Council House No Hot Water or Heating: Your Rights and What to Do
Housing Repair Help Editorial Team · Reclaim Experts Ltd is a Claims Management Company authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, firm reference number 1030701. You do not have to use a claims management company to pursue a complaint or explore your legal options. You can report repair problems directly to your landlord. If you have an unresolved housing complaint, eligible tenants can also use the Housing Ombudsman Service free of charge: https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/residents/.
Published 20 September 2026. Last reviewed and updated 20 September 2026.
If you are dealing with a council house no hot water or heating, you do not have to simply put up with it. Heating and hot water are not optional extras: your council has a legal duty to keep them in working order, and a total loss of either is usually treated as an emergency repair. This guide explains your council's responsibilities, how quickly repairs should happen, how to report the problem so there is a record, and when being left without heating or hot water may lead to a housing disrepair claim.
Your Council's Legal Duty for Heating and Hot Water
Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires councils to keep in repair and proper working order the installations for space heating and heating water. You cannot be contracted out of this protection, and it applies whether your home has a gas boiler, electric storage heaters or a communal district heating connection.
Boilers & Heaters
The council must repair or replace the heating appliance it installed in your home
Radiators & Pipework
Cold radiators, airlocks and leaking pipework are the landlord's responsibility
Hot Water Supply
A failure of hot water is treated with the same urgency as a heating failure
Annual Gas Safety
Your landlord must carry out a gas safety check every 12 months and give you the record
Excess Cold Hazard
A home that cannot be kept warm can be a Category 1 hazard under the HHSRS
Temporary Heaters
Portable heaters are a stopgap only — they do not discharge the duty to repair
How Long Should a Heating or Hot Water Repair Take?
Timescales vary between landlords, but most councils publish repair priorities similar to these:
| Situation | Typical target |
|---|---|
| Total loss of heating or hot water (winter, vulnerable household) | Attend within 24 hours |
| Total loss of heating or hot water (other times) | 1–3 working days |
| Partial heating failure (some radiators cold) | Around 7 days as an urgent repair |
| Gas leak or suspected carbon monoxide | Immediate — call the gas emergency line on 0800 111 999 |
| Full boiler replacement or system upgrade | Planned works, with temporary heating provided meanwhile |
Read more about how long a landlord has to fix repairs.
Still without heating or hot water?
If you have reported the problem and your council has not put it right within a reasonable time, check whether you may be able to claim repairs and compensation.
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How to Report No Heating or Hot Water to Your Council
Report It Immediately
Say Who Is Affected
Record Temperatures
Keep Every Job Reference
Complain, Then Escalate to the Housing Ombudsman
Why a Cold Home Without Hot Water Is a Health Risk
Respiratory Illness
Cold air worsens asthma, COPD and chest infections, especially in children
Excess Cold Hazard
Sustained indoor temperatures below 18C can be assessed as a serious HHSRS hazard
Damp & Condensation
Unheated rooms cool surfaces, causing condensation and black mould growth
Higher Energy Bills
Plug-in heaters and inefficient systems push running costs up sharply
Hygiene Problems
No hot water makes washing, bathing and cleaning difficult for the whole household
Vulnerable Households
Babies, older tenants and those with disabilities are at greatest risk
Cold and damp usually travel together — see our guide on what to do if your landlord ignores damp and mould.
Evidence to Keep While You Are Without Heating or Hot Water
Temperature Readings
Dated photos of a thermometer showing how cold the rooms actually are
Repair Job References
Every job number, appointment and missed visit logged by the landlord
Written Correspondence
Emails and portal messages showing when you reported the fault and the response
Gas Safety Records
Annual safety certificates, or the absence of them, plus engineer reports
Energy Bills & Receipts
Costs of plug-in heaters, extra electricity and any repairs you paid for
Medical Evidence
GP records linking illness to living in a cold or damp home
Being left without heating or hot water is one of the most common reasons tenants bring disrepair claims. If your council was told and did not repair the system within a reasonable time, you may be able to make a disrepair claim. Our panel of fully vetted no win, no fee housing disrepair solicitors specialise in this area.
When No Heating or Hot Water May Lead to a Claim
If the council was notified of a heating or hot water failure and did not repair it within a reasonable time, and you suffered as a result, tenants may be able to seek compensation for:
Loss of use of rooms that could not be heated
Inconvenience and distress from living in a cold home
Higher energy bills and the cost of temporary heaters
Damage to belongings from condensation and mould
Health impacts caused by cold and damp conditions
Compensation is not automatic and outcomes vary. A solicitor must consider responsibility, notice, delay, causation and evidence before advising whether a claim has reasonable prospects.
Why Tenants Trust Us With Housing Disrepair Claims
Tell us about your housing problem
Complete our online enquiry form with details of the repairs you have reported and the problems you are experiencing.
Initial eligibility check
We review the information you provide to assess whether your enquiry meets our criteria for onward referral.
Save & Return
Your answers are saved as you go, so you can finish your claim later.
Independent solicitor referral
Where appropriate, we may share your enquiry with an independent specialist housing disrepair law firm. The firm will independently decide whether it can assess your circumstances and take your matter forward.
No hot water or heating in your council house?
Begin your housing disrepair claim. First, a few questions about your home — then we'll take you through the rest.
Who is your landlord?
Not ready to start your claim?
Who is Housing Repair Help?
The facts about who we are, how we work and what you pay, set out plainly.
Who operates the service
Housing Repair Help is a trading style of Reclaim Experts Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16058317) with its registered office at Innovation Centre, 49 Oxford Street, Leicester, LE1 5XY.
FCA status
Reclaim Experts Ltd is a Claims Management Company authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, firm reference number 1030701. You can check its entry on the FCA Register. It is also registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (registration number ZB869483).
What our role is
We provide free, plain-English information about housing disrepair, run a free eligibility check based on the details and evidence you provide, and help organise photos, reports and correspondence into a clear case file. Housing Repair Help is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal representation.
What happens after you submit an enquiry
Every enquiry is reviewed against the same criteria before it is passed on: whether the disrepair falls within the landlord's repairing obligations, whether the landlord was told about the problem and given a reasonable chance to fix it, the severity of the problem, the quality of the evidence, and how long it has continued. If your case is not suitable we tell you and point you to free routes such as the Housing Ombudsman Service, Citizens Advice and Shelter.
Our relationship with the solicitor
Suitable cases are introduced to specialist housing disrepair solicitors on our panel. Those firms are independent of us and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. They decide whether to take a case on, and any legal advice comes from them once they have been formally instructed and a client care agreement is in place.
How referrals work
When a case is suitable, we pass it to a specialist housing disrepair solicitor on our panel. Reclaim Experts Ltd receives a fee from the solicitor for any successful recommendation. You are never charged for the introduction.
What you pay
You pay nothing to Housing Repair Help. We do not charge tenants a fee for our eligibility check or our introduction service.
What "No Win No Fee" means
The solicitors on our panel may offer to run your claim under a No Win No Fee agreement. Under such an agreement, the solicitor's fee is only payable if your claim succeeds, and is then usually recovered from your compensation. If your claim does not succeed, you do not pay the solicitor a fee for their time. The solicitor will explain the full terms before you sign anything, and you are free to choose a solicitor of your own instead.
Further Reading
Frequently Asked Questions
This article provides general information about housing issues in England and Wales and does not constitute legal advice. Legal services may be provided by independent solicitors where appropriate.