Manchester City Council and major housing associations face mounting Awaab's Law scrutiny. Here's what tenants are entitled to and how to claim.
Manchester sits at the centre of one of the largest social housing areas in northern England. Manchester City Council manages homes directly. Big associations own homes here too: One Manchester, Onward, Stockport Homes, Mosscare St Vincents, and Wythenshawe Community Housing Group. Between them they manage more than 65,000 homes.
Published complaint decisions show a steady, high flow of cases against Manchester landlords. The same failures repeat: damp left to spread, heating breakdowns not fixed within the legal time limits, and leaks treated as cosmetic when they are structural.
Awaab's Law is now the legal benchmark
Since October 2025, every Manchester social landlord must:
- Look into an emergency hazard within 24 hours
- Look into a significant hazard within 10 working days
- Send you a written summary of what they found within 3 working days
- Finish the work within 5 working days of the investigation ending
If they miss these deadlines, that is grounds for a disrepair claim.
What makes Manchester different
A lot of Manchester's social housing was built in the regeneration waves of the 1990s and 2000s. Damp in these homes often comes from how they were built, not how tenants live. That matters in law.
Your landlord cannot lawfully blame "condensation caused by lifestyle" when the real cause is the building.
Common Manchester disrepair claims we see
- Damp in Beswick, Wythenshawe, and Cheetham Hill estates
- Broken communal heating in mid-rise blocks
- Roof and gutter failures in terraced homes
- Disability-access failures in adapted homes
How much you could get depends on how bad the disrepair was, how long it lasted, and any effect on your health, so we cannot promise a figure. Where a landlord has missed Awaab's Law deadlines, that strengthens a claim.
If you've reported a problem and nothing changed
You may have a claim. Call free on 0800 030 4669.
You don't need to use Support for Tenants. If you choose to use us: No upfront cost. You only pay if you win, and the fee comes out of the compensation, not your pocket. If you don't win, you pay nothing.
Source: council social-housing stock figures are published in the Local Authority Housing Statistics, GOV.UK.
Support For Tenants is a trading name of Cyntex Group Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as a Claims Management Company. FRN 1020217. Registered in England and Wales.
Reviewed against current housing law for England and Wales as at 3 August 2026. Checked by our SRA-regulated panel solicitors. This is general information, not legal advice for your specific case. Any compensation figures or ranges shown are illustrative only, not a promise; every case is different.
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Renting with damp, mould or leaks your landlord won't fix?
No upfront cost. You only pay if you win, and the fee comes out of the compensation, not your pocket. If you don't win, you pay nothing.