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Housing standards in rented accommodation

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

Standards in your home

A property should also be free of serious health and safety hazard, which mean your landowner should ensure that problems in the home are deal 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 pool lighting which lead to falls
• damp and mould growth
• problems with personal and domestic hygiene
• fire

In practice, the landowner should check to make sure that the home is a warm and safe environment for the range of people who live there.

Getting help

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