A complete guide for individuals and residents involved in disputes with housing associations. Common issues include repair obligations, service charge disputes, and rent disputes. Learn about the types of disputes that commonly arise with this type of property, the legal rights of tenants and housing association members, and the steps to resolve these issues.
We’ve written this for:
Tenants involved in disputes with their housing association
Residents seeking legal support for housing-related issues
Legal professionals advising clients on housing law
Housing association members or landlords facing tenant complaints
After reading you should understand your options and be aware of the benefits of seeking professional legal assistance from Lawhive for resolving housing association disputes.
Types of housing association disputes
Below, we explore the most common types of housing association disputes.
Maintenance and repairs
Disputes related to the association’s failure to maintain or repair properties adequately often arise. Your housing association must ensure that your home is:
Safe and free from ‘category 1 hazards’ - these are things that can cause death or pose a serious danger to your health (e.g. by causing lung cancer, 80% burn injuries, loss of limbs, poisoning)
In a reasonable state of repair
Equipped with reasonably modern facilities
Warm enough
Source: Gov.uk
Service charges and rent
Disputes can arise over service charges or rent increases. Tenants can challenge unfair costs by contacting the Housing Ombudsman by filling out an online complaints form, or by contacting them by phone or email:
Telephone: 0300 111 3000
Tenancy agreements
As a tenant, you have different rights depending on the type of tenancy agreement you have. When your tenancy terms are not being followed, such as the right to quiet enjoyment you have the right to redress.
Your tenancy agreement should set out your renewal conditions and the process to follow to renew your tenancy. If your housing association won’t let you renew or doesn’t follow the correct process you could end up in a dispute. Any breaches of the terms and conditions of the tenancy agreement can also cause disputes between tenants and housing associations.
Anti-social behaviour Housing associations have a responsibility to manage complaints about anti-social behaviour among tenants.
Your housing association has to investigate if you make a complaint about your neighbour because they make noise late at night or engage in other anti-social behaviour such as:
Vandalism
Graffiti
Littering
Public drunkenness
Drug use
Abuse
Make sure to document any anti-social behaviour. Keep detailed records of incidents including dates, times and what happened. This information will be useful when your report the issue to your housing association and if you need to escalate the matter to the Housing Ombudsman.
When behaviour is criminal and threatening you should contact the police.
Legal process for resolving housing association disputes
Initial Steps
Depending on the rules that your housing association has set out, you will need to follow these. Start by raising a dispute with the housing association. You will need to gather evidence and review the tenancy agreement.
Raising a formal complaint
You can complain to your landlord following your housing association’s complaints process.
A complaint can be made to show dissatisfaction about the service, actions taken or lack of action that a housing association takes.
Your landlord should have a complaints process on their website you can follow. If there isn’t one there, ask your landlord to send it to you. They should have one as they must make it easy for you to complain.
The Housing Ombudsman Handling Code establishes that landlords must have a 2-stage compliant procedure. This gives tenants the opportunity to let landlords know when they are not happy with the actions made initially, at stage 1.
At stage 2 you should set out:
Why you were unhappy with the response at stage 1
What you want the landlord to do to put things right
It’s important to follow these steps before taking further action as you need to show you have given the housing association a chance to address your complaints. It could harm your chances of getting the outcome you want from the housing ombudsman or the courts if you do not.
Involving the housing ombudsman The Housing Ombudsman plays an important role in resolving disputes between tenants in social housing and housing associations.
When tenants are unhappy with the response of their association and they have completed their landlord’s complaints process, they can make the decision to escalate the matter to the ombudsman.
To you make a complaint to the ombudsman you will need:
To check if your landlord is a member of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme by searching for their name
If yes – you will be asked a series of questions about whether you have complained to your landlord and the actions they’ve taken
If no – your landlord isn’t registered and they’re a private landlord, you can get help from organisations like Citizens Advice
When you raise a complaint, the ombudsman will decide whether they can look into your issue and begin and they will start an investigation if they can. They will write to you with their reasons if they decide they can’t.
Taking legal action
When you’re considering taking legal action to resolve your dispute, it is important to seek legal advice as soon as possible.
If you have low income, or receive benefits you might be eligible for legal aid when your experiencing serious housing issues like eviction, repossession or unsafe living conditions.
Here is a step-by-step guide to taking legal action if a dispute remains unresolved.
Step 1: Seek legal advice.
Our experienced housing association solicitors can advise you on your options depending on your circumstances.
One of the most common complaints about housing associations is unaddressed repair obligations.
You may be able to make a claim for repairs that you have complained to your housing association about that they haven’t addressed.
They are legally obliged to carry out repairs to your home.
It’s best to seek legal advice early to avoid doubt, wasted time and legal fees for cases where you may be unlikely to win.
Step 2: Gather evidence
If your solicitor advises you that you have a case it’s crucial to start collecting and compiling as much evidence as you can.
If your housing association has failed to meet their repair and maintenance obligations you can gather the following evidence:
Photos and videos of damage, disrepair or dangerous living conditions
Communication with the association – letters, emails, text messages
Medical evidence – for issues like mould or asbestos that have impacted your health
Step 3: File a claim
You will need to file a claim to take your issue to court.
However, before taking legal action you should follow the pre-action protocol for the specific action you wish to take, whether it is for disrepair, you’re attempting to fight eviction, discrimination, rent or service charge increases or want your housing association to do something about anti-social behaviour.
If your issue is to do with disrepair, you’ll need to follow the Pre-Action Protocol for Housing Disrepair Cases, the Disrepair Protocol. This includes procedures and timelines that you and your landlord must meet.
The protocol encourages you both to attempt to resolve the issue outside the courts via alternative dispute resolution (ADR), such as mediation, before resorting to court.