Housing Act 2004
2004 c. 34 · 282 provisionsView on legislation.gov.uk
An Act to make provision about housing conditions; to regulate houses in multiple occupation and certain other residential accommodation; to make provision for home information packs in connection with the sale of residential properties; to make provision about secure tenants and the right to buy; to make provision about mobile homes and the accommodation needs of gypsies and travellers; to make other provision about housing; and for connected purposes.
Our take on Housing Act 2004
This is the Act councils in England and Wales use to police rented homes. It provides the system for rating hazards such as damp, cold and fire, lets councils order repairs or stop a home being lived in, and runs licensing for shared houses and, where a council designates an area, other rented homes. It also holds England's deposit protection rules. In our view much of what a renter can do starts here, from reporting a hazard to a deposit claim, and several of its offences, including licensing ones, can ground a rent repayment claim in England. The limit is that most of these powers sit with the council, which must act on the most serious hazards but decides how.
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- Birmingham City Council v Ali; Moran v Manchester City Council [2009] UKHL 36
- Doherty v Birmingham City Council [2008] UKHL 57
- Kay v Lambeth London Borough Council; Leeds City Council v Price [2006] UKHL 10
- McDonald v McDonald and others [2016] UKSC 28
- Nottingham City Council v Parr and another [2018] UKSC 51
- R (on the application of Ahmad) v Mayor and Burgesses of London Borough of Newham [2009] UKHL 14
- Rakusen v Jepsen and others [2023] UKSC 9
- Wolverhampton City Council and others v London Gypsies and Travellers and others [2023] UKSC 47
About this text
This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.
Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.