirteen 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.

The same kinds of loss run through the Ombudsman's decisions about Thirteen. In the December 2025 case it ordered compensation for the loss of use of a bedroom as well as for distress, and told Thirteen to look again at a claim for belongings damaged by mould.^[4] In a March 2026 case it ordered Thirteen to explain in writing how to claim for damaged belongings.^[5] Those are Ombudsman remedies, not court awards.

What a claim is worth can only be assessed from the evidence — see the compensation question in the FAQs.

Step 1 — tell us what's happened. You answer some straightforward questions: what the problem is, when you reported it, what Thirteen did (or didn't do), and how it has affected your household. Photos and repair references help, and so does Thirteen's written response to your complaint.^[10]

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, writing to Thirteen formally, and usually arranging an independent surveyor to inspect your home — separate from any visit by Thirteen's own repairs team. 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.^[14] 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.^[14] 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.