Tenant rights in the UK

1. The right to a home fit for human habitation

A law called the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 says your home must be safe to live in. This is true for council, housing association, and private homes. Your home must be safe when you move in, and stay safe while you live there. The law uses a checklist called the HHSRS. It covers 29 kinds of danger in a home.

A court would usually call a home unsafe to live in if it has:

• Persistent damp or mould affecting more than one room.
• Structural problems including subsidence, cracking walls, or unsafe roofs.
• No working heating or hot water, especially in winter.
• Pest infestations the landlord has not dealt with.
• Electrical or fire-safety hazards.
• Severe leaks affecting kitchen, bathroom, or bedroom usability.

If your home is not safe, you can ask your landlord to fix it. If they do not, the law gives you a way to make them. If your landlord is a council or housing association, Awaab's Law also sets clear deadlines. See the next section.

2. The right to repairs within a statutory timeframe

Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 is the main repair law. It says your landlord must keep the building in good repair. That includes the water, gas, electrics, drains, and heating. The law says repairs must be done in a “reasonable time”. For emergencies, like no heating in winter, no hot water, or a bad leak, that means days, not weeks.

For social-housing tenants, Awaab's Law (Section 10A LTA 1985, in force 27 October 2025) replaces “reasonable time” with hard statutory deadlines:

See our full guide at /law/awaabs-law for the regulations and what counts as an emergency vs significant hazard.

3. The right to have your deposit protected

Under the Housing Act 2004, every assured shorthold tenancy deposit must be placed in one of three government-approved schemes within 30 days of receipt:

• Deposit Protection Service (DPS)
• MyDeposits
• Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS)

The landlord must also give you Prescribed Information about which scheme holds it. If they fail either requirement, you can claim between one and three times the deposit back through the County Court, and a Section 21 eviction notice they serve in the meantime is invalid.

We cover the procedural detail at /tenancy-deposit-claims.

4. The right to challenge eviction

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 abolishes Section 21 “no-fault” eviction in the private rented sector. All evictions now require a Section 8 ground (rent arrears, anti-social behaviour, the landlord wanting to move in or sell, and so on), and most grounds give the tenant longer to move out than before.

For tenancies that began before the commencement date, transitional provisions apply, see our news article at what the Renters Rights Act actually changes from day one.

Retaliatory eviction (eviction served because you complained about disrepair) was already unlawful under the Deregulation Act 2015 and remains so. If you have complained about disrepair in writing in the six months before an eviction notice, the notice is likely invalid.

For social-housing tenancies, secure and assured tenancy protections continue to apply, eviction requires a court order and one of the statutory grounds in Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1985 / 1988.

5. The right to complain free of charge

Every social landlord (councils and housing associations) must run a two-stage internal complaints process. You write to them, they respond. If they miss the deadlines or leave the problem unfixed, you may have a claim, and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth pursuing.

Always complain in writing and keep dated copies of everything. That paper trail is the evidence your claim is built on.

For private rented tenancies, complaints go to the redress scheme the landlord or agent belongs to (Property Redress Scheme or The Property Ombudsman). If the landlord is not signed up to a scheme, that itself is a council enforcement matter.

6. Where to start, in order

1. Document everything. Photograph the disrepair, keep dated copies of every email, letter, and text. Note when you first reported the problem and what was said.
2. Complain in writing to the landlord. Use their formal complaints process. Be specific: address, nature of the disrepair, when reported, what has been done, what you want fixed and by when.
3. Make a claim once the landlord's process is exhausted or 8 weeks have passed with no proper response. You may have a claim for compensation and repairs, call us free on 0800 030 4669. A no-win-no-fee Conditional Fee Agreement with the statutory No win, no fee is the standard structure, so the fee only comes out of your compensation if you win.

If you want to skip straight to step 4 because the disrepair has been ongoing and the landlord has been unresponsive, see how Support for Tenants works. We will tell you honestly whether you have a claim worth pursuing.