How to escalate a housing complaint when your landlord ignores you

You've reported the problem. Your landlord has done nothing, or done something useless. What next?

Most tenants give up at this stage. Don't. There's a clear escalation route, and the law gets stronger at each step.

Stage 1: Formal written complaint

Your landlord must have a complaints policy. Find it on their website (search "[landlord name] complaints policy"). It will specify whether complaints go to a particular team, email address, or postal address.

Write a formal complaint, not just another repair request. Use the words "this is a formal complaint under your stage-1 complaints procedure". This triggers their statutory complaint-handling clock.

Your landlord must:

• Acknowledge within 5 working days
• Issue a stage-1 response within 10 working days (some have longer)

If they miss either deadline, that itself is documentary evidence you can use later.

Use our free complaint letter builder, it generates a properly-formatted letter citing Section 11 and Awaab's Law deadlines.

Stage 2: Escalate to stage 2

If the stage-1 response is unsatisfactory (or arrives late or not at all), write back saying "I'm dissatisfied with your stage-1 response and request escalation to stage 2". Don't bury the request, make it the first line.

Stage-2 response deadlines vary by landlord. Most are 20 working days. Some specify "complex cases" can extend to 8 weeks. After 8 weeks of no proper stage-2 response, or once stage 2 is exhausted, the next step is a legal claim.

Stage 3: Legal claim

Once you have completed (or tried to complete) the landlord's two-stage complaints process, a housing disrepair claim is the route that recovers full compensation. It makes sense when:

• The damage is significant (£10,000+ in losses or compensation)
• There's been injury, illness, or destruction of personal belongings
• You want a court-ordered repair with enforcement teeth
• The landlord has ignored repeated reports

You may have a claim, call us free on 0800 030 4669. Legal claims go to the County Court. You can bring one yourself for small claims (under £10,000), court fees apply but are scaled to your income.

For larger claims, most tenants use a solicitor. The no-win-no-fee route (a "conditional fee agreement") means no upfront cost. The solicitor recovers their fees from your landlord if you win; the fee is agreed and explained in full before you start, and only ever comes out of your compensation, not your own pocket.

We're an FCA-regulated claims management company, we don't do the legal work ourselves, but we screen cases and pass viable ones to our panel of SRA-regulated solicitors.

Critical: keep a paper trail

At every stage, document everything:

• Date and time of every conversation
• Names of everyone you spoke to
• Copies of every email, letter, text
• Screenshots of any portal communications
• Reference numbers given to you

When a case goes to court, this paper trail is what wins or loses it.

You don't have to choose us

You can do the full 4-stage escalation yourself, without using a claims company at all. We exist because most people don't have the time, knowledge, or stamina to do it well. But the legal rights are yours either way.

If you want help, call us free on 0800 030 4669 or start a claim. If you want to do it yourself, our letter builder and help centre are free and you don't have to give us an email address to use them.

Sources: Section 11, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (legislation.gov.uk); Awaab's Law: guidance for social landlords, 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.