Complaints
Here you can learn what to do if you are a private tenant and you have one of these problems:
- You are living in a poorly maintained home
- Your landlord is not making required repairs
- Your landlord takes an unreasonable amount of time to make repairs
We always recommend that you approach your landlord first. However, if you cannot do this or if the problems have not been dealt with, then we have legal powers to ensure that certain types of improvements are made. We work with landlords to encourage responsible letting.
You can make a complaint about your landlord by emailing:
Please briefly explain the conditions which you are unhappy with in your home.
A Housing Standards Officer will make an appointment with you to visit your home to make an assessment of whether some work is required on the property. This decision will be made based on the legal powers the council has to insist that landlords keep their properties up to a certain standard. We will also want to see your Tenancy Agreement to verify your landlord details. If this is not available we will need the landlord or agents details. The visit to your home can normally be arranged within 5 working days.
Anything that presents an immediate risk to you as occupants of the property will be dealt with first. Bigger problems (including fire protection) will be dealt with over a longer period. The Council may issue legal instructions to landlords in the form of notices. Copies of these will be sent to you. They set out the problems that need to be put right and the timescales the landlord needs to keep to. If the landlord does nothing in response to the notices the Council may prosecute them for non-compliance. The decision will be made based on the legal powers the council has to insist that landlords keep their properties up to a certain standard.
There is no charge to you as a tenant.