We offer No Win No Fee claims
Compensation for pain, suffering, and loss of amenity
You will be compensated for ‘pain, suffering and loss of amenity’ for the inconvenience and distress caused by having had to live in a property in disrepair, or possibly for having to leave your home as a result of the disrepair. This is calculated in relation to your rent if you are a tenant, or the market rent for your home if you were to let it out to an assured shorthold tenant if you are a leaseholder. You essentially will receive a percentage of your rent back for the period in which you have had to live with disrepair. It doesn’t matter if someone else pays your rent, such as the Housing Benefit department, this is just a way of calculating how much compensation you should get rather than actually getting some of your rent back.
The percentage that you receive will depend on how severe the disrepair, and therefore your loss, is. If your property is completely uninhabitable, but you have been living in it anyway, you will receive 100%. This is extremely rare. An award of 100% would be possible for a property with no heating or hot water, perhaps no water or electricity supply at all, extremely severe damp, and structural damage meaning it was dangerous. It is much more usual for judges to make awards around the 25% to 50% range. There is no hard and fast rule, it will be decided by comparing past cases to yours.
Example
Disrepair: plumbing leak into one room for 4 years continuously.
Rent: £600pcm
Value of rent for the whole period of the claim: £28,800
Compensation at 25%: £7200
You could be owed an average of £6,512.
You could be owed an average of £6,512.
