Housing conditions

Your landlord is responsible for repairs and maintenance of the exterior and the structure of the property, as well as the plumbing, wiring and heating.

As a tenant you must:

• Report any repairs needed to your landlord straight away in writing.
• Make sure your home is well ventilated to help avoid condensation.
• Do minor maintenance such as checking smoke alarms and changing light bulbs.
• Dispose of your rubbish properly.

You must not damage internal decoration, furniture or equipment provided by your landlord as you will be responsible for paying for anything broken or damaged.

You should give your landlord access to your home to see if repairs are needed. Your landlord must:

• Give you at least 24 hours written notice.
• Inspect at a reasonable time of day.

You should also allow access to trade people or engineers if your landlord has arranged repairs or essential maintenance (such as a gas safety check).

You must check your tenancy agreement before making any changes to your agreement, such as taking in a lodger, getting a pet, parking a caravan outside the property, or redecorating. Any of these could be in breach of your contract. If you wish to make any changes to your agreement, you must write to your landlord and keep copies of all communication. Your landlord may have the right to refuse your request.

You can be held responsible for the behaviour of anyone who lives with you or visits you in your home. Your landlord might take steps to evict you if they receive complaints of noise nuisance or anti-social behaviour from neighbours or other tenants in the property.

When to ask for help

The Private Sector Housing team can intervene when your Landlord is not meeting their repair obligations and can enforce against them to take action.

If you are concerned that your landlord has not made necessary repairs despite them being requested, or you are concerned that something in your property is immediately dangerous, contact us and we will step in to offer assistance.

If you are concerned about something that is not immediately dangerous, make sure that you have written to your landlord to advise of the repair needed. Allow them 14 days to respond before contacting us.

To report a repair issue in your property please complete our online form below.

Report a property repair issue

Landlord responsibility

As a landlord, you are responsible for carrying out repairs and maintenance to the exterior and structure of your property. This includes any goods or furniture you have provided (such as white goods).

If your tenant reports repairs through to you, you should arrange to visit the property to assess what repairs are needed. You must give your tenants at least 24 hours' written notice of your intent to enter the property and you must visit at a reasonable time.

You should then arrange for the repairs to be carried out by a qualified professional as soon as possible. Due to GDPR regulations, you must ensure that you do not give out your tenants contact information without their consent.

You must also make sure that you meet your statutory obligations by making sure that safety checks (such as gas) are carried out annually where required.

If your tenant is in arrears, you are still obligated to carry out necessary repairs to the property. If there are outstanding repairs and you attempt to evict your tenant you may be unable to do so.

Further information can be found on Shelter onResponsibility of repairs for landlords and tenants (opens new window)

Private Sector Housing Officer referrals

If repairs issues are reported through to us that are not being reasonably addressed, our Private Sector Housing Officers will consider enforcement options available. This could result in severe repercussions.

To make sure obligations are met, our Private Sector Housing Team will always try to work with landlords as much as is reasonably possible. They will resort to enforcement options only when other methods have been exhausted.

Have you heard about ourBreckland Agent Pledge scheme?

Electrical checks

From 1 July 2020, private landlords must make sure that all electrical installations are inspected and tested by a registered electrician. The electrician will produce an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR).

For private tenancies starting on or after 1 June 2020, the first check must be done before the tenancy begins.

Private tenancies which started before 1 June 2020 will require this check to be completed before 1 April 2021.

Gas checks

If there are gas appliances in a property, a landlord by law must have a current Gas Safety Certificate and have it renewed each year on expiry by a Gas Safe registered gas engineer. The tenant must be given a copy before they move in. They also need to be given copies of any further certificates within 28 days of the inspection annually.

EPC certificates

Every property must have an up to date Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) which provides a rating of the property's energy efficiency rating. Furthermore, a copy should be given to the tenant at the earliest opportunity. An EPC is valid for 10 years. As of April 2018, properties with the poorest energy efficiency bands of F and G cannot be let.

What you can expect from your landlord

Your landlord should ensure that your home is safe and free from defects by:-

• Keeping all gas and electrical equipment maintained and in good working order by a properly qualified person (e.g. GAS SAFE registered gas installer)
• Actioning repairs and maintenance within a reasonable period of time

Common defects include missing fire precautions, poor insulation, inadequate heating, damp and mould and dangerous stairs.

Repairs should be reported to the landlord in writing, even the minor ones.Further information is available on our Tenant repairs and responsibilities page.

What you can expect from us

If your landlord doesn't address the problem we will investigate the situation.

In most cases a visit is necessary, you and your landlord/agent will be notified in writing of the inspection date and invited to attend. We understand occasionally a tenant may be nervous of local authority involvement therefore full support is given throughout the process. You are not required to attend any inspection and concerns can be discussed before the landlord is notified.

We may only visit without prior notice to the landlord in exceptional cases. Until we notify a landlord of our intent to make a visit we are legally unable to take any action. The main exception would be if you live in a bed-sit or shared house.

The Inspection

During the visit we will assess your home to identify any hazards that may cause health risks (known as 'category 1 hazards). If any category 1 hazards are found then we are required by law to ask your landlord to take action. In most cases this means detailing in writing the required works and allowing a period of time for completion of works. If your landlord doesn't complete the works then he or she could be prosecuted and we may be required to action repairs ourselves.

The Outcome

Occasionally, the only way to remove a hazard is to close the property with a 'prohibition order'. You will, of course, be kept fully informed if this is likely to happen and we will support you to find alternative accommodation if necessary. The most common notice is an 'Improvement Notice' to remedy repairs and hazards.

We will normally complete a report within 2 weeks of the visit detailing the hazards and how they can be removed. We will send you a copy of that report.

If we cannot find any hazards to be removed then we will inform both you and the landlord in writing that we do not intend to take further action.

Protection from Eviction

Most tenancies give tenants protection from eviction in cases where the Council have served an improvement notice.

Tenancies which started on or after 1 October 2015 offer tenants protection from eviction in cases where the Council have served an improvement notice. For a period of six months after the date which the improvement notice was served your landlord will not be permitted to serve you with a notice to quit (sometimes called a notice seeking possession or section 21 notice). If you believe that you need this protection you will need to:

• Inform your landlord in writing. Detailing the repair issue or hazard. This can be a letter or an email. Even if you contact the landlord by phone or text, follow it up with a letter or email.
• You will need to give the landlord 14 days to respond to you.
• If there is no adequate response you will need to contact the Council for us to investigate.

We have included sample letters in ourtemplate section to help you do this.

Harassment and Illegal Eviction

Some tenants are worried that it they ask their landlord to deal with a problem they may be asked to leave. Most landlords will not respond this way as they prefer to know about the problem. However, if your landlord does threaten to end your tenancy, or takes any other negative action as a result of you raising the problem then you should contact us immediately. Aggressive or violent behaviour must be reported to the Police via the emergency number 999. Concerns can be reported online using theonline 101 reporting service (opens new window) or by calling 101 for Norfolk Police assistance.

Timescales

It may take time for your landlord to arrange a repair due to availability of a local competent plumber or electrician. Landlords are allowed reasonable time to take action, a visit to inspect the reported repair should take place within 7 days. Emergency response is permitted without notification to the tenant but only for extreme circumstances. Ask your landlord to keep you informed regarding contractor visits and delays.

Access

Try to be flexible when allowing access for estimates and quotes. Provide dates which are not convenient and suggest alternatives. Your tenancy agreement should explain about your duty to allow access for repairs. Emergency repairs can be actioned within 24 hours and the tenants permission is not required.

Please use the following links to download the letter templates as a word document:

• Letter to Landlord Repairs - Stage 1 (Word doc, 21 KB)(opens new window)
• Letter to Landlord Repairs - Stage 2 (Word doc, 20 KB)(opens new window)

If you do not have Word, please view the following pages, where you will be able to copy the letter templates:

• Letter to Landlord Repairs Stage 1 Template
• Letter to Landlord Repairs Stage 2 Template