Guide
Disrepair Compensation Amounts by Issue (2026 Data)
Real compensation figures from published Housing Ombudsman decisions, broken down by disrepair issue so you can see what the data actually shows.
By the Landlord Record research team
Independent analysis of published Housing Ombudsman decisions. Reviewed against Housing Ombudsman published guidance. Last updated: 30 May 2026.
This is general information, not legal advice.
Landlord Record is independent and is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the Housing Ombudsman Service. We organise and analyse decisions published under the Open Government Licence.
The typical Housing Ombudsman compensation award across all disrepair-related decisions is £500, with an average of £778. The middle half of awards falls between £200 and £900 . These figures come from 12,678 published decisions that include an ordered award. Landlord Record analysis of Housing Ombudsman decisions (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Our index currently holds 18,208 Housing Ombudsman decisions across 627 landlords. Compensation is recorded in 12,678 ordered-award decisions, totalling £9,863,720 .
Use these figures as a benchmark, not a promise. The Ombudsman decides each complaint on its own facts. A short delay with limited impact leads to a very different outcome from months of unresolved damp, repeated missed appointments, or evidence that the resident's health or use of the home was seriously affected. The amount you might receive depends on the specific defect, how long it persisted, what the landlord knew, what they did about it, and how it affected your daily life.
This guide is designed to answer the question "how much compensation can you get for housing disrepair?" with real data rather than guesswork. We break the figures down by issue — damp and mould, leaks, heating failures, repair delays and more — so you can compare your situation against the published record. Every figure in the table and every headline statistic comes from a query run at build time against our structured database of published decisions. If a figure is not available from the query, we say so rather than inventing a number. That matters because this is a YMYL topic: getting the numbers right affects how residents understand their rights and what landlords can expect.
Compensation amounts by issue
The table below shows the real distribution of ordered compensation by issue tag. A single decision can involve more than one issue, so rows should not be added together. The median is usually the best quick benchmark because a small number of very high awards can pull the average upwards.
| Issue | Median | Middle range | Decisions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Complaint handling delay | £500 | £250 to £950 | 10,658 |
| Repairs delay | £600 | £300 to £1,100 | 8,012 |
| Damp and mould | £800 | £400 to £1,425 | 4,159 |
| Record keeping | £600 | £300 to £1,100 | 3,693 |
| Leak water ingress | £750 | £375 to £1,300 | 3,045 |
| Communication failure | £500 | £250 to £850 | 2,635 |
| Asb | £350 | £200 to £650 | 1,757 |
| Decant | £978 | £475 to £2,100 | 1,083 |
| Heating hot water | £550 | £250 to £1,052 | 1,074 |
| Service charge | £300 | £150 to £582 | 910 |
| Poor communication | £600 | £350 to £1,050 | 879 |
| Complaint handling | £300 | £150 to £700 | 879 |
| Vulnerable resident | £700 | £350 to £1,300 | 810 |
| Disrepair | £950 | £500 to £1,759 | 744 |
| Vulnerability | £750 | £400 to £1,400 | 677 |
| Noise nuisance | £350 | £200 to £650 | 672 |
| Record keeping failure | £700 | £350 to £1,350 | 634 |
| Missed appointments | £650 | £350 to £1,100 | 485 |
| Pest infestation | £600 | £250 to £1,150 | 450 |
| Communication failures | £700 | £400 to £1,100 | 434 |
| Communication | £400 | £160 to £700 | 427 |
| Compensation | £425 | £200 to £1,015 | 387 |
| Risk assessment | £500 | £300 to £850 | 361 |
| Staff conduct | £300 | £150 to £650 | 355 |
| Asbestos | £600 | £400 to £1,150 | 339 |
| Fire safety | £488 | £250 to £850 | 298 |
| Ventilation | £650 | £400 to £1,150 | 258 |
| Reasonable adjustments | £550 | £250 to £950 | 253 |
| Roof repair | £750 | £400 to £1,335 | 221 |
| Roof leak | £750 | £400 to £1,350 | 213 |
| Rehousing | £450 | £200 to £792 | 198 |
| Poor record keeping | £600 | £350 to £1,131 | 194 |
| Window repairs | £708 | £400 to £1,200 | 194 |
| Health and safety | £585 | £350 to £1,000 | 191 |
| Condensation | £520 | £300 to £1,005 | 189 |
| Temporary accommodation | £800 | £450 to £1,500 | 172 |
| Missed appointment | £368 | £150 to £706 | 172 |
| Complaint handling failure | £300 | £150 to £550 | 167 |
| Drainage | £575 | £250 to £1,108 | 160 |
| Communal cleaning | £350 | £150 to £600 | 154 |
| Water ingress | £800 | £400 to £1,320 | 152 |
| Window repair | £700 | £375 to £1,451 | 149 |
| Communal repairs | £450 | £250 to £750 | 145 |
| Adaptations | £400 | £200 to £925 | 143 |
| Risk assessment failure | £650 | £350 to £1,000 | 142 |
| Grounds maintenance | £300 | £150 to £550 | 142 |
| Pest control | £548 | £300 to £940 | 142 |
| Windows | £700 | £400 to £1,300 | 139 |
| Access issues | £500 | £225 to £900 | 139 |
| Neighbour dispute | £258 | £100 to £500 | 134 |
| Mediation | £300 | £150 to £500 | 131 |
| Mutual exchange | £450 | £200 to £1,000 | 125 |
| Window replacement | £688 | £350 to £1,212 | 120 |
| Compensation dispute | £500 | £225 to £1,025 | 117 |
| Bathroom repairs | £700 | £375 to £1,323 | 115 |
| Electrical safety | £685 | £306 to £1,200 | 114 |
| Management transfer | £500 | £250 to £800 | 113 |
| Cctv | £350 | £150 to £675 | 113 |
| Extractor fan | £625 | £350 to £1,062 | 108 |
| Subsidence | £800 | £450 to £1,375 | 105 |
| Kitchen repairs | £600 | £300 to £1,025 | 103 |
| Overcrowding | £500 | £250 to £900 | 101 |
| Guttering | £550 | £250 to £1,168 | 100 |
| Parking | £300 | £100 to £650 | 98 |
| Poor workmanship | £700 | £375 to £1,000 | 95 |
| Contractor conduct | £400 | £200 to £775 | 95 |
| Gas safety | £338 | £150 to £600 | 94 |
| Roof repairs | £750 | £400 to £1,250 | 94 |
| Equality act | £838 | £600 to £1,500 | 94 |
| Rent arrears | £325 | £150 to £746 | 94 |
| Scaffolding | £650 | £300 to £1,200 | 93 |
| Compensation delay | £600 | £300 to £1,135 | 93 |
| Delay | £700 | £475 to £1,250 | 92 |
| Safeguarding | £525 | £250 to £1,138 | 90 |
| Insulation | £600 | £300 to £1,050 | 90 |
| Insurance claim | £625 | £300 to £1,200 | 89 |
| Contractor oversight | £710 | £450 to £1,200 | 89 |
| Communal areas | £300 | £150 to £575 | 89 |
| Noise | £300 | £150 to £700 | 87 |
| Section 20 consultation | £700 | £250 to £1,000 | 87 |
| Disability | £500 | £250 to £1,000 | 85 |
| Information request | £250 | £150 to £400 | 85 |
| Kitchen replacement | £600 | £300 to £1,000 | 83 |
| Action plan | £475 | £250 to £800 | 80 |
| Fly tipping | £375 | £200 to £694 | 78 |
| Health impact | £1,280 | £675 to £2,622 | 76 |
| Flooring | £560 | £162 to £940 | 75 |
| Major works | £350 | £162 to £800 | 75 |
| Contractor management | £800 | £425 to £1,283 | 74 |
| Anti social behaviour | £375 | £231 to £750 | 74 |
| Boiler repair | £415 | £165 to £750 | 72 |
| Garden maintenance | £400 | £250 to £800 | 70 |
| New build defects | £450 | £250 to £969 | 70 |
| Management move | £500 | £275 to £700 | 69 |
| Transfer request | £400 | £200 to £712 | 68 |
| Front door | £600 | £350 to £966 | 66 |
| Vulnerability support | £500 | £300 to £962 | 64 |
| Communication delay | £250 | £138 to £500 | 64 |
| Leak | £900 | £600 to £1,510 | 64 |
| Flooding | £600 | £275 to £1,015 | 63 |
| Communal door | £400 | £238 to £650 | 63 |
| Vulnerability recording | £600 | £360 to £1,188 | 63 |
| Vulnerable household | £1,070 | £656 to £1,630 | 62 |
| Noise transference | £475 | £200 to £700 | 62 |
| Fence repair | £300 | £200 to £600 | 61 |
| Cladding | £400 | £250 to £750 | 61 |
| Planned works | £400 | £225 to £600 | 61 |
| Compensation inadequate | £600 | £388 to £1,012 | 60 |
| Fencing | £500 | £200 to £862 | 59 |
| Covid 19 | £250 | £112 to £450 | 58 |
| Ceiling collapse | £900 | £585 to £1,612 | 58 |
| Communal lighting | £400 | £200 to £650 | 57 |
| Boiler | £600 | £300 to £1,300 | 57 |
| Loss of amenity | £1,756 | £970 to £3,022 | 56 |
| Heating | £600 | £250 to £1,290 | 55 |
| Planned works delay | £500 | £200 to £788 | 55 |
| Loft insulation | £789 | £312 to £1,188 | 54 |
| Pests | £500 | £250 to £1,100 | 53 |
| Security | £425 | £244 to £862 | 52 |
| Information request delay | £350 | £244 to £600 | 52 |
| Soundproofing | £400 | £194 to £712 | 52 |
| Draughts | £500 | £288 to £712 | 52 |
| Trip hazard | £550 | £350 to £989 | 51 |
| Antisocial behaviour | £650 | £325 to £1,075 | 51 |
| Damp | £500 | £250 to £871 | 51 |
| Right to buy | £375 | £162 to £738 | 50 |
| Shared ownership | £350 | £150 to £800 | 49 |
| Disability access | £575 | £338 to £1,200 | 48 |
| Complaint escalation | £300 | £150 to £725 | 48 |
| Rehousing request | £575 | £212 to £950 | 47 |
| Wet room | £550 | £300 to £925 | 47 |
| Energy costs | £700 | £350 to £1,140 | 46 |
| Hate crime | £575 | £350 to £800 | 46 |
| Rent account | £300 | £200 to £620 | 45 |
| Boundary dispute | £425 | £188 to £562 | 44 |
| Inspection delay | £425 | £188 to £625 | 43 |
| Rodent infestation | £650 | £400 to £1,250 | 43 |
| Vulnerable residents | £920 | £550 to £1,475 | 43 |
| Aids and adaptations | £675 | £400 to £1,348 | 42 |
| Managing agent | £450 | £300 to £812 | 42 |
| Expectation management | £300 | £200 to £500 | 41 |
| Door repair | £600 | £400 to £800 | 41 |
| Mental health | £350 | £200 to £1,000 | 41 |
| Excess cold | £950 | £400 to £1,300 | 41 |
| Damaged belongings | £675 | £438 to £1,344 | 40 |
| Front door repair | £500 | £344 to £1,068 | 40 |
| Lift breakdown | £500 | £208 to £662 | 40 |
| Inspection failure | £350 | £212 to £650 | 39 |
| Ews1 | £450 | £300 to £655 | 39 |
| Door replacement | £500 | £300 to £750 | 39 |
| Complaint delay | £500 | £285 to £890 | 39 |
| Reimbursement | £300 | £150 to £681 | 38 |
| Defects | £475 | £200 to £888 | 38 |
| Communication failings | £450 | £206 to £1,200 | 38 |
| Compensation request | £300 | £200 to £700 | 38 |
| Domestic abuse | £400 | £200 to £900 | 37 |
| Noise disturbance | £300 | £150 to £500 | 37 |
| Evidence gathering | £300 | £188 to £525 | 36 |
| Succession | £500 | £200 to £900 | 35 |
| Risk assessment delay | £500 | £300 to £800 | 35 |
| Boiler replacement | £578 | £175 to £851 | 35 |
| Lift repair | £700 | £312 to £933 | 35 |
| Hot water | £650 | £250 to £895 | 35 |
| Redecoration | £500 | £188 to £846 | 35 |
| Flooring damage | £412 | £235 to £819 | 34 |
| Vulnerability assessment | £460 | £300 to £738 | 34 |
| Fire door | £550 | £250 to £1,000 | 33 |
| Compensation policy | £400 | £150 to £750 | 33 |
| Discrimination | £475 | £238 to £925 | 32 |
| Energy efficiency | £350 | £225 to £648 | 32 |
| Cavity wall insulation | £575 | £138 to £1,081 | 32 |
| Complaint not logged | £275 | £100 to £481 | 32 |
| Void property | £450 | £282 to £771 | 32 |
| Shower repair | £550 | £200 to £1,266 | 32 |
| Tree maintenance | £450 | £175 to £672 | 31 |
| Lighting | £550 | £200 to £925 | 31 |
| Communal area | £285 | £100 to £550 | 31 |
| Water pressure | £600 | £300 to £1,175 | 31 |
| Harassment | £400 | £200 to £650 | 31 |
| Damage to belongings | £888 | £450 to £1,569 | 30 |
| Rat infestation | £862 | £600 to £1,825 | 30 |
| Temporary heating | £600 | £215 to £1,012 | 30 |
| Heat loss | £920 | £462 to £1,269 | 30 |
| Gas leak | £500 | £278 to £720 | 30 |
| Action plan failure | £500 | £350 to £638 | 30 |
Source: Landlord Record analysis of Housing Ombudsman decisions (Open Government Licence v3.0).
How to read the table
Start with the issue closest to your complaint. Damp and mould, leak and water ingress, heating and hot water, repairs delay and complaint-handling delay can all sit inside a wider repairs complaint. If your case involves several failures, compare the whole pattern rather than picking the highest row.
Two cases can both involve damp and mould but sit in different parts of the range because the landlord response was different. A weaker case might be one where the landlord inspected quickly, completed work within a reasonable period and gave clear complaint responses. A stronger case might involve repeated reports, failed repairs, avoidable delay, unclear ownership inside the landlord, or evidence that the resident could not use parts of the home normally.
When you look at a row, ask three questions. First, does the issue tag match the main problem in your complaint? Second, does the number of decisions feel large enough to be a stable guide? A category with only a handful of awards can shift quickly when a single large decision is published. Third, are your facts closer to the typical case or to an outlier? The median and middle range are designed to answer that last question.
It is also worth understanding why the average can be higher than the median. The average is the simple mean: every award added together, divided by the count. If one decision includes an unusually large award — perhaps because several serious failings were linked — the average rises for everyone. The median is the middle value: half of awards are below it and half are above. That makes it more robust against outliers and usually a better guide to what a typical case might look like. We show both so you can judge for yourself.
Do not treat the highest award as a realistic starting point. High outliers usually reflect unusual facts, several linked failures, serious impact, or a long period before the problem was properly resolved. The average can move upwards because of those outliers. For most readers asking "what is the average housing disrepair compensation?", the median and middle range are more useful than the maximum.
Notable patterns by category
The issue table above is the most detailed view, but the Ombudsman also organises decisions by complaint category. For disrepair, the key categories are responsive repairs, health and safety, estate management and planned works. The summary statistics below show how compensation differs at that broader level.
Responsive repairs
Median £550 · 11,539 decisions
Range £10 to £21,407
Health and safety
Median £690 · 6,589 decisions
Range £20 to £21,407
Estate management
Median £350 · 1,790 decisions
Range £17 to £12,000
Planned works
Median £550 · 470 decisions
Range £25 to £12,000
Responsive repairs usually covers the day-to-day defects residents report — leaks, heating failures, broken fittings and similar. Health and safety can include more serious hazards or risks. Estate management and planned works often involve communal or scheduled work, which can affect compensation because the scope, notice period and disruption may be different from a single inside repair.
Remember that a single decision can span multiple categories and multiple issues. The statistics above describe the decisions that carry compensation within each bucket, not the total number of decisions in that category. A category with a higher median may reflect more serious or prolonged failures rather than a mechanically higher tariff.
If you are trying to work out which category your complaint belongs in, think about what the landlord was responsible for fixing and how the complaint was framed. A leaking pipe inside your home is typically responsive repairs. A broken communal door or unsafe shared walkway may fall under estate management. Major refurbishment or cyclical works that were poorly managed may be planned works. The category matters because it changes the context the Ombudsman uses to judge fairness.
Estimate your own award
To make the data usable, Landlord Record provides an Ombudsman compensation calculator. It is not a legal valuation and it cannot predict an individual decision. It uses the same live award distribution behind this guide to show where past published decisions sit.
The best way to use it is to choose the issue closest to your complaint, then adjust your expectations for severity. A case involving short inconvenience and a prompt repair should not be compared with a long-running failure affecting several rooms, repeated appointments, poor communication and months of complaint chasing.
If your complaint involves more than one issue, run more than one comparison and then read the decision examples behind the numbers. The calculator is designed to orient you in the published Ombudsman data, not to replace judgement. A well-evidenced moderate case can be stronger than a serious allegation with a thin timeline, and a completed repair can still leave a separate question about distress, inconvenience or complaint handling.
Keep a dated record of every report you made, every response you received, every inspection that took place, and every photograph that shows the condition of the home. Evidence of impact — such as medical letters, receipts for damaged belongings, or a diary of how the problem affected daily life — can matter as much as the label attached to the repair. The Ombudsman is evidence-led, so a clear timeline is one of the most useful things you can prepare.
Complaint handling can also affect the final award. A landlord may eventually complete the repair but still have handled the complaint poorly by missing response deadlines, failing to escalate, giving unclear updates or not learning from earlier reports. In those situations, compensation may recognise the extra time and trouble caused by the complaint process, not just the original disrepair. That is why a case with the same physical defect can end up with different compensation: the difference is in the landlord's response.
You can also browse the underlying records for damp and mould compensation, read our wider guide to housing disrepair compensation , compare the highest-compensation rankings, or view the responsive-repairs compensation page.
Sources
The compensation figures on this page come from Landlord Record's structured analysis of published Housing Ombudsman decisions under the Open Government Licence v3.0. For the official remedies approach, read the Housing Ombudsman guidance on remedies .
For the legislative framework behind disrepair, see the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (repairing obligations) and the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 . For social housing consumer standards, see gov.uk social housing regulator standards .
Frequently asked questions
What is the average housing disrepair compensation?
In the current Landlord Record dataset of published Housing Ombudsman decisions, the average ordered award is £778 and the median is £500. The middle range — where half of awards fall — is £200 to £900. These are indicative figures from past decisions, not a prediction for any individual case.
How much does the Housing Ombudsman award for damp and mould?
For damp-and-mould decisions that include compensation, the median award is £800 across 4,159 decisions. The middle range is £400 to £1,425. The Ombudsman also considers severity, duration, impact and evidence, so outcomes vary.
How much compensation for a leak or water damage?
For decisions tagged Leak water ingress that include compensation, the median award is £750 across 3,045 decisions. The middle range is £375 to £1,300.
How much for no heating or hot water?
For decisions tagged Heating hot water that include compensation, the median award is £550 across 1,074 decisions. The middle range is £250 to £1,052.
Why do compensation amounts vary so much?
The Housing Ombudsman does not use a fixed tariff. It applies its published remedies guidance and 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. A short delay with limited impact attracts a different remedy from months of unresolved damp, repeated missed appointments, or evidence of serious health or living-condition effects.
Are these figures official?
These figures come from Landlord Record's structured analysis of published Housing Ombudsman decisions under the Open Government Licence v3.0. They are not produced by the Housing Ombudsman Service, and they are indicative only. The Ombudsman decides each case on its own facts; past awards do not predict any individual outcome.