What Repairs Are Landlords Responsible For?

What does section 11 of the landlord and tenant act 1985 cover?

Section 11 makes you keep the structure and exterior in repair, and keep the installations for water, gas, electricity, sanitation and heating in repair and proper working order. It is implied into almost every tenancy granted for under seven years and cannot be contracted out of.

The three limbs of the repairing covenant

The wording of Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 splits your duty into three parts. Each one is a repairing duty, so it bites when something breaks rather than requiring you to improve the property.

• Structure and exterior, including the roof, walls, windows, external doors, foundations, drains, gutters and external pipes.
• Installations for water, gas, electricity and sanitation, which covers pipework, wiring, sockets, basins, sinks, baths and toilets.
• Installations for space heating and heating water, which is your boiler, radiators, immersion heater and hot water cylinder.

Section 11(1A) stretches the same duty to the rest of the building where you own or control it. In a converted house that catches the shared hallway, the roof void and the rising main.

The seven year rule and who sits outside it

Section 11 is implied into leases granted for a term of less than seven years. Longer leases, licences and lodger arrangements sit outside it, although other duties still apply.

A periodic assured tenancy counts as a short lease, so every private tenancy created since the Renters’ Rights Act took effect is caught. Long leaseholders repair their own flats under the terms of their lease instead.

What section 11 does not ask of you

Section 11(2) carves out damage the tenant caused, destruction by fire, storm or flood, and anything the tenant is entitled to remove. Rebuilding after a fire is an insurance question rather than a repairing covenant question.

Section 11(3A) gives you a defence where the work needs a superior landlord’s consent you cannot obtain, provided you used all reasonable endeavours to get it. In practice that means chasing the freeholder in writing and keeping every reply.

Which repairs fall to you and which fall to the tenant?

You take the fabric, the pipes, the wiring and the heating. Your tenant takes light bulbs, plug fuses, routine cleanliness and any damage they or their visitors cause.

The responsibility split at a glance

Where the line gets argued

Your tenant’s duty is to use the property in a tenant-like manner, which the courts describe as doing the small jobs a sensible occupier would do. Unblocking their own sink and turning off the stopcock in a freeze both sit on that side of the line.

Anything needing a Gas Safe engineer, a qualified electrician or a plumber is yours by default. Charging your tenant for that work breaches Section 11 even where the agreement appears to allow it.

Communal areas in flats and HMOs

Shared halls, stairs and lighting belong to whoever owns them, which is you in a converted house and the freeholder in a purpose built block. A block of flats policy normally covers the communal structure while your own cover starts at the flat door.

Licensed houses in multiple occupation carry management duties on top of Section 11, including the condition of shared kitchens and fire doors. HMO insurance is written around that higher claims frequency.

What does the homes (fitness for human habitation) act 2018 add?

It implies a second covenant that the property must be fit for human habitation at the start of the tenancy and stay fit throughout. Unlike Section 11, it lets your tenant go straight to court without involving the council first.

The tenant’s direct route to court

The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 inserted sections 9A to 9C into the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. Your tenant can sue for damages and for an order forcing the work, with no inspection or notice from environmental health needed.

Section 9A(5) lets the court order specific performance, so the outcome is the repair itself rather than a payment in place of it. Any clause trying to limit the covenant is void under section 9A(4).

The covenant applied to tenancies granted from 20 March 2019 and to existing periodic tenancies from 20 March 2020. Every private tenancy running today falls inside it.

What counts as unfit

Fitness is judged against the same hazard list councils use, so damp, mould, excess cold, poor ventilation, unsafe stairs and inadequate natural light all qualify. A property can satisfy Section 11 and still fail the fitness test.

Damp is the most common complaint, and condensation caused by a cold, badly ventilated building is your problem rather than your tenant’s lifestyle. Fit extractor fans that run on a humidistat and record the date you did it.

How quickly do you have to carry out a repair?

The law asks for a reasonable time and sets no fixed deadline, so severity drives the clock. Emergencies need making safe within 24 hours, urgent faults within a week and routine jobs within a month.

Reasonable timescales by severity

Why the clock starts when you are told

Your Section 11 duty on the dwelling bites once you have notice of the defect, so a fault nobody reported is not a breach. Ask tenants to report in writing, then log the date and reply the same week.

Parts of the building you can inspect yourself work differently, including the roof, the exterior and communal areas. Inspect twice a year, photograph what you find and act on it.

Does awaab’s law apply to private landlords yet?

Not yet. As at September 2026 Awaab’s Law binds social landlords only, because section 60 of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 has not been commenced for the private rented sector.

Where the law stands in september 2026

Awaab’s Law lives in section 10A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which currently reaches relevant social housing leases alone. Section 60 of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 rewrites it to catch leases of under seven years, and that amendment is still marked prospective on the statute book.

So the fixed statutory clocks do not apply to a private landlord today. Section 11 and the fitness covenant do, and both are judged on a reasonableness test that is drifting towards the same timescales.

What the timescales will look like when it lands

• Investigate a reported hazard and give the tenant a written finding inside a short fixed window.
• Start the work quickly where the hazard poses a significant risk to health or safety.
• Make emergency hazards safe within 24 hours of becoming aware of them.
• Offer suitable alternative accommodation if the home cannot be made safe in time.

Build the process before the regulations land rather than after. A written repair log, a triage rule and a standing list of contractors is most of the compliance work done.

What can the council do if you do not repair?

Environmental health can inspect under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, serve an improvement notice and fine you up to £40,000 for ignoring it. A category 1 hazard leaves the council with a duty to act rather than a choice.

HHSRS and category 1 hazards

Inspectors score the property against 29 hazards covering damp, excess cold, falls, fire and electrical safety, as the government’s guidance for landlords explains. Anything scored category 1 triggers a duty under section 5 of the Housing Act 2004 to take the most appropriate enforcement action.

Category 2 hazards are discretionary, but councils act on them where a household includes children, older people or anyone with a health condition. The choices run from a hazard awareness notice up to a prohibition order closing the property.

Improvement notices and civil penalties

An improvement notice specifies the works and the deadline, and it is registered as a local land charge against the property. Ignore it and the council can do the work itself and recover the cost, prosecute you, or fine you instead.

The civil penalty ceiling in section 249A of the Housing Act 2004 rose from £30,000 to £40,000 on 1 May 2026. It covers failure to comply with an improvement notice as well as licensing and HMO management offences.

What does a disrepair claim or a rent repayment order cost you?

A disrepair claim usually means general damages of 25% to 50% of the rent for the period the property was defective, plus the repair and both sides’ legal costs. A rent repayment order can now take up to two years of rent off you.

Damages and legal costs

Courts award general damages as a proportion of rent, scaled to how much of the home was unusable and for how long. Special damages cover ruined belongings, extra heating bills and treatment costs.

On a £1,200 a month tenancy, eighteen months of serious damp assessed at 35% comes to roughly £7,560 before costs. The extractor fan and pointing work that would have prevented it rarely passes £1,500.

Rent repayment orders of up to two years

Failing to comply with an improvement notice is one of the offences that lets a tenant apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a rent repayment order. Section 44 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 caps the award at the rent actually paid, and the relevant window stretched from 12 months to two years on 1 May 2026.

The tribunal weighs your conduct, your finances and any previous penalties or orders against you. A landlord who fixed the problem late but did fix it lands well below the cap.

Neither the damages nor the order is insurable, but legal expenses cover funds the defence and usually adds £30 to £100 a year to the premium.

What will landlord insurance pay towards a repair?

It pays for damage caused by a sudden insured event such as fire, storm, flood or escape of water. It pays nothing towards wear and tear, ageing installations or a repair you put off.

The line insurers draw

Landlord buildings insurance is priced on rebuild cost and responds to named perils, not to maintenance. A slate lifted off by a 70mph gust is a claim.

The same slate working loose across five winters of neglect is a repair bill. Insurers read the difference from the damage pattern and the age of the roof, so the paperwork matters.

The add-ons that pay in repair situations

• Home emergency cover funds out of hours call-outs for boilers, leaks and lockouts, usually with a £500 to £1,000 limit per claim.
• Accidental damage picks up one-off mishaps such as a foot through a ceiling or a drill through a pipe.
• Loss of rent and alternative accommodation keeps the income coming and rehouses your tenant while insured damage is put right.
• Rent guarantee covers arrears rather than repairs, and will not respond to a tenant withholding rent over disrepair.

Insurers price for a maintained building and decline claims that trace back to neglect. Keep dated inspection photographs, service records and contractor invoices, because that file is what turns a disputed claim into a paid one.