18 November 2024

Following a recent published article, the mayor of London Sadiq Khan, has demanded improvements to social and rental housing in London after it was revealed that 1 in 7 properties failed to meet basis living standards.

Here we share a recent housing disrepair case of our home, showcasing how our expertise in this area has helped clients in similar situations.

The case:

We were  recommended to this client to deal with his housing disrepair, which had been reported to the Landlord since early 2021. Our client had reported the disrepairs throughout the property on multiple occasions, including a release of water from the bathroom into the kitchen ceiling, significant damp and mould and a slug infestation, however the Landlord was not able to keep the property in repair and left our client in distressing conditions.

The disrepairs in the property affected our client’s mental and physical health and they were understandably worried about the effect that the disrepairs could also have on their children’s wellbeing. Our client obtained a letter from their GP which highlighted how the disrepair was affecting their health. This assisted us in putting forwards a higher initial offer for compensation, leaving us more room for negotiating as much compensation as possible.

How we helped:

We obtained our client’s full tenancy file from the Landlord, which confirmed their position and that they had been reporting disrepairs on multiple occasions. We sent out an expert surveyor to identify the disrepair, including the cause and what remedial works were required, and it was identified that the disrepairs amounted to almost £4,000.00.

We believed we had a strong case and put forwards an offer for settlement in terms of repairs and compensation towards the Landlord.

We received multiple offers from the Landlord which we believed were not acceptable and we were not able to recommend acceptance of them to our client. The offer for compensation was way too low for how long our client had suffered with the distress and inconvenience of the disrepair. We had our client’s best interests at heart and fought for what we knew they were entitled to.

We ended up issuing court proceedings on this matter due to the Landlord not increasing on their offer for compensation. Shortly after this, we received an acceptable offer from the Landlord for compensation and repairs to be complete within a set time frame. Our persistent approach to the landlord paid off and the client was really satisfied with the outcome of their case.

Our client advised that we were easy to communicate with and provided helpful advice throughout the claim which was easy to understand.  Our client would recommend us to others in a similar situation and we encourage those who are dealing with similar circumstances to reach out to us on 0344 854 7000.