Notting Hill Genesis G3 Governance Downgrade: What Tenants Need to Know

On 27 November 2024 the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) downgraded Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) from G1 to a G3 governance rating, formally "non-compliant". NHG is one of London's largest housing associations, holding around 67,000 homes across the capital and the South East. A G3 is not paperwork. It is the regulator's published view that the board lacks sufficient grip on what happens inside the organisation, above all around health and safety.

Renting from NHG? Here is what changed, why it matters, and what to do where your own home keeps waiting on repairs that never quite arrive.

What G3 means

The RSH grades governance from G1, meets standards, to G4, serious failure with the regulator stepping in. A G3 means:

• The landlord misses the regulator's governance standard
• A formal undertaking or compliance plan has been agreed, or will be
• Closer scrutiny follows until things improve

The published judgement pointed to weak board oversight of health and safety risk, fire safety, electrical safety and building safety, plus gaps in the systems tracking those risks at senior level. The downgrade was confirmed in the Regulator's judgement of 27 November 2024.

The viability grade held at V2, still compliant. So this is a governance problem, not a money problem. That strips the "we can't afford it" argument out of any later disrepair discussion.

Why this matters for tenants

A board without full sight of safety risks tends to produce three things at the front line:

1. Repairs and safety jobs get logged, then slip. Electrical checks go undone, fire-door checks drift, gas paperwork lags.
2. Complaints run longer. Weak governance means complaints handled in silos, and escalations lost.
3. Vulnerable tenants get missed. Households flagged for priority do not always reach the team booking the repair.

Chasing the same repair for months, or watching a complaint bounce between teams? The regulator's judgement is independent evidence that the pattern is real, not imagined.

What you can do now

1. Put everything in writing. Email or portal, references kept. Never lean on a phone call.
2. Use the formal complaints process. Stage 1, then Stage 2. NHG must answer inside its published timescales.
3. Ask in writing for the safety certificates. The electrical report, gas safety record, and fire risk assessment for your building should all come on request.
4. Use our letter builder. It produces a clean, dated formal complaint that starts NHG's Stage 1 clock.
5. Get advice on a claim. Disrepair left unfixed may mean compensation. Call us free on 0800 030 4669.

For a step-by-step on the wording and structure of a complaint, see how to write a complaint letter to your housing association.

What this is not

A G3 grade is no finding on your specific case. By itself it fixes no boiler and treats no mould. It is a backdrop. The route to fixing your home stays:

• formal complaint to the landlord → if unresolved, a disrepair claim

…all of which now run against a more sympathetic regulatory backdrop.

Compensation

Lived with disrepair NHG failed to fix in a reasonable time? Compensation may be owed through a disrepair claim. No fixed amount exists. Awards rest on a share of the rent paid during the affected period. Courts often award roughly 25% to 50% for a serious ongoing problem, the approach in Wallace v Manchester City Council. More follows where health suffered or belongings were damaged. The time limit runs six years. For detail see our guide on how much compensation for damp and mould.

Get help

Renting from Notting Hill Genesis with damp, mould, leaks, electrical failings, or a complaint left ignored? Call Support for Tenants on 0800 030 4669 for a free assessment. We are a regulated company, not a law firm. We connect tenants with solicitors who run disrepair cases on a no-win-no-fee basis.

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.