Legal Aid in housing disrepair claims has in reality now gone and is only available when there is a serious threat to health and safety and only for the purposes of obtaining an order for immediate work. The example I often use to Clients to illustrate this is that of a kitchen ceiling collapsing – so as rare as hen’s teeth.

However, here at Curtis law we can deal with your prospective housing disrepair case on a ‘No Win No Fee’ basis.

Last week I went to visit a prospective client in Leeds who lived in a damp and humid basement flat. These conditions had serious health issues for this man’s health. I have already written to his landlord and told them that unless they resolve these damp problems within 21 days I intend to take them to Court.

Only this week I visited a client in Liverpool who had been suffering with rats in her home for nearly 9 years – yes 9 years. She has had more than 65 visits from Pest Control. They appear to have gotten into the walls of her home by eating through [the rodent proof] external cladding and then nesting in her attic.

This has caused her and her family intolerable stress. The urine from the rats over time had completely saturated the insulation lagging in her loft with the smell filtering down into the main house.

My client told me that nearly £2000 worth of her belongings [including photographs & Xmas decorations] which were stored up there were completely ruined and had to be thrown away. Her unsympathetic landlord offered her a derisory £500 in compensation.

The rats appear to have gone away for now – but my client tells me that she expects them BACK in the Autumn, when it turns colder and they will return to her warm home. I am confident that I can get her considerably more compensation than that but based on the rent she has paid to her landlord but paid on the basis that she should live in a house without having to share with rats!

But I can only seek to make a claim back for a period of 6 years not 9.

The moral of the story is contact a Solicitor straight away – don’t leave it. I am certain that my client would have rather lived without rats for 9 years than have 6 years’ worth of compensation Here at Curtis Law we have 29 years’ experience in this area of law and we are here to provide you with professional guidance and advice in a straight forward way.

Please feel free to have a no obligation chat with me. In these type of cases I am prepared to come out to visit you to see for myself the extent of your problems.

George McLoughlin is a specialist Housing Disrepair Solicitor at Curtis Law. He is member of the Liverpool Law Society Civil Litigation Committee; and a member of The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.