What counts as a reasonable repair request?
Any request that falls within your landlord's legal repairing obligations is reasonable by definition, and those obligations are wider than many tenants assume. Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, your landlord must keep in repair the structure and exterior of your home (including drains, gutters and external pipes), keep in repair and proper working order the installations for water, gas, electricity and sanitation (including basins, sinks and baths), and do the same for space heating and water heating. A broken boiler, a leaking roof, failing wiring, a cracked external wall: all squarely reasonable requests.
'Reasonable' does carry two genuine qualifications, though. The standard of repair takes account of the age, character and prospective life of the property and its locality, so a Victorian terrace isn't judged against a new build. And the landlord gets a reasonable time to act after learning of the problem, not an obligation to fix everything instantly. Most disputes about 'reasonableness' are really disputes about one of those two things.
What must my landlord repair by law?
Section 11 applies automatically to almost every private and social tenancy in England and Wales, because it's implied into tenancies granted for less than 7 years, and any clause claiming to exclude it is void unless a county court approved the exclusion with both parties' consent. Your tenancy agreement can add to the landlord's duties but can't subtract from these:
- Structure and exterior: walls, roof, windows, doors, drains, gutters, external pipes.
- Supply installations: water, gas and electricity installations, and sanitation including basins, sinks, baths and toilets.
- Heating: installations for space heating and heating water.
On top of section 11, homes in England must be fit for human habitation at the start of the tenancy and stay that way throughout, under the covenant implied by section 9A (added by the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018). Fitness is judged on matters including damp, ventilation and water supply, plus prescribed hazards under the Housing Act 2004. There are safety duties too: gas appliances checked at intervals of not more than 12 months by a Gas Safe registered engineer, electrical installations inspected at least every 5 years, smoke alarms on each storey used as living accommodation, and carbon monoxide alarms in rooms with fixed combustion appliances (gas cookers excepted), with alarms repaired or replaced once reported faulty.
If your request touches any of that list, it isn't a favour you're asking; it's performance of the contract.
What doesn't my landlord have to fix?
Three categories, set out in section 11(2) and the case law:
- Damage you caused. The landlord needn't repair what flows from your failure to use the home in a tenant-like manner.
- Destruction by fire, tempest, flood or other inevitable accident. Rebuilding after catastrophe sits outside the repairing covenant.
- Your own things. Items you're entitled to remove, your furniture, your appliances, are yours to maintain.
The 'tenant-like manner' idea, from Warren v Keen, covers the small jobs of ordinary occupation: changing light bulbs and fuses, unblocking a sink you blocked, keeping the place aired and clean, and reporting faults promptly. Asking your landlord to change a bulb isn't a reasonable repair request; asking them to fix the circuit that keeps blowing bulbs is.
Redecoration for taste, upgrades, and cosmetic wear also generally fall outside 'repair', though where decoration is damaged by a disrepair problem (a ceiling stained by a leak, say) making that good is normally part of fixing the disrepair.
How quickly should repairs be done?
Within a reasonable time of the landlord having notice, which scales with urgency. No heating in winter justifies a much faster response than a dripping outside tap. The clock starts when the landlord (or their agent) knows about the defect, which is why reporting in writing, with a date, matters so much.
Social housing tenants now have fixed timescales for some hazards: under Awaab's Law, in force for social landlords in England since 27 October 2025, emergency hazards must be investigated and made safe within 24 hours, and significant damp and mould hazards carry set working-day limits for investigation and safety works, with a second phase extending to further hazards, including excess cold, from 30 November 2026. Private tenants don't yet have those fixed deadlines, but the Renters' Rights Act 2025 provides for Awaab's Law-style requirements and a Decent Homes Standard to reach the private rented sector on a phased basis, so the direction of travel is clear.
How do I make a repair request that gets taken seriously?
In writing, specific, and evidenced. A request that works includes: what's wrong and where, when it started, the effect it's having (damp spreading, no hot water, trip hazard), photos or video with dates, and a reasonable deadline appropriate to the urgency. Email or a messaging channel you can export beats phone calls, because the notice date anchors everything that follows. Keep copies of every exchange, and follow up in writing if a promised visit doesn't happen.
Allow access for inspection and works at reasonable times; refusing access is the fastest way to weaken an otherwise strong position.
What if my landlord refuses a reasonable request?
Escalate through the routes that exist for exactly this:
- A formal written complaint to the landlord or agent, then the agent's redress scheme if service failures continue.
- The council's environmental health team, which assesses hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System and can serve improvement notices requiring works; for the most serious hazards the council must take enforcement action.
- The magistrates' court route for premises prejudicial to health, under section 82 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, after giving the landlord at least 21 days' written notice.
- A county court claim for breach of section 11 or section 9A, where the court can order the repairs and award compensation, commonly assessed as a proportion of rent for the period affected.
One firm warning: don't withhold rent. There's no legal right to do so for disrepair, arrears build a possession ground against you, and since 1 May 2026 possession cases turn on proven grounds, so handing your landlord an arrears ground is the one way to turn a strong repairs position into a weak eviction one. Pursue the repair routes instead; they're slower than a rent strike, but they end with the repair done and, often, money back rather than a possession claim.