Support for private renters

If your landlord or property manager are not making repairs you ask for, we have legal powers to make sure they do.

Requesting repairs from your landlord or property manager

In most cases, before we can help, you need to speak to your landlord or property manager about the repairs you need and give them time to do the repairs. 

After you have spoken to them, or if you cannot speak to them, you need to send your landlord or property manager a written request asking for the repairs or telling them about any hazards. You can contact us for a template letter to use for this.

You can also use a template letter from the Shelter website.

Your landlord or property manager must respond to you within 14 days and tell you when and how they will solve the problems you told them about. You must keep a copy of what you wrote as we may need it to progress a complaint.

If your landlord or property manager does not respond or make the repairs

If your landlord or property manager does not respond properly or if they fail to make the repairs, you can contact us for help.

We will explain your options when you contact us and a member of the team may come and inspect the property. If we find hazards due to disrepair, we may give your landlord a chance to fix the issues or we may serve them legal notices to get the repairs done.

Urgent repairs

If you need urgent repairs and you have told your landlord or property manager but they are not doing anything about it, you should contact us as soon as possible.

Examples of urgent repairs include:

• no heating
• no hot water
• unsafe or no utilities
• burst water pipes
• serious structural damage
• high fire risk

You can find useful information about the causes of mould and different types of damp on the Shelter website.

If your landlord or property manager is not making repairs to fix damp and mould issues, you can contact us for help.

As the occupier or tenant, you can apply for a Rent Repayment Order if your landlord has committed certain housing related offences. You can find more information and guidance on:

• the government website including a list of the offences
• the Shelter website

You can apply for a Rent Repayment Order even if your landlord has not been convicted if you can prove beyond reasonable doubt to a tribunal that they committed the offence and you meet other eligibility requirements. 

Contact us if you need help deciding if a Rent Repayment Order is appropriate for you or if you need a letter of fact from one of our team members involved in a case. 

Contact us if you have any questions about the licensing of your rented accommodation.

We can also help with other housing legislation that you can read about on the government website, including:

• Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949
• The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector and Social Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020
• The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (Amendment) Regulations 2022
• The Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015

If your landlord or property manager has served you with a notice to leave the property, the notice must follow certain rules to be valid. You can find the eviction rules your landlord must follow on the government website.

We can check your notice to make sure it is valid. We can also give you advice if you are worried about becoming homeless. Find out more on our homeless or at risk of becoming homeless page.

Notices of possession served before 1 May 2026

You can find guidance on the government website about notices of possession served before 1 May 2026.

Illegal eviction

Illegal eviction is when a landlord or another person deprives or attempts to deprive you of your occupation of the property without following the correct legal process. Illegal eviction does not have to involve physical violence or force. It can happen by:

• the locks being changed while you are out
• being denied re-entry
• physical force, that is, being physically removed from the property
• being deprived of access to a part of the premises which you are entitled to occupy, for example, by locking a toilet door or blocking access to a living room
• being deprived of essential services, for example, cutting off the electricity supply to make you leave

If you experience physical violence, you must contact the police immediately.

Illegal eviction outside of office hours

Our office hours are:

• 9am to 5pm from Monday to Thursday
• 9am to 4.30pm on Friday

If you have been illegally evicted outside of office hours and you are homeless with nowhere to stay tonight, you can apply for emergency support on our homeless or at risk of becoming homeless page. We will help you find alternative accommodation for the nights you cannot return to the property. This does not mean we will automatically be able to give you emergency accommodation.

We may be able to negotiate with the person who illegally evicted you for you to be able to go back to that property. We may also be able to take legal action against the person who illegally evicted you. 

Illegal eviction during office hours

If you have been illegally evicted during office hours and you are homeless and have nowhere to stay tonight, contact us with details of what has happened to discuss what to do next.

More help for illegal evictions

You can also get help by:

• contacting your own independent legal advisor
• visiting the government website
• visiting the Citizens Advice website
• visiting the Shelter website

If you experience physical violence, you must contact the police immediately.

It is a crime for your landlord to harass you.

Harassment can be anything that a landlord or property manager does or fails to do that makes you feel unsafe in the property or forces you to leave. This can include:

• violent or threatening language or behaviour
• coming into your home without permission
• opening or keeping your post
• pressuring you to move out
• cutting off gas, water or electricity
• removing or interfering with your belongings
• demanding money that you do not owe or cannot pay

Contact us if you think you are being harassed. We may be able to take legal action if there is enough evidence of harassment. We will explain what evidence you need when you contact us.

More help for harassment

You can also get help from:

• your own independent legal advisor
• the government website
• guidance on complaining about your private landlord from Citizens Advice
• guidance on dealing with harassment from Shelter

The Health and Safety Executive is the primary enforcing body for gas safety checks. If you do not have a gas safety certificate for your home, you should report this directly to the Health and Safety Executive.

We cannot help with deposit disputes but you can get help from the Tenancy Deposit Scheme.

Your deposit should have been put into a deposit scheme when you paid it. You can find guidance on tenancy deposit protection on the Shelter website.

You can also find guidance on getting your deposit back on the:

• Citizens Advice website
• Shelter website