Criminal penalties for landlords who ignore repairs: what changed in 2026

In short

The Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 brought the biggest change to social housing oversight in a generation. It gave the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) new powers: inspect landlords without warning, issue unlimited fines, appoint new managers, and in the worst cases prosecute.

These powers are now in use. For tenants, that adds a regulatory route beside the Housing Ombudsman route and the court disrepair claim. Knowing how they fit together gives you more options when your landlord fails to act.

What the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 did

Before the Act, the RSH mostly watched landlords' finances and governance. Whether a housing association was financially sound was its core concern. The condition of individual homes, and the service tenants received, was left largely to the Housing Ombudsman and the courts.

The 2023 Act changed that. It set new consumer standards every registered social landlord must meet, and the RSH itself can enforce them, not just complaints teams or the Ombudsman.

The four consumer standards that now carry regulatory weight are:

The Safety and Quality Standard. Landlords must provide safe homes and keep them decent. It carries specific duties on finding hazards, on damp and mould, and on meeting Awaab's Law timescales.

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. Landlords must be open with tenants, give them the information needed to hold the landlord to account, and give them a real voice in how services run.

The Neighbourhood and Community Standard. Covers how communal areas, estates and shared spaces are managed.

The Tenancy Standard. Covers how landlords allocate homes, manage tenancies, and handle succession and mutual exchange.

What enforcement powers the RSH now has

The RSH now has a ladder of enforcement tools for landlords breaching the consumer standards.

Inspections without notice. The RSH can inspect a landlord's properties, policies and records without warning. Under the old regime, inspections were mostly scheduled and cooperative. Unannounced visits now happen wherever there is cause for concern.

Improvement notices. Where the RSH finds a breach, it can order specific steps within a set time. Ignoring the notice is itself a breach.

Performance improvement plans. The RSH can make a landlord write and follow a plan to improve its services. The plan is legally binding.

Manager appointments. Where governance is so poor the landlord cannot be trusted to fix itself, the RSH can put in an outside manager. That step effectively takes control away from the landlord's board.

Unlimited fines. The RSH can fine with no ceiling. Under the old regime fines were capped. In theory a fine can now be set high enough to really hurt a landlord's operations.

Criminal prosecution. In the worst cases, people inside the landlord organisation, including board members and senior officers, can face criminal charges. The aim: personal accountability at the top, not just organisational blame.

The RSH publishes an enforcement register on its website: which landlords are under regulatory notices, and for what. It is public and searchable.

How this differs from the Housing Ombudsman

The RSH and the Housing Ombudsman are separate bodies with different jobs.

The Housing Ombudsman investigates individual complaints from named tenants about one landlord. Its findings are about your case and whether the landlord acted fairly. Its orders usually mean compensation plus a fix.

The RSH looks at the whole organisation. It is not the place for one complaint about one repair. Its job is to judge whether the landlord's systems, policies and standards hold up across all its homes. Where it finds a landlord failing across the board, it acts.

In practice the two share intelligence. A pattern of Ombudsman findings against one landlord can draw RSH interest. A severe maladministration finding may feed into an RSH inspection or formal notice.

How to report a landlord to the RSH

You cannot ask the RSH to look at one repair. But you can point it at what you believe is failure across the board.

The RSH website has a "report a concern" process. Use it to say you believe your landlord is failing the consumer standards generally. It helps most when:

• You can show patterns across several tenants or properties, not just your own
• You have evidence the complaints handling is broken, say Stage 2 complaints going ignored
• You believe the board is not taking tenant safety seriously at the top

Reporting to the RSH does not replace the Housing Ombudsman for your own case. You can use both at once.

How this interacts with a disrepair claim

A disrepair claim is a court action between you and your landlord. It stands apart from both the Ombudsman process and RSH enforcement.

Bringing a claim does not stop the RSH investigating your landlord. And RSH action against your landlord does not settle your personal claim.

Where RSH enforcement helps a disrepair case is evidence. If the RSH found your landlord failing on safety and quality across its stock, that is relevant context for a claim about the same landlord failing to repair your home. It does not prove your case alone, but it supports a pattern argument.

What the new enforcement regime means for tenants in practical terms

This does not mean every disrepair problem ends in prosecution. It will not. The criminal powers are kept for the worst cases.

What matters is that landlords now know the consequences go beyond paying compensation to individual tenants. The RSH can inspect without warning, fine without limit, and hold board members personally liable. That changes how landlords weigh the cost of ignoring repairs.

For tenants, the new regime adds weight to formal complaints. A well-documented Ombudsman complaint, paired with an RSH report about wider failure, is stronger than either alone.

What to do if your landlord is failing

If your social landlord has failed on repairs or damp and mould, you have at least three routes at once: the landlord's own complaints procedure (needed before the Ombudsman), the Housing Ombudsman, and a court disrepair claim.

We can help you see which route fits your situation, and whether your case is strong enough for no-win-no-fee terms. The assessment is free.

Check if you have a claim, free | Free call: 0800 030 4669

Sources: Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, legislation.gov.uk | Regulator of Social Housing enforcement action register.

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