How much compensation can I get for housing disrepair?

Short answer

Typically a rent reduction of 25–50% for the period serious disrepair affected your home, plus damages for ruined belongings, extra costs and any harm to your health. Awards commonly run from a few hundred to several thousand pounds. You must have reported the problem to the landlord.

Compensation in a disrepair claim is built around the loss of value in what you were paying for. Where disrepair has been serious enough to affect habitability, awards are commonly expressed as a 25–50% reduction in rent for the period it lasted, with additional damages on top for specific losses.

What you can claim for

The reduced value of the property while the disrepair continued
Damaged belongings — furniture, clothing, electricals ruined by damp, leaks or mould
Extra costs, such as running heaters or eating out with no working kitchen
Personal injury where your health has suffered, for example asthma worsened by mould
An order that the repairs actually be carried out — an injunction is often the most valuable remedy

Notice, and the evidence that decides it

Claims rest on section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 — and the landlord’s duty to act runs from when you told them, not from when the problem began. That makes written reporting the single most important step. Build the file as you go:

Every report in writing with dates — email or text is ideal
Photographs and videos showing the progression over time
Any environmental health inspection report from the council
GP letters or medical records where health has been affected
Receipts for costs, and a diary of how daily life has been disrupted

Bringing the claim

Claims under £10,000 sit in the small claims track and can be run without a solicitor. For larger claims, injunctions or personal injury, use a housing solicitor — many act on a no-win, no-fee basis where prospects are good. In social housing, exhaust the landlord’s complaints procedure first and then take the case to the Housing Ombudsman Service.

Do not withhold rent to force action: arrears give the landlord a Section 8 ground even where they are in breach. And you no longer face the old retaliatory-eviction risk in the same way — Section 21 was abolished on 1 May 2026, so possession now requires a ground proved in court.

Read the full guide: Housing Disrepair: Your OptionsCovers eligibility, the process, deadlines, and next steps in depth.

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