Tenants' Rights When There Is No Hot Water (England & Wales)

Short answer: If you rent in England or Wales and you have no hot water, your landlord has a legal duty to fix it, and to do so quickly. Under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, the installations for water heating and space heating must be kept in working order. A complete loss of hot water is treated as an urgent or emergency repair, with typical published response times of 24 hours and full restoration inside three to seven working days, depending on the landlord's repair policy.

This is the law in both England and Wales, and it applies whether you rent from a council, a housing association or a private landlord.

The legal basis

• Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. The landlord must keep in repair and proper working order the installations for the supply of water, gas, electricity, sanitation, space heating and water heating. This is implied into almost every tenancy of less than seven years, it cannot be contracted out of.
• Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018. In England, the home must remain fit for human habitation throughout the tenancy. A home with no hot water in winter is not fit.
• Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. In Wales, the same duty exists under the fitness for human habitation fundamental term in every occupation contract.
• Awaab's Law (in force 27 October 2025). In England's social-housing sector, hazards capable of significantly affecting tenants' health include excess cold. A boiler failure in winter that leaves a household with no heating or hot water can trigger Awaab's Law's 24-hour emergency-hazard timescale.

Is "no hot water" an emergency?

Most landlord repair policies treat a total loss of hot water and/or heating as either an emergency (immediate response, 24 hours) or an urgent repair (3 working days), particularly:

• in winter
• where there are children, older residents, disabled residents or anyone with a medical need
• where there is no alternative source (no shower at a neighbour's, no immersion heater)

Loss of hot water alone, boiler heats radiators but not taps, is usually categorised as urgent rather than emergency in most landlord policies, but the landlord still has to act inside their published timescale.

See what counts as an emergency repair in the UK for the full breakdown of timescales.

What you must do

To trigger your landlord's duty to repair, the landlord must be on notice. That means you have to tell them in a way you can prove.

1. Report it in writing. Portal, email or out-of-hours emergency number, keep the reference.
2. Be explicit. "I have no hot water at all from any tap" is clearer than "the boiler is playing up".
3. Flag vulnerability. Children under 5, anyone over 65, anyone with a medical condition. This changes the priority.
4. Note the date and time of every contact.
5. Keep every text, email and reference number you receive.

What the landlord has to do

• Respond inside their published emergency/urgent timescale. A typical scheme: out-of-hours emergency response inside 24 hours to make safe; full repair inside 3 to 7 working days.
• Provide temporary heating (electric heaters) if the repair cannot be completed quickly and the loss is during a cold period.
• Provide reasonable alternative arrangements if the home becomes unliveable, for example temporary accommodation if no hot water can be restored for an extended period.
• Not blame you without investigating. If the boiler is at fault, that is the landlord's responsibility.

What you do if the landlord does not act

1. Escalate inside the organisation. Use the formal complaints procedure, Stage 1, then Stage 2.
2. Put it in writing. Use our letter builder for a clean, dated formal complaint that triggers the landlord's complaints timescale.
3. Document the impact. Receipts for laundrette use, hotel rooms, electric heaters, takeaway meals (where you could not cook properly), doctor visits if the cold made anyone ill.
4. Consider a housing disrepair claim if the landlord has failed to act inside a reasonable time after being told. You may have a claim, call us free on 0800 030 4669.

Can you withhold rent?

Not in England. Even where the landlord is failing, withholding rent puts you in arrears and at risk of eviction. There is no legal "no service, no rent" rule.

In Wales, the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 includes a supplementary-term route to deductions in narrow circumstances, but it is technical and you should take Welsh-specific advice first. See Can I withhold rent if my home is in disrepair?

Compensation

Where a landlord has failed to act inside a reasonable time after being told there was no hot water, you may be entitled to compensation. Awards typically include a percentage of rent paid during the affected period, general damages for inconvenience, and the cost of replacing damaged belongings or paying for alternatives (electric heaters, laundrette, takeaways where you could not cook). Many cases settle in the £500 to £3,000 range for a short outage; longer or more serious failures push higher.

Get help

If you have been without hot water for an unreasonable time and your landlord is not acting, call Support for Tenants on 0800 030 4669 for a free assessment. We are a regulated company, not a law firm, we work with solicitors who run housing disrepair cases on a no-win-no-fee basis.

Sources: Section 11, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (legislation.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.