Speed matters when it comes to repairs on rented properties.
Delays in fixing a resident’s faulty boiler in the middle of winter doesn’t just annoy residents - it can also damage their physical and mental health.
But for busy landlords managing hundreds or even thousands of properties, it can be hard to prioritise repairs.
Knowing how long UK landlords have to fix problems allows them to efficiently manage workloads, while also keeping residents happy and staying compliant with industry regulations.
In the UK there are surprisingly few regulations providing timeframes for repairs, especially in the private rented sector.
However, according to Awaab’s Law, landlords should aim to:
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Complete emergency repairs within 24 hours.
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Investigate reported hazards within 14 days.
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Repair hazards that present a significant risk to health or safety within 7 days.
In this article, we’ll explain the regulations surrounding these timeframes, what landlords are responsible for, as well as how to define emergency and non-emergency repairs.
But first, let’s take a look at why repair timeframes are important.
Why Repair Response Times Matter
The quality of a resident’s home impacts the quality of their life. Unfortunately, an unacceptable number of renters in the private and social housing sectors have been forced to put up with homes that are damp, cold, or in a poor state of repair.
That’s why in recent years, UK governments have taken steps to regulate landlord response times.
However, recent data from the Regulator of Social Housing shows that landlords still need to improve response times. Overall, the sector failed to complete 11% of emergency repairs within target timescales, and this figure increased to 29% for non-emergency repairs.
It is therefore unsurprising that around one-third of social housing residents were dissatisfied with their landlord’s response time to their last repair request.
These results might not sound terrible, but that’s across around 4 million households, representing about 8.8 million people across England.
In other words, nearly 3 million people in the UK are unhappy with their landlord’s response times.
And that’s just in the social housing sector. A further 4.6 million households or roughly 10 million people live in private rented accommodation. The total number is likely to be far higher.
These residents face problems like leaks, damaged doors, broken windows, or a lack of critical utilities like water, gas, or electricity. This leaves them feeling unsafe and unsecure until the problem is rectified.
What Regulations Govern Landlord Repair Response Times?
Here are the main laws that govern what a landlord is responsible for and when they need to take action by.
The Landlord and Tenant Act 1985
This sets out the different responsibilities that landlords and residents have over a rented property.
Landlord’s responsibility: Includes maintaining the building’s overall structure, including:
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The roof
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Walls
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Windows
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Doors
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Drains
The building must be kept fit for human habitation, this includes:
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Being in a good state of repair
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Being structurally stable
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Free from damp or mould
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Fitted with adequate ventilation
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Has running water, electricity and gas
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Is free from water or sanitation problems
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Doesn’t have any health and safety hazards
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Is free from rats, mice, or other pests
Resident’s responsibility: Residents are responsible for everyday upkeep or minor repairs - for example unblocking a sink and keeping the garden tidy. Importantly, residents are also responsible for reporting issues to the landlord.
The Landlord and Tenant Act doesn’t give specific timelines for fixing issues. Instead, it says repairs should be carried out within a “reasonable timeframe.”
For example, it’s not reasonable to expect a resident to go without water or electricity for more than a day. You should therefore aim to repair any issues related to utilities within 24 hours.
However, a faulty light switch is less critical and it’s reasonable for a minor repair like this to take up to two weeks.
Housing Health and Safety Rating System
In the previous section, we mentioned that landlords’ legal responsibilities include keeping homes free from health and safety hazards.
The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) regulations introduce a list of 29 common hazards that landlords must deal with as soon as is reasonably possible once they become aware of them.
Hazards are divided into two categories:
Category one: These are serious hazards that could cause death, serious illness or life-changing injury.
Category two: Less dangerous hazards, but still issues that need dealing with promptly.
Hazards are categorised based on the likelihood of residents being harmed by them. For example, a broken boiler in the winter is more likely to be hazardous to older residents or those suffering long-term health complications and could therefore be a category one hazard for these residents.
The same issue could be considered a category two risk if it occurs during warm weather and in a property inhabited by a healthy couple in their twenties.
Category one hazards usually must be dealt with much quicker than category two.
Awaab’s Law
Awaab’s Law is an addendum to the Social Housing Act 2023. It sets timeframes within which social housing providers must respond to resident repair requests and carry them out. These include:
🛠️ To investigate and fix hazards within two weeks of residents reporting them.
🛠️ Fix hazards posing significant risks to a resident’s health or safety within 7 days.
🛠️ Make emergency repairs within 24 hours.
🛠️ Summarise their findings to the resident within 14 calendar days of the health and safety hazard being reported, and explain what they intend to do about it.
🛠️ Provide alternative accommodation if there is an imminent risk of harm or danger, and the rental property cannot be made safe within the specified timescales.
At the moment, Awaab’s Law only applies to the social housing sector. However, the government has proposed extending it to the private rented sector (PRS) by adding it to the Renters’ Rights Bill.
Retaliatory Evictions and Deregulation Act 2015
The Retaliatory Evictions and Deregulation Act 2015 is mainly geared towards stopping landlords from evicting tenants for complaining.
However, it also includes guidelines for repair timeframes:
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Landlords should respond to requests for repairs that don’t pose an immediate health or safety threat within 14 days.
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Urgent repairs - like a leaking roof - should be carried out within 48 hours.
What Happens if Landlords Fail to Comply With Repair Timescales?
If landlords repeatedly fail to make a repair it’s then likely your residents will take action. Here are some of the steps they could take.
Report you to your local council
If you don’t carry out repairs within a reasonable timeframe then your resident may decide to report you to your council’s environmental health department. The local authority may carry out an HHSRS inspection of the rental property.
If they find any defects, then they can issue you with:
An improvement notice: This requires you to fix the problem by a certain date.
An emergency remedial action order: This is when the council carries out the necessary repairs itself and charges the cost back to you.
Prohibition orders: These are used when properties are overcrowded or when improvement works make the rental property uninhabitable. The order prevents people from living in all or some of the property, meaning you won’t be able to rent it.
Demolition orders: The property is at risk of imminent collapse and the council deems it necessary to demolish it.
You could be reported to the Housing Ombudsman
If you’re a social housing landlord, then your resident could report you to the Housing Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman will investigate and adjudicate on the complaint. If it finds in the resident’s favour then you may be asked to:
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Apologise to the resident.
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Make the required repairs.
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Pay compensation.
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Evaluate your existing policies and make changes to avoid failures being repeated.
Under the Renters’ Rights Bill, the government has proposed creating a new Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman Service. All landlords will be required to sign up to the new organization and it will have similar powers to the Social Housing Ombudsman.
Residents may ask for rent discounts
Residents may ask to pay less rent for a period to compensate if they have had to put up with repair issues for an unacceptable period.
While you don’t have to agree with this, it can be a good way to avoid the resident taking you to court. Make sure you keep all correspondence and get it in writing once they are happy the matter has been resolved.
Some residents may decide to fix issues themselves and ask you for money to cover the work. You aren’t obligated to do this, but you may decide to agree if they have had to wait an unreasonable amount of time.
You could be taken to court for breach of contract
Your tenancy agreement should include a section stating you will keep the property suitable for human habitation. Failure to do this could result in the resident taking you to court and suing you for breach of contract.
It’s unlikely that such action will go straight to a court case. Instead, you’ll be expected to follow the pre-action housing disrepair protocol.
This is a mediation process that tries to get the landlord and tenant to agree to a resolution. It aims to reduce the number of legal disputes that go to court.
Here’s a brief summary of the process:
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Use a mediation service to find a resolution.
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The resident sends a letter to the landlord listing the property defects and how the landlord has been negligent regarding their issue..
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The landlord responds within 20 days by either carrying out the repairs or explaining why they cannot make them.
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The tenant requests documents relating to the history of the complaint from the landlord.
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The landlord has 20 days to respond.
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An expert nominated by the landlord and resident inspects the property.
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The expert gives their professional opinion on who is liable for repairs and what work should be carried out.
If you complete the process and you still cannot agree, then the issue will go to court proceedings.
It’s worth noting that if you don’t meet the deadlines set out in the protocol or refuse to comply, then your resident can also escalate the issue to court. If this happens, the judge is more likely to favour the resident, they may also issue a fine for non-compliance.
Landlord Response Time Challenges
Responding quickly to repair requests is often more challenging than it sounds. Common issues include:
Residents not reporting issues: Sometimes residents fail to report minor issues and wait until they are major problems. This makes the repair more urgent and expensive.
Lack of access: Sometimes landlords arrange for a tradesperson to visit, only for the resident to forget. Alternatively, they may not be able to agree on a time for the resident to let the tradesperson in.
Inability to find available contractors: Qualified tradespeople are busy people, often juggling multiple projects at once. Finding someone available to carry out emergency repairs can be difficult.
Poor property and job information: If tradespeople don’t know what to expect from a job, then it’s unlikely they’ll be able to complete it in one visit.
Admin time: Phoning contractors, gathering quotes, speaking to residents, and agreeing on a time slot for the work to be carried out all take valuable time.
Poor quality workmanship: Some landlords manage to get the repair carried out only for it to fail at a later date due to poor workmanship. This is frustrating for the landlord and resident.
How to improve response times
One of the best ways to improve your response times is by using a digital housing repairs and maintenance platform like EVO.
Our end-to-end system fully manages all your repairs and maintenance. Through a combination of technology and automation, it ensures you respond rapidly to all repair requests.
Here’s how it works:
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Residents are given an app so they can quickly and easily request repairs - encouraging them to report even minor issues.
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Residents use the app to take pictures and videos of the issue, reducing the need for an initial inspection.
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The request is automatically sent to the next available tradesperson - no more phoning around or getting quotes.
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The resident is given several timeslots to choose from that suit them.
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The tradesperson is given access to job history and property information so they know exactly what to bring.
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All work is signed off by the EVO team and gets a 12-month warranty.
Need proof? Then check out the case study of our pilot project with B&D Reside. We improved their first-time fix rate by an incredible 96% and reduced their repair resolution time from more than 28 days to just 6. We also achieved an impressive customer satisfaction rating of 4.6 out of 5.
Speed Up Your Response Times With EVO
EVO can help you provide a fantastic resident experience by delivering fast, efficient and high-quality repairs and maintenance.
To learn more about how we can help your business, then get in touch today.
