How Much Compensation Could I Claim From My Landlord?

By Cat Way. Last Updated 9th August 2023. In this guide, we explain how you could potentially claim against your landlord if you have been harmed by landlord negligence. Landlords (including housing associations and local councils) have a responsibility to ensure that the homes they lease are safe for the people who live in and visit them.

If a landlord is aware of a safety issue at a home they are leasing but they fail to take appropriate action, then they may be considered negligent. This lack of response can put residents or visitors of the home in danger of harm. This may include physical injuries and emotional distress. Those who are harmed because of negligence by a landlord may have grounds to claim against them.

To find out more about how to make a compensation claim against your landlord, please call 0800 073 8804 today, or start your claim online. In the meantime, please read on to learn more.

Select a section:

• A guide to claims against landlords
• Top Tips On How To Claim Compensation From Your Landlord
• What Is A Tenant Injury Claim?
• How Long Do I Have To Claim Compensation From My Landlord?
• Make A Claim Against A Landlord – What Evidence Is Needed?
• Suing For Emotional Distress In The UK
• Claiming Compensation For An Accident That Was The Fault Of Your Landlord.
• Disrepair Claims – Landlord Compensation For Inconvenience
• Tenant Injury Claims Against The Council.
• Can I Sue My Landlord for Stress in the UK?
• Compensation Payouts For Landlord Negligence And Emotional Distress
• Case Study
• Is Suing Your Landlord Possible On A No Win No Fee Basis?
• Why Choose Us As Your Claims Service For A Tenant Injury Claim Against Your Landlord?
• Call for free advice and to start a claim.

A Guide To Claims Against Landlords

This guide on how to claim compensation from your landlord exists to provide you with extensive and comprehensive information regarding a tenant accident claim. It will inform you of the steps you need to take in order to make your tenant injury claim and the potential issues and benefits that could come about as a result of your claim. It will also explain the duty of care a landlord owes you if you are a tenant. If you are a tenant suing landlord for negligence, it could provide the information you require to make the most of your claim.

The guide will additionally make an argument for why you require the support of a professional Claims Service and illustrate why we are by far the best company to get you through the claims process, getting you the tenant injury compensation that you deserve.

Top Tips On How To Claim Compensation From Your Landlord

As mentioned above, in this guide, we’ll explain what steps to take to make a claim against your landlord. Top tips on how to claim compensation from your landlord include:

What is a Tenant Injury Claim?

If you have suffered an injury as the result of an accident that occurred on your rented property and you believe that it was the fault of your landlord, you may be wondering how to make a compensation claim against your landlord.

A tenant injury claim is a personal injury claim aimed at your landlord for acting in a negligent manner. Specifically, they may have been ignoring the standards set by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. Your landlord has a duty of care towards you, and as such can only be considered responsible for your accident – and thereby liable to pay you compensation – if they have breached their duty of care to you by acting in a negligent manner as determined by these (and a number of other) laws.

How to claim compensation from your landlord.

For example, you could have suffered from a lung illness as the result of mould that has developed inside your privately rented flat. If your landlord did not properly remove the mould – especially if you previously brought the dangers of such mould to their attention – then they could be considered responsible for your illness.

However, you may be unable to make a claim for compensation from your landlord for mould and other issues if you cannot prove that your landlord was responsible. If your landlord took the appropriate measures in dealing with the mould – such as hiring a mould removal company – and these measures failed, your landlord may not be required to pay compensation for mould and dampness. If you are unsure about the legality or legitimacy of your claim, contacting a law firm can clarify the matter.

How Long Do I Have To Claim Compensation From My Landlord?

You might be wondering how long you have to start a landlord negligence claim. Generally, when claiming for a personal injury, you will have three years to begin proceedings. This is set out by the Limitation Act 1980, which also outlines the exceptions to this rule.

However, if you are intending to claim compensation from a landlord for housing disrepair, this time limit differs. In this instance, you will generally have 6 years to begin legal proceedings.

Contact our team today to learn more about the time limit for suing a landlord for either a personal injury or due to housing disrepair.

Make A Claim Against A Landlord – What Evidence Is Needed?

When you make a claim against a landlord, you need to prove that it was their negligence that caused your injuries. The more evidence you have, the better. There are a few ways in which you can establish negligence during the process of suing a landlord.

Here are a few examples:

• Visual evidence – Make sure you take photos and/or videos of any issues that have been hazardous to your health. This includes physical damage, as well as the presence of any damp or mould.
• Correspondence – Make sure you keep records of any correspondence in email or over text message. This way the date of the complaint will also be logged.
• Medical reports – The extent of your injuries will be recorded. Additionally, any treatment you receive will also feature. You can legally request your medical records at any time.

The examples above are not the only ways of establishing landlord negligence. If you’d like to find out more about other evidence that could help support your claim, get in touch with our advisors today.

Suing For Emotional Distress In The UK

If your landlord has breached their duty of care, it’s possible to claim for both physical and psychological injuries. If you are eligible to claim for both, they would be compensated for in one payout.

If you sue for emotional distress, then it could be for conditions such as:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Post-traumatic Stress Syndrome

As with physical injuries, the severity of your condition will dictate how much an emotional distress compensation claim is worth. Each claim needs to be specifically assessed before an accurate valuation can be made.

Get in touch with our advisors today for more information. We are here to help on a 24/7 basis.

Claiming Compensation For An Accident That Was The Fault Of Your Landlord

When you are considering how to claim compensation from your landlord, one of the most important considerations is whether or not your landlord has acted in a negligent manner. The issue of how to prove landlord negligence can be confusing without research and a good understanding of the British legal system.

Your landlord can only be considered responsible for your accident if they have acted negligently by ignoring the standards set by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. If they are not in breach of this act, nor the duty of care they have towards tenants such as yourself, then they likely cannot be considered legally responsible for your accident.

To highlight the difference, please consider the following example. You have suffered a serious leg injury as a result of the collapsing floor of your rented property. While you may believe your landlord to be responsible for such damage, if they took the required precautions concerning the floorboards, such as having them regularly maintained, then they may not be acting in a negligent fashion.

However, if your landlord failed to provide adequate repair work to the floor then they could be considered responsible as a result of negligence. In order to determine landlord negligence, a court case may be required.

Disrepair Claims – Landlord Compensation For Inconvenience

You may be wondering whether it is possible to claim against your landlord for compensation for the inconvenience they have caused you as a result of housing disrepair. Housing disrepair claims could be made if your home is in a state of disrepair that your landlord was aware of and has taken no action to rectify.

However, it is important to gather evidence to support your claim. For example:

• Proof of your complaints or any dialogue between you and your landlord, such as emails
• Photographic evidence of the disrepair and any inconveniences caused

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about landlord housing disrepair claims. Our advisors are available around the clock and offer free legal advice.

Tenant Injury Claims Against the Council

According to the Government, local authorities in England alone owned 1.59 million homes in 2018. If you are living in a council-owned property and believe you could make a tenant injury claim, you may be scared of challenging the authority of your local council and potentially losing your housing.

However, you should not live in fear of making your tenant injury claim. With regard to such claims, the tenant injury procedure for the council is identical and your local authority is treated exactly the same as any other landlord would be.

If you believe that you have a valid tenant injury claim against the council, you should follow the same steps highlighted in this guide. Firstly, prioritise the gathering of evidence to support your claim. Then, contact a Claims Service such as our company that is experienced in dealing with tenant injury claims against local councils.

If you’re wondering how to claim compensation following landlord negligence, please read on.

Can I Sue My Landlord for Stress in the UK?

You may be wondering, “can I sue my landlord for stress in the UK?” If you want to make a tenant injury claim due to housing disrepair, you may be able to claim for the stress caused as part of the same claim. Every landlord has a duty of care to ensure the property you reside in is safe and secure and that every problem that is reported is resolved within a reasonable timeframe.

Compensation you can claim for as part of this type of claim includes:

• General damages – This can include any physical or psychological damage caused by the housing disrepair. Factors that can determine the compensation amount can include the severity of your injury and your prognosis.
• Special damages – This compensation figure is for the financial losses caused by the injury. This can include loss of earnings, if the injury has led to you being unable to work and the damage caused to your personal belongings (such as furniture).
• Travel costs – This includes travel costs if, for instance, the injury has led to you being unable to drive or you have had to pay public transport costs to get to medical appointments related to the injury.
• Medical bills – This includes private healthcare costs if, for instance, you need private treatment. You can also claim for prescription costs.

You may also be able to claim for stress caused by landlord harassment in the UK. To learn more about claiming or to see if you’re eligible, please contact us for a free consultation using the details above.

Compensation Payouts For Landlord Negligence And Emotional Distress

When seeking compensation from your landlord, it can be difficult to find average amounts of compensation. This is because cases can have many unique circumstances that must be taken into consideration. However, it can be generally said that the type and severity of your injury will likely impact the amount of compensation you could receive.

Many legal professionals use the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) to help them when calculating how much compensation you could potentially receive. This is because the JCG provides guideline compensation brackets for a variety of injuries and illnesses based on past cases. The table below provides figures from the JCG covering general damages, which compensate you for the pain and suffering caused by your injury.

You may also be eligible to claim under special damages. Special damages compensate you for any financial losses you may incur as a result of your injuries. This can include travel costs to and from hospital appointments, and loss of earnings if you find yourself unable to work following your injuries.

For more help in seeking compensation from your landlord, contact our advisors today.

Case Study

If you are still uncertain about your tenant injury claim, a case study can be useful. It can help you to get a basic understanding of the path a claims process can take. For example:

In 2014, this claimant suffered from moderate spinal cord injuries as the result of a leaky roof, which caused them to slip and fall. They had previously informed their landlord about the leak and the landlord had failed to adequately repair it before the accident occurred.

The claimant received £2,000 compensation from the letting agency that owned the property, due to the severity of their injury and the limited medical costs that resulted from their injury.

While this case is only a single example of a tenant taking legal action against a landlord for negligence, it illustrates the general process of making such a claim.

Is Suing Your Landlord Possible On A No Win No Fee Basis?

When taking legal action against your landlord in the UK, you may find it helpful to hire a lawyer. All of our lawyers can work on a No Win No Fee basis.

With a No Win No Fee solicitor, they take a percentage from your compensation, but only if the claim is successful. The percentage they can take is also capped by law. Should your claim fail, you are not required to pay your solicitor.

If you have any questions about suing for emotional distress in the UK, or for physical injuries caused by your landlord’s negligence, get in touch today.

Why Choose Us as Your Claims Service for a Tenant Injury Claim against your Landlord?

If you choose to look into how to make a compensation claim against your landlord, our team can provide you with expert insight and professional support, as well as minimise the financial risk involved in the claims process.

Our years of experience in dealing with tenant injury claims makes us one of the most capable companies for dealing with compensation claims against landlords. This experience has given our team of legal experts the knowledge of how to efficiently and professionally deal with your tenant injury claim, giving you relevant and accurate advice along the way.

Along with our free consultation sessions, our ‘No Win No Fee’ approach, and our ability to arrange a local medical evaluation for you, we put your well-being as our first priority. It’s what makes us such an effective, reliable option when seeking compensation from your landlord.

Call for Free Advice and To Start a Claim

To find out more about how to make a compensation claim against your landlord, please call 0800 073 8804 today.

Alternatively, let us know about your case using the contact form on our website. Our company is primed to provide you with exemplary advice concerning your tenant injury claim, so let us help you with these issues and choose us as your claims management service when seeking compensation from your landlord.

Helpful Links

Housing association homes complaints

Visit this page for more information on making a complaint against the Housing association.

Housing Ombudsman Service

Understand how your council works

Do you feel that your local council service hasn’t been properly delivered? Here is how you can make an official complaint.

Private renting complaints

How to Claim Compensation from your Landlord FAQs

Can I sue my landlord for pain and suffering?

As part of a personal injury claim, you could be compensated for any pain or suffering you were caused to experience as a result of your landlord’s failings. This includes physical and psychiatric harm, as well as financial losses.

Can you sue a landlord for emotional distress UK?

As mentioned above, if your landlord has caused injury to your mental health, you could make a claim. However, you would need to provide evidence. Talk with our advisors to see if you have a case.

Can I Claim Compensation For Landlord Harassment In The UK?

The Protection From Eviction Act 1977 gives tenants protections against actions that can be considered harassment. If your landlord or letting agency takes intrusive, violent or unnecessarily disruptive actions against you such as:

• Entering your home without informing you, or without giving you prior notice
• Cutting you off from accessing necessary utilities
• Using violent or intimidating language against you

They may be in breach of the duty of care they owe to you. If you have suffered a psychological injury, such as stress or anxiety because of this, you could be eligible to sue them for emotional distress in the UK.

You can collect evidence of their actions against you, and medical evidence of how it has affected you, to help you bring a claim against them. If you are looking for information about how to collect evidence, or how to get help with collecting evidence, then please speak to one of our advisors. They can give you information on what suing for emotional distress in the UK can entail and connect you with one of our solicitors experienced in psychological injury claims.

Can you sue your landlord after you move out?

If you suffered an injury due to your landlord’s negligence, you could claim even after you’ve moved out. The typical time you could claim within is three years, but it may differ for certain circumstances. 

What must a landlord provide by law UK?

A landlord must, as reasonably as possible, provide a safe environment for tenants. 

What can I claim from my landlord?

Personal injury claims are typically split into general damages and special damages. General damages can be claimed to cover physical or psychological harm, whereas special damages can cover any financial or tangible losses you’ve suffered as a result of the incident in question.

Why are No Win No Fee agreements helpful?

landlord claims

These types of agreements allow anyone with valid grounds to claim to seek legal help without the usual financial risk involved. This is because solicitors working on this basis only take payment from their clients if they succeed in winning their case. Also, there are no upfront costs or hidden fees at any point in the claims process.

Where can I find a personal injury lawyer to handle my case?

As law firms can remotely connect with their clients, there’s no need to stay local in your search for legal help. Instead, why not get in touch with us at Legal Expert today? We’re available to talk 24/7 and have a personal injury solicitor from our panel with over 30 years of experience waiting to handle your claim.

Can I sue my landlord for negligence?

Typically, negligence cases can be established against landlords providing that the following criteria are met:

We hope our guide on how to claim compensation from your landlord has proven useful. If you still have any questions about suing a landlord in the UK, then you can speak to our advisors online or on the phone using the contact details in this guide.