Compensation for Damp & Disrepair in a Council House

If you are a council tenant dealing with damp, mould or disrepair, you are covered by the same Housing Ombudsman remedies as tenants of housing associations. The Ombudsman can order compensation where it finds service failure or maladministration, and the amount depends on the severity, duration and impact of the failing — not on whether your landlord is a council or a housing association. In the current Landlord Record dataset, the median compensation award for responsive-repairs decisions is £500 across 9,694 published decisions that include compensation. Landlord Record analysis of Housing Ombudsman decisions (Open Government Licence v3.0).

Our index currently holds 16,224 Housing Ombudsman decisions across 603 landlords. Compensation is recorded in 9,417 ordered-award decisions, totalling £7,607,904.

Use these figures as a benchmark, not a promise. The Ombudsman decides each complaint on its own facts. A short delay with a minor patch of damp is treated very differently from months of unresolved black mould, repeated failed repairs, poor communication, or evidence that your health or use of the home was seriously affected. The key is to understand your rights, gather clear evidence, and follow the proper complaint process before escalating.

What your council is responsible for

Council landlords have the same repairing obligations as other social landlords. Under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 11, they must keep the structure and exterior of the property in repair, including the roof, walls, gutters, drains and external pipes. They must also keep in repair and proper working order the installations for the supply of water, gas, electricity, sanitation and for space and water heating.

The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 adds that the property must be fit for human habitation at the start of the tenancy and throughout. Damp and mould can make a home unfit if they are severe enough, especially where they affect health or render rooms unusable. This applies to council tenants as well as housing association tenants.

Councils are normally responsible for structural damp, penetrating damp, rising damp, and mould caused by defects or repair failures they should have fixed — such as leaking roofs, failed guttering, broken pipes, or inadequate ventilation systems that are part of the property structure. They are generally not responsible for condensation caused solely by tenant lifestyle, such as drying clothes indoors without ventilation, though they may still have a duty to provide adequate ventilation where it is part of the building.

Your tenancy agreement may set out additional obligations, and your council should publish a repairs policy that explains what it will repair, how quickly, and how to report problems. Keep a copy of that policy — it can be important evidence if the council fails to meet its own targets.

What the Ombudsman actually awards council tenants

The Housing Ombudsman does not treat council landlords differently from housing associations. It applies the same remedies guidance, the same complaint handling standards, and the same approach to compensation. When it finds maladministration or service failure in a damp or disrepair case, it can order financial compensation alongside non-financial remedies such as repairs, apologies, policy reviews and staff training.

Compensation is not automatic. The Ombudsman weighs the severity of the failing, how long it lasted, the impact on the resident, and what the landlord already did to put things right. For disrepair complaints, the most relevant category is responsive repairs, which covers repair delays, missed appointments, poor workmanship, and failures to complete works.

The table below shows the responsive-repairs compensation range from the current Landlord Record dataset. These are real ordered awards from published decisions.

The median is usually the best quick benchmark because a small number of very high awards can pull the average upwards. Do not treat the highest award as a realistic starting point — high outliers usually reflect unusual facts, several linked failures, serious health impact, or a very long period before the problem was resolved.

Across all compensation decisions in the dataset, the overall median is £450 and the middle range is £200 to £900. A damp or disrepair complaint may sit inside that range, above it or below it depending on the facts. The Ombudsman looks at the whole picture — not just the damp itself, but also repair delays, missed appointments, poor communication, complaint-handling failures, and the effect on your health and daily life.

You can explore the data further using our Ombudsman compensation calculator, browse the highest-compensation rankings, or read the housing disrepair compensation guide for a broader view across all issues and landlord types.

How to claim compensation from the council

There are two main routes for council tenants seeking compensation for damp or disrepair: the free Housing Ombudsman complaint route and the court route (a housing disrepair claim). Most tenants start with the Ombudsman route because it is free, faster and does not require legal representation. Here is how the process works.

Step 1 — exhaust your landlord's complaints procedure

Before the Housing Ombudsman will accept your complaint, you must normally complete your council's internal complaints procedure. Report the problem in writing, keep copies of every email or letter, take dated photographs of the damp or disrepair, and record every phone call or visit. If the council has a repairs policy with timescales, note when it missed its own targets.

Your complaint should be focused: identify the defect, when you first reported it, what the council did (or did not do), what impact it had on you, and what you want the council to do now. A clear timeline with evidence is one of the most important things you can prepare. See our guide to council house repairs explained for more on timescales, reporting and escalation.

Step 2 — escalate to the Housing Ombudsman

If your council's final response does not resolve the matter, or if 8 weeks have passed since you completed the complaints procedure, you can escalate to the Housing Ombudsman. The service is free, independent and designed for social housing tenants. The Ombudsman will look at whether the council's handling amounted to service failure or maladministration and can order compensation, repairs, apologies, policy reviews and other remedies.

Compensation, where ordered, follows the Ombudsman's published remedies guidance. It reflects distress, inconvenience, time and trouble, and any quantifiable financial loss. It is not court-style damages, and there is no fixed tariff. The Ombudsman decides each case on its own facts. You can browse the responsive-repairs issue page to see the pattern of past decisions.

Step 3 — consider a court claim

If the Ombudsman route does not give you the outcome you need, or if you are considering a legal claim from the start, you may be able to bring a housing disrepair claim in court. This is a legal claim about whether the council breached its repair or fitness obligations and what damages or other remedies should follow. Court claims can involve formal procedure, legal costs, expert evidence and litigation risk.

Before court, the housing conditions pre-action protocol expects the parties to exchange information and try to narrow or resolve the dispute. If you lose, you may be ordered to pay the council's costs. You should take independent legal advice before starting litigation. For context, see the GOV.UK page on housing disrepair claims.

The two routes serve different purposes. The Ombudsman route is usually faster, free and focused on putting things right between you and your landlord. A court claim is a formal legal process that can result in damages, injunctions and cost orders. Neither route guarantees compensation, and neither should be chosen only because a headline award looks attractive. Start with the evidence, the repair still needed, and the risk you are prepared to take.

Sources

The compensation figures on this page come from Landlord Record's structured analysis of published Housing Ombudsman decisions under the Open Government Licence. For the official remedies approach, read the Housing Ombudsman guidance on remedies .

For landlord repair obligations, see the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 11 (repairing obligations) and the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 . For court-route context, see the GOV.UK page on housing disrepair claims .