Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985: What Your Landlord Must Repair

Short answer: Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 makes your landlord legally responsible for the structure, the outside, and the main installations of your home, water, gas, electricity, sanitation and heating. The duty applies to almost every short tenancy in England and Wales (under 7 years), cannot be removed by the tenancy agreement, and is one of the two main legal routes tenants use in housing disrepair cases.

If you are a renter and you only learn one piece of housing law, this is the one to learn.

What Section 11 actually says

The full text is in Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 on legislation.gov.uk. In plain English it gives you three duties on your landlord:

1. Keep the structure and exterior in repair. That includes:

• The walls, the roof, the foundations
• Windows and external doors
• Drains, gutters and external pipes
• Anything that holds the building up or keeps the weather out

2. Keep installations for water, gas, electricity and sanitation in repair and in proper working order. That includes:

• Pipework, taps, the water supply
• Gas pipes and meters
• Electrical wiring, sockets and the consumer unit
• Basins, sinks, baths and toilets

3. Keep installations for space heating and water heating in repair and in proper working order. That includes:

• Boilers
• Radiators and central heating pipework
• Immersion heaters
• Fixed electric heaters

If any of these are broken, leaking, or not working properly, your landlord is the one who has to fix them, not you.

Which tenancies it applies to

Section 11 is implied into every lease granted on or after 24 October 1961 for a term of less than 7 years. That covers almost every assured shorthold, every rolling/periodic tenancy, and almost every council and housing association tenancy. You do not need it written into your tenancy agreement. It is there by law.

It also cannot be contracted out of. A clause in your tenancy that says "the tenant is responsible for the boiler" is not enforceable against Section 11. The duty stays with the landlord.

What Section 11 does NOT cover

This is where tenants often get caught out:

• Damage you caused yourself. If you broke the window kicking a football, that is your repair. If you blocked the toilet, that is your repair. The law calls this the duty to act in a "tenant-like manner".
• Cosmetic decoration. Peeling paint, scuffed walls, worn carpets, the landlord does not have to redecorate.
• Your own belongings. The landlord's contents insurance does not cover your sofa, your TV, or your clothes. Get contents insurance for those.
• Improvements. Section 11 is a repair duty, not an upgrade duty. A working but old boiler does not have to be replaced with a new one.
• The garden. Unless the tenancy says otherwise, this is usually the tenant's responsibility.

What about damp and mould?

Damp and mould are not specifically named in Section 11, but most damp and mould problems are caused by something Section 11 does cover, a leaking roof, broken guttering, failed pointing, a missing damp-proof course, condensation from inadequate heating or extraction. If the cause is a Section 11 defect, the landlord must put it right.

There is also a second, parallel duty: Section 9A of the same Act (added by the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018) requires the home to be fit for human habitation throughout the tenancy. Damp, mould, poor ventilation and inadequate heating can all make a home unfit. See our guide on tenant rights when there is damp and mould.

For social tenants in England, Awaab's Law now adds named statutory timescales on top of Section 11.

How to use Section 11 in practice

The duty only kicks in once the landlord is on notice of the defect. That means:

1. Report it in writing. Portal, email, or letter, do not rely on a phone call.
2. Keep evidence. Photos, videos, dates, the original repair reference.
3. Allow reasonable time. What counts as reasonable depends on the severity, 24 hours for an emergency, days for a serious hazard, a few weeks for a routine repair.
4. Escalate in writing. Use the formal complaints procedure, Stage 1 then Stage 2.
5. Take advice if the landlord has not put it right after a reasonable time.

For exactly what evidence to gather, see our housing disrepair evidence checklist.

What the law lets you claim

If the landlord has been on notice and has failed to repair within a reasonable time, you may be able to bring a housing disrepair claim. A claim can ask for:

• An order requiring the landlord to do the works
• A reduction in rent for the period the home was in disrepair
• Damages for inconvenience, distress and any damaged belongings
• Damages for any worsened health caused by the disrepair (with medical evidence)

We do not state amounts on this website, the value depends on the severity, the length of the disrepair, and the impact on the household. A solicitor will tell you whether your case is worth pursuing.

Special situations

Common parts in a block. For communal stairwells, lifts, shared roofs and shared drains, the landlord's repair duty under Section 11 was extended by the Housing Act 1988 (which added subsections to Section 11). The landlord does not need notice of defects in common parts they have control over.

Right to Buy and leaseholders. If you exercised Right to Buy and now hold a long lease, you are usually responsible for repairs inside your flat, and the freeholder (often the council) is responsible for the structure and common parts via the lease. Section 11 will not usually apply directly, but the lease often mirrors many of the same duties. See our piece on Right to Buy and housing disrepair claims.

Wales. The legal framework in Wales has been substantially restructured by the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. Section 11 has been replaced for Welsh occupation contracts by fitness and repair duties built into the contract. The substance is similar but the route is different, take Welsh-specific advice.

Get help

If your landlord is in breach of Section 11 and has not put it right after a reasonable time, 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 housing disrepair cases on a no-win-no-fee basis. 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.

Free alternative: Shelter (0808 800 4444) offers free housing advice.

Sources: Section 11, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (legislation.gov.uk); Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 (legislation.gov.uk); Private renting: repairs (GOV.UK); Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 (legislation.gov.uk).

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