Problems with damp and repairs

Renting a property from a private landlord

Your landlord or their agent has legal responsibilities to manage your tenancy fairly and to keep your home in a good state of repair. As a private tenant you also have rights and responsibilities.

Report a repair to your landlord

If you have a problem with disrepair in your home we usually require you to report the problem to your landlord first and ask for the work to be carried out.   Make sure you report the problem in writing to your landlord and keep copies of all of your correspondence.  If you have only reported issues verbally or in a text, this is not usually sufficient.  There is advice about how to do this on the Shelter website.

Writing to your landlord is important, as in some circumstances, this may protect you from eviction for up to 6 months.  Further information on revenge eviction is also available on the Shelter website and you are encouraged to read this before making a complaint, so you are aware of what protection from eviction you have.

It is important that your landlord is aware of your concerns and has had a reasonable period of time to respond.   

You can find out more about what your landlord is responsible for here.

Report your problem to us

In some cases where your housing conditions may pose serious risks to your health and safety we may be able to assist.

Once you have written to your landlord and a reasonable amount of time has passed (typically between 7-10 days would be sufficient time for a landlord to respond), if your landlord has failed to adequately respond to your request you may wish to contact us so we can look at your complaint in more detail.

You should contact us using the on-line form below.  Wherever possible please collect evidence such as;

• Photographs
• Copies of any letters sent to or received from the landlord
• Receipts from any professionals who have looked at the problem
• A note from a doctor if the problem is affecting someone’s health.

These can be uploaded when you complete the on-line form and will assist us in dealing with your complaint.

Report disrepair online

Once we have received your complaint it will be assessed and we will contact you to discuss your complaint further, offer advice, agree next steps as appropriate. 

It may be necessary for us, with your permission, to contact you landlord and if problems appear serious, we may need to carry out an inspection of your home to make an assessment of the risks under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) or using other appropriate powers.

Once an inspection has been carried out, we will determine the most appropriate course of action.  This may be advice and guidance, informal action or formal housing enforcement action.

Further information concerning HHSRS is available on the Citzens Advice website.

Conditions involving serious or imminent danger

If the issue is serious and there is an immediate danger or a serious threat to health and you have not had an immediate response from your landlord, or you landlord is uncontactable, we would always encourage you to contact us without delay using the details below.

Problems with an empty property

Most rental properties will be empty from time to time, between tenants and when landlord get caught up on improvements but long term voids can be a problem; attracting vandalism, ASB or just falling into disrepair. 

Find out more about empty homes and how to report problems.  

Contact us

For more information, please:

• write to Public Safety and Regulation, City of Newcastle upon Tyne, Civic Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8QH
• phone 0191 2787878
• email our public safety and regulation team