Standards & condition
What is disrepair?
Disrepair is a failure to keep a property in the condition the landlord is obliged to maintain. Repairing obligations cover the structure, exterior, and installations for water, gas, electricity, heating and sanitation.
The duty is generally triggered by notice: the landlord must know, or be taken to know, about the defect. That makes how reports are received and recorded central to the exposure.
Response time is what claims turn on. A defect reported and attended promptly is a repair; the same defect reported three times over eight months is a claim.
Damp and mould have had particular attention, with specific duties and timescales introduced for social housing and consultation on extending them further.
What goes wrong in practice
- Reports taken by phone with no record, so the notice date cannot be established.
- Jobs closed at attendance rather than at resolution.
- Damp treated as a tenant lifestyle issue without investigating the cause.