£6,800 Damp Settlement Agreed Just 7 Days Before Trial, After Three Years of Complaints

Our client reported damp in her home for approximately three years. Her landlord, Clarion Housing Association Limited, carried out some works, but they never addressed the root cause, so the problems kept coming back. She complained again. She escalated to the Housing Ombudsman, who found a service failure. And still the disrepair remained.

It took judgment being entered against her landlord, a listed trial and the pressure of that trial being just one week away before a reasonable offer finally arrived: £6,800 in damages, more than the expert's estimate for the entire repair works, plus an order for the works themselves and legal costs in addition.

Three years of complaints and repairs that did not fix the problem

The disrepair centred on damp, which damaged the plasterwork in the property. Our client reported it, and her landlord did respond with some works, but the works did not remedy the underlying issue. Because the root cause remained, the damp returned, and our client was forced to complain again.

This pattern is one we see constantly: a landlord treats the symptoms, closes the complaint, and leaves the tenant to start the process over when the problem resurfaces. Almost two years after the initial complaints, Clarion raised further works, but issues still remained.

Two aspects of this case made the landlord's inaction particularly serious:

• The damp spread to her son's bedroom. Our client's son has asthma, and she feared the damp conditions would be detrimental to his health and exacerbate his condition. Damp and mould in a child's bedroom is precisely the kind of hazard that housing law, including Awaab's Law, now treats with urgency.
• The electrics were defective, affecting her cooker, a basic facility no household should be without.

You can read more about how these claims work on our damp and mould page.

The Housing Ombudsman found a service failure. Why was a solicitor still needed?

Our client did not go straight to a solicitor. She first escalated her complaints to the Housing Ombudsman, and in June 2025 the Ombudsman confirmed there had been a service failure in Clarion's handling of her complaints.

An Ombudsman finding is important, but it is not the same as a legal claim. The Ombudsman can identify failures and make recommendations, but it cannot award damages assessed on legal principles, and it cannot make a binding court order compelling repairs by a fixed deadline with consequences for non-compliance. For our client, the finding validated what she had been saying for years, yet the disrepair itself remained unresolved.

She instructed this firm in May 2025 to pursue the legal route alongside it.

Expert evidence ignored, judgment entered, trial listed

Following instruction, we obtained expert surveying evidence. The surveyor confirmed the disrepair and put the cost of remedying it in the region of £6,264.

Armed with that evidence, a settlement proposal was put to Clarion on our client's behalf. The Pre-Action Protocol for Housing Conditions Claims exists to resolve exactly this kind of dispute without litigation, but a protocol only works when the landlord engages with it. The proposal was not accepted; no response came at all.

Faced with silence, proceedings were issued and the court entered judgment in our client's favour. Even then, Clarion showed no willingness to compromise the matter amicably on reasonable terms, and the case was listed for trial.

Settled just 7 days before trial

Remarkably, with the trial just seven days away, a reasonable settlement proposal was finally made, and the claim was agreed in our client's favour. The settlement secured:

• £6,800 in damages, a figure exceeding the expert's £6,264 estimate for the full remedial works;
• An order for the works to be carried out within a 150 day period, so the root cause is finally addressed rather than patched; and
• Legal costs payable in addition, so the damages were not reduced by the cost of bringing the claim.

Why this case matters

This is another example of a claim that ought to have been resolved long before proceedings were issued. Our client complained for around three years. The Ombudsman found a service failure. An independent expert confirmed the disrepair and costed the works. A court entered judgment against the landlord. At every one of those points, Clarion had the information and the opportunity to put things right, and did not.

What changed was not the evidence. It was the trial date. Landlords who ignore tenants for years frequently find a reasonable offer only when a judge is days away, and by then the tenant has endured far more, and the landlord owes far more, than if the matter had been dealt with at the start.

Could you make a claim?

If you rent from a housing association or council, you have reported damp, mould, electrical faults or other disrepair, and repairs have either not been done or have failed to fix the root cause, you may be entitled to compensation and an order requiring proper works, even if you have already been through the Housing Ombudsman.

We act for tenants across England on a no win, no fee basis. You can read exactly how that works on our costs and funding page, or request a free case assessment using the form on this page.