Housing Disrepair Success Stories – No Hot Water or Heating & Cracks in Ceiling

The Housing Team at Hodge Jones & Allen have been defending the rights of tenants since 1977 and we understand how your life can be turned upside down when a landlord refuses to carry out repairs to your home.

With this blog series, each week we plan to share the details of another successful settlement to show tenants that help to is available to get results and gain compensation.

This week’ Housing Disrepair case is as follows:

We were instructed to deal with a case involving housing disrepair. The property suffered from damp and mould growth in one room, cracks running the length of the ceiling in another room and the double glazing seals had blown in most of the rooms, causing several issues. As well as this the property was without hot water and heating during freezing conditions, this required urgent action.

It is an implied term of the tenancy agreement, pursuant to Section 11 of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1985, that a landlord would keep in repair the structure and exterior of the dwelling house and the installations therein for the supply of gas, water, electricity, sanitation and space heating. The landlord owes a duty of care to their tenants, under Section 4 of the Defective Premises Act 1972, to ensure that the tenants are reasonably safe from personal injury or from damage to their property.

Hodge Jones & Allen prepared a detailed Letter of Claim which was sent to the landlord. The landlord provided a response to this letter and agreed to a Single Joint Expert to attend and provide a report on the conditions of the property. Our Housing Team prepared a letter of joint instruction to send to the surveyor.

Upon receipt of the surveyor’s report, an updated Letter of Claim was sent to the landlord. Shortly after this the landlord provided the relevant documents that were requested and made an offer of settlement.

Negotiations were subsequently entered into. The parties agreed upon terms of settlement including that all works are undertaken in accordance with the report of the surveyor and the landlord will pay our client’s reasonable legal costs.

As well as this, our Housing Team resolved the urgent action matter of the property not having heating or hot water. The team prepared an application for injunction but before it was filed with the court the landlord agreed to replace the boiler.

If you need help with housing disrepair, you can try our housing disrepair compensation calculator or talk to our housing law specialists today. Call us on 0330 822 3451 or request a call back.