Sheffield Council housing disrepair claims rocket, forcing authority to double spending

Tenants can take legal action against their landlord, including local authorities, for failing to fix disrepair or damage to their rented property.

A recent council finance report stated the authority’s expected spending on legal fees fighting these claims had rocketed from £2.6 million to £5.2 million this year.

Councillor Sophie Thornton, who has campaigned to improve the repairs service, said: “This amount of money being spent on legal fees and compensation is absolutely shocking, and speaks to a service which has been utterly mismanaged. Every penny that’s spent on solicitors to defend a repair claim is money that could have been better spent on repairing the issues in the first place.”

She warned solicitors making ‘no win, no fee’ offers were “predatory, carpet-bombing estates” and, if used, limit how much the council can communicate with a tenant, including to complete repairs. She said once claims are resolved, solicitors often take “huge amounts” of the compensation awarded as their fee.

Rocketing disrepair claims

Last year, the council said the number of disrepair claims rocketed by 322 per cent due to claims management companies using “aggressive marketing tactics” to target tenants unhappy about their council homes during Covid-19, when Government restrictions shut down all but emergency maintenance work.

The overall costs in legal fees and damages for the council was £1,129,218 between the start of the financial year in 2019 and August, 2021.

Housing repairs backlog

The latest council figures showed there were 14,038 logged repairs, of which 6,193 were overdue.

Coun Douglas Johnson, chair of the housing committee, said the availability of suitable contractors, skilled trades people and materials was proving challenging and the backlog of “smaller, less urgent” repairs had worsened over recent months.

Jordanthorpe resident Natalie Tivley, who has had an outstanding repair in her block since 2020, said “The council needs to stop making excuses and passing the buck on repairs.”

Penny Baker, deputy chair of the housing committee, said “Council tenants are being consistently let down, and are seeing their rent money spent on paying compensation and lawyers fees for failing to fix their house, rather than on performing the necessary improvements. It’s appalling value for money, and it’s dangerous for tenants.”