Landlord Repair Responsibilities: What They Must Fix and How Fast

Bedroom with damp and mould spreading across the ceiling

In short

Your landlord must repair the structure and exterior of your home, keep the heating, hot water, gas, electricity, water and sanitation in working order, and keep it free from serious hazards. Awaab's Law sets fixed legal deadlines for damp, mould and emergencies. Everything else must be put right within a reasonable time, with your landlord's own published repair targets on top. None of it can be signed away in a tenancy agreement.

What your landlord must repair

Your tenancy agreement is not the whole story. Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 puts these duties on your council or housing association whatever it says, and the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 requires the home to stay fit to live in.

Structure and exterior. The roof, chimneys and guttering; external walls, render and pointing; windows, frames and external doors; internal walls, ceilings, stairs and the plaster on them.
Damp from a building defect. A failed damp proof course, rain getting in, or ventilation and insulation that cannot cope.
Heating and hot water. The boiler, radiators, cylinder and pipework.
Electrics. The wiring, sockets, fuse box and light fittings.
Water and waste. Baths, sinks, toilets and waste pipes, the drains and sewers, and any leak, including one from the flat above.
Pests getting in through a defect. Gaps around pipework, or a cracked drain.

The full responsibility table

Item	Landlord	Tenant
Roof, chimneys and guttering	Yes	No
External walls, render and pointing	Yes	No
Windows, frames and external doors	Yes	No
Internal walls, floors, ceilings and stairs	Yes	No
Damp proof course and structural damp	Yes	No
Boiler, radiators, cylinder and pipework	Yes	No
Wiring, sockets, fuse box and light fittings	Yes	No
Gas pipes, flues and the annual gas safety check	Yes	No
Baths, sinks, toilets and waste pipes	Yes	No
Drains, sewers and external pipework	Yes	No
Extractor fans and ventilation	Yes	No
Installing smoke and carbon monoxide alarms	Yes	No
Communal areas, lifts and stairwells	Yes	No
Testing alarms and replacing their batteries	No	Yes
Changing light bulbs	No	Yes
Minor blockages caused by your own use	No	Yes
Your furniture, appliances and decoration	No	Yes
Damage by you, your household or visitors	No	Yes
Everyday cleaning and ventilation	No	Yes
Garden maintenance, in most tenancies	No	Yes

Your landlord looks after the building and the systems built into it. You look after your belongings, the consumables and any damage you cause.

Where the line gets blurred

Two things cause most arguments. The first is condensation and mould, which landlords often blame on drying washing indoors. That can be part of it, but if the home cannot be ventilated or heated properly the defect belongs to the building. The second is damage: a pane your child cracks is yours, a rotted frame is not.

Who we can help. We act for council and housing association tenants in England and Wales. We are not able to take claims from private tenants, or from tenants in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

How long does your landlord have to make repairs?

There are three layers to this, and only one of them is a legal deadline.

Awaab's Law deadlines, which are the law

Since 27 October 2025, councils and housing associations have been under fixed statutory deadlines where Awaab's Law covers the hazard. Where damp or mould is significant, your landlord must:

Investigate within 10 working days of being told.
Write to you with the findings within 3 working days of the investigation concluding.
Begin the safety work within 5 working days of the investigation concluding.
Make an emergency hazard safe within 24 hours.

From 30 November 2026 those deadlines extend to a much wider list of hazards, including excess cold, falls, structural collapse, fire and electrical dangers. Until then they cover damp, mould and emergencies only.

Your landlord's own published repair targets

For anything Awaab's Law does not reach there is no fixed number in the legislation, only your landlord's own repairs policy. The targets usually look like this:

Priority	Typical examples	Target commonly published
Emergency	Gas leak, exposed live wiring, burst pipe, flooding, no heating or hot water in winter, a ceiling coming down	Made safe within 24 hours
Urgent	Partial loss of heating, a serious leak, the only toilet blocked, a broken extractor in a mouldy room	3 to 7 working days
Routine	Cracked plaster, a dripping tap, a faulty door handle, a small damp patch, poor pointing	Around 20 to 28 working days
Planned or major works	Roof replacement, rewiring, a new kitchen or bathroom, external redecoration	Within a published programme

Those numbers are a service standard your landlord set for itself, not a legal deadline, and they vary between landlords. Find yours in the tenant handbook or on their website and quote it back at them in writing. A landlord that has missed its own target has little to say for itself later.

The reasonable time standard underneath both

Whatever the policy says, Section 11 requires the repair within a reasonable time of your landlord knowing about it, judged by how serious it is and what it is doing to your household. No heating in January is not a sticking door handle, and that is the standard a court applies.

Gone past their own target?

Tell us what you reported and when, and we will tell you where you stand. It takes about a minute.

Check if you can claim

The laws that create these duties

Law	What it requires
Section 11, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985	Keep the structure and exterior in repair, and the water, gas, electricity, sanitation and heating installations working.
Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018	Keep the home free from serious hazards and fit to live in throughout the tenancy.
Awaab's Law, Section 42 of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023	Fixed statutory deadlines to investigate and act on the hazards it covers.
Section 4, Defective Premises Act 1972	A duty of care to anyone who could be injured by the disrepair.

Your landlord cannot contract out of any of it. A clause making you responsible for the roof, the boiler or the wiring is void.

What your landlord must do beyond repairs

A gas safety check every year by a Gas Safe registered engineer, and a copy of the record.
Smoke alarms on every storey and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a boiler or gas fire.
A safe electrical installation, which most social landlords inspect on a cycle of about five years.
At least 24 hours' written notice before entering, unless it is a genuine emergency.
Your complaint handled properly under the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code.

What to do when the deadline passes

Report it in writing. Email or the repairs portal, never a call on its own, and keep the copy. Your landlord is generally not liable until they know the defect is there.
Chase in writing once the target passes, quoting the date you first reported it.
Use the formal complaints procedure. Stage 1 then Stage 2, and ask for a final response.
Report it to environmental health, who can inspect under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. Where the council is your landlord, the complaint route comes first.
Escalate to the Housing Ombudsman once you have that final response.
Make a housing disrepair claim, the route that delivers both the repairs and compensation for the time you have lived with it, normally on a no win no fee basis. See also when it is worth suing your landlord and how long a claim takes.

If you cannot let them in

Your landlord must give at least 24 hours' written notice and come at a reasonable time, and you can say an appointment does not suit. What you should not do is refuse outright or leave letters unanswered: a landlord who can show it tried to inspect and was turned away has a real defence, and missed access is a common reason a claim is reduced. Reply in writing, offer other dates, and keep the correspondence.

Frequently asked questions

What repairs are landlords responsible for?

The structure and exterior of the building, and the installations for heating, hot water, gas, electricity, water supply and sanitation. They must also keep the home free from serious hazards such as damp and mould.

How long does a landlord have to fix something?

Where Awaab's Law applies there are fixed legal deadlines, including 24 hours to make an emergency safe and 10 working days to investigate significant damp and mould. Otherwise the law requires a reasonable time, and most social landlords publish targets of 24 hours, 3 to 7 days and around 28 days for emergency, urgent and routine repairs.

How long can a landlord leave you without heating?

Almost every social landlord treats a total loss of heating or hot water as an emergency, which means making it safe or providing temporary heaters within 24 hours. Much longer in cold weather is unlikely to be reasonable.

Can my tenancy agreement make me responsible for repairs?

No. Any clause passing your landlord's Section 11 repairing obligations to you is void, however it is worded and whenever you signed it.

Is my landlord responsible for damp and mould?

In most cases yes, because damp usually starts with a building defect such as a leak, a failed damp proof course, or poor ventilation and insulation. How a home is lived in can make condensation worse, but it is rarely the whole explanation.