Disrepair is a significant problem that is growing in scale every year. Housing providers are having to devote an increasingly large portion of their budgets to combating claims of poor management and inappropriate conditions - rather than utilising those resources for their social mission. Condensation, damp, and mould has been an area of particular growth for disrepair claims due to its frequency in British properties. Our climate is particularly vulnerable to mould growth because of the changeable weather, combined with the construction of our homes.
With a variety of government initiatives to improve the quality of social housing, residents across the country are being given access to far greater tools for redress. The introduction of the Fitness for Human Habitation Act in England, for example, has seen the issue of disrepair grow both in financial implication but also societal. Where traditionally disrepair claims were a last resort and accompanied by a relatively narrow set of guidelines about what was covered, this bill (and other similar initiatives across the wider UK) has changed the entire way disrepair is being handled.
