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Housing standards in rented accommodation

If you rent your home, major repairs are generally the responsibility of your landlord. This includes repairs to the structure and exterior of the property, heating and hot water installations, basins, sinks, baths and other sanitary systems.

Standards in your home

A property should also be free of serious health and safety hazards, which means your landlord should ensure that problems in the home are dealt with before they lead to poor health or accidents. Hazards can arise in the home because of its design, wear and tear, or a lack of maintenance.

The most common hazards involve:

  • inadequate heating, insulation and disrepair
  • a lack of handrails, steep stairs and poor lighting which lead to falls
  • damp and mould growth
  • fire

In practice, the landlord should check to ensure that the home is a warm and safe environment for the range of people who live there. For more information, please check the links below:

Getting help

If your home has any problems which could be a hazard you can ask your landlord to put things right. If they don't do anything to improve the situation, you can contact an environmental health officer at your local council, who can take action against them.

You can also get more guidance on repairs by using the link below:

More useful links