how we help:
Disrepair
When a home falls into disrepair, it doesn't just impact the residents' quality of life; it can lead to substantial damage, a decrease in property value, and costly legal complications.
That’s why proactively addressing property disrepair is crucial for protecting your investments and maintaining positive tenant relationships, and why Resisure’s intuitive property platform has been a game-changer for landlords, housing associations and investors across the UK in actively preventing disrepair.
Key features
Explore how Resisure can help detect and prevent property disrepair...
The High Cost of Property Disrepair
Allowing a property in disrepair to go unaddressed can severely impact your investment portfolio's value and performance. Beyond the decrease in market value of the affected properties, it often escalates tenant disputes and leads to formal housing disrepair claims. This results in unnecessary stress, significant expenses, and increased management burdens for property owners and managers.
At ResiSure, we understand that preventing property disrepair before it takes hold is key to maintaining a healthy and profitable portfolio. This is precisely why we developed our advanced monitoring platform. It continuously tracks critical environmental factors within your properties, such as temperature, humidity, damp, mould risk, heat loss, and air quality. By providing real-time data and actionable insights, we empower you to take preventative measures, ensuring your property doesn't fall into disrepair.
Our platform collects and analyses data every 30 minutes from across your entire portfolio. This allows you to swiftly detect concerning trends, such as rising humidity levels indicating potential damp and mould issues, or sudden temperature fluctuations that could point to underlying problems. Armed with this information, you can make informed decisions to safeguard your tenants' well-being, enhance their satisfaction, prevent housing disrepair claims, and ensure your investments remain in peak condition, avoiding the pitfalls of a home in disrepair.
3.5M
In 2020, 15% (3.5 million) of occupied homes did not meet the Decent Homes Standard.
15%
During the 2019-20 period, about 15% of private renters—approximately 683,000 households—considered filing a complaint against their landlord or letting agent.
56
Among the 56 users surveyed by the Ministry of Justice via the Housing Disrepair Online Signposting Tool (OST), 29 reported problems with their gas, electricity, boiler, heating, or hot water supply not working properly.
What Is Housing Disrepair?
In the context of rental accommodation in the UK, housing disrepair refers to any condition where a property is in need of repair to meet the legal standards for safety and suitability for tenant occupation. Issues can range from minor defects to significant structural concerns or faulty essential installations, all of which can put the property and its inhabitants at risk.
UK law places clear responsibilities on landlords to ensure their properties are in a proper state of repair and fit for habitation. This includes...
- Structural and Exterior Maintenance: This covers the property's structure, drains, gutters, and external pipes.
- Utilities and Installations: This includes water, gas, electricity, and sanitation systems, such as basins, sinks, and baths.
- Heating Systems: Space heating and water heating installations must be fully operational and safe.
Who Is Responsible For Housing Disrepair?
Landlords in the UK are legally obligated to address disrepair under several key pieces of legislation, demonstrating the importance of preventing properties from falling into disrepair...
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1985: Requires landlords to maintain the property’s structure, exterior, and essential installations.
- Defective Premises Act 1972: Holds landlords liable for personal injury or property damage caused by disrepair.
- Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018: Mandates that rental properties must be fit for human habitation, directly addressing conditions that can lead to a home in disrepair.
- Social Housing Act 2023: Increases accountability for landlords of social housing, focusing on the functionality, safety, and standards of these properties and aiming to prevent social housing disrepair.
When tenants are living in a property in disrepair that the owner is not addressing, they have avenues for seeking housing disrepair support. In severe cases, tenants can initiate the Disrepair Protocol, formally notifying landlords of their intention to pursue court action. Landlords typically have 20 days to respond. An unsatisfactory response, or no response at all, can empower tenants to begin legal proceedings.
Tenants may also approach the Property Ombudsman or a Redress Scheme to escalate their disrepair queries. Furthermore, tenants can claim compensation for inconvenience, financial loss, damage to belongings, or health problems caused or exacerbated by inadequate housing conditions and property disrepair. This highlights the critical need for landlords to avoid their properties falling into disrepair.
Awaab’s Law
The tragic death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in 2020 due to severe damp and mould in his social housing led to the introduction of Awaab’s Law. This legislation aims to increase accountability for social landlords regarding the condition of their properties and is a crucial development in preventing social housing disrepair. While initially focused on the social rented sector, similar regulations are anticipated to be implemented in the private rented sector, emphasizing the broader importance of addressing disrepair.
Under Awaab’s Law, tenants can hold their social landlords accountable for unresolved or poorly handled issues of disrepair, particularly those related to mould and water leaks. This law firmly places the responsibility for the property's condition on the landlord. Social landlords now face potential legal action if they fail to address such problems promptly, making regular monitoring and maintenance, and thus disrepair prevention, more critical than ever to comply with Awaab’s Law and avoid social housing disrepair.
Keep Property Disrepair At Bay With Resisure
Property disrepair poses a significant threat to your portfolio. It not only devalues your investment but also leads to stressful, costly, and time-consuming tenant disputes and legal challenges related to housing disrepair.
At ResiSure, we strongly advocate for prevention as the most effective strategy to stop your property from falling into disrepair. Our innovative property monitoring platform provides vital, real-time data on factors like temperature, humidity, damp, mould risk, heat loss, and air quality within your properties. This allows you to identify potential issues early on, before they escalate into significant disrepair. Our data-driven insights help detect concerning trends or fluctuations, enabling you to address them proactively and prevent your property from falling into disrepair. This preventative approach safeguards your tenants, enhances resident satisfaction, and keeps your investments in optimal condition.
Ready To Be Empowered By Proactive Property Management?
Join the increasing number of property businesses who rely on Resisure to safeguard their portfolios from falling into disrepair and keep tenants in a safe environment with our proactive prevention device. Reach out to us today to discover more about our solutions and how we can customise them to fit your unique needs.