Your landlord or letting agent has legal responsibilities to manage your tenancy fairly and to keep your home up to a decent standard. As a private tenant you also have rights and responsibilities too. Visit Shelter for Landlord and tenant responsibilities for repairs.
Report a repair to your landlord
You must contact your landlord or letting agent first to report a repair. If your landlord is refusing to help, you can then contact the council.
You will need to:
- Write to your landlord explaining the problem. Do this in writing in case you need to prove this at a later date – you can find letter templates on the Shelter website. You should also include any photos.
- Ask the landlord to confirm within 14 days what their response is to your disrepair issues and ask for a timetable for remedial repairs to be completed.
- Keep paying your rent whilst this process is taking place.
- Please cooperate with your landlord and ensure you are contactable and that you make your property available for the repairs to take place.
Visit Shelter for details about how to report a repair.
If your landlord doesn’t do the repair, or takes too long
Make sure you have followed the reporting process before contacting us. If your landlord doesn’t take any action or they have not responded to you after 14 days, you can report the issue to us by emailing privatesectorhousing@norwich.gov.uk
You will need to send us the following information:
- Copies of your communication to the landlord or letting agent.
- Full contact details for your landlord or letting agent (address, telephone, email) and the name of the person you have been dealing with.
- The address of your rental property.
- Full details and photos of the disrepairs.
- Your contact details and a copy of your tenancy agreement to confirm the commencement date of your tenancy.
What we can do
If your landlord or letting agent does not respond to us and the standard of your home does not meet legal requirements, we can take further action to ensure compliance. A lack of co-operation can lead to action under the Housing Act 2004, including serving landlords/letting agents with notices that incur fees. Ultimately, civil penalty fines may be issued against them.
