Government consults on new rights for tenants to access information about their homes

Requests can be made for any information landlords hold about health and safety breaches in their properties and the outcomes of any inspections. On top of that, tenants could take further action through the Housing Ombudsman if their landlord is not making the repairs they are required to.

Under new rules brought in by the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, landlords must fix emergency repairs within 24 hours. Tenants will be able to see how often their landlord is meeting this target, and challenge them through the courts or take them to the Housing Ombudsman if they do not.

Housing associations will also be forced to publish information about their performance.

Landlords will have to provide the information unless it is “reasonable not to”, with clear expectations on how landlords should respond to requests.

Tenants will be able to raise complaints to the Housing Ombudsman if they are not happy with how their information request has been handled.

The consultation is open for eight weeks, and will run until 15 July.

Baroness Scott, minister for social housing, said: “We are creating a culture of openness and transparency among social landlords and tenants, giving residents the tools they need to hold their landlords to account so they can raise standards to the high level they rightly expect.

“This is part of the biggest government reforms to affect social housing in a decade, which will be crucial in addressing systemic issues relating to safety, quality and tenant-landlord relationships that were identified after the Grenfell Tower fire.”

Earlier this year, the government consulted on Awaab’s Law, which proposes new legal requirements for social landlords to investigate hazards within 14 days.

Once a hazard is identified, they must start fixing it within a further seven days, and make emergency repairs within 24 hours.

This month, Inside Housing’s Tenant and Resident Engagement Conference heard that the sector was “absolutely not” ready for Awaab’s Law. A leaseholder said the council landlord she deals with has failed to address the damp in her home for nearly a year, while her neighbours are going through the same experience.