Cold Rentals: What Tenants Can Ask Their Landlord For
Every winter the same conversation starts in thousands of rented homes. The heating is on, the bill is frightening, and the place still is not warm.
So what can a tenant actually insist on, and what is simply an old house being an old house? The line is clearer than most people think.
Does a landlord have to provide heating?
A landlord has to provide it and keep it working. That much is not optional.
Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, your landlord must keep in repair and proper working order the installations for space heating and heating water. That covers the boiler, the radiators and the pipework. It cannot be contracted out of in an ordinary tenancy, and it applies whatever the tenancy agreement happens to say.
What the law does not do is set a temperature the landlord must achieve. There is no single legal number a home has to reach.
So is there any standard for a cold home?
Yes, but it works differently from the way most people expect.
Excess cold is assessed under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, which your local council enforces. The system was overhauled by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, in force from 23 June 2026. The old set of 29 hazards was consolidated into 21, and the ten A to J bands were replaced with three: Low, Medium and High.
In practice that means a council officer can inspect, judge how serious the cold is, and require the landlord to act. It is a judgement about risk to health, not a thermostat reading.
Does Awaab's Law cover private renters?
Not yet, and this is worth being precise about because a lot of coverage blurs it.
Awaab's Law sets strict timescales for social landlords to investigate and fix hazards. It came into force for social housing on 27 October 2025. It does not currently apply to private landlords. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 contains a power to extend it to the private rented sector, but that needs separate regulations and no start date has been announced.
If you are a private tenant, your route is section 11 and your council, not Awaab's Law.
What should a tenant actually do first?
Report it properly, in writing, and keep the trail.
Report it in writing, even if you have already phoned. An email or a message creates a date, and the date is what matters later.
Describe the effect, not just the fault. Which rooms, what temperature, what times of day, and what it is doing to the household.
Give reasonable access. A repair cannot happen if nobody can get in, and refusing access weakens your position considerably.
Keep a short log. Dates reported, replies, visits, what was done. Photographs of a thermometer are more use than a description.
If nothing happens in a reasonable time, contact your local council's private sector housing team and ask for an HHSRS inspection.
Never stop paying the rent to force the issue. It does not give you a stronger hand, it gives you arrears, and it turns a repair problem into a possession problem.
What is the landlord's side of this?
Mostly, speed and evidence.
A boiler that cannot be fixed for three days in November is a very different conversation if you have supplied temporary heaters and confirmed the engineer's date in writing. Most disputes that end up in front of a council are not really about the fault. They are about a tenant who felt ignored.
It is also worth separating the two problems that get muddled every winter. A property that cannot be heated is a repair issue. A property that is expensive to heat is an efficiency issue, and the answer there is insulation, draught proofing and glazing rather than a call-out.
What if the heating works but the property is freezing anyway?
Then you are looking at the building rather than the boiler, and the answer is slower but more permanent.
Single glazing, no loft insulation, an uninsulated solid wall or a missing draught seal will all defeat a perfectly healthy heating system. None of that is an emergency repair, and a landlord is not obliged to rebuild a Victorian house to modern standards. It is, though, exactly the sort of thing an HHSRS inspection looks at, and it is increasingly the sort of thing the energy efficiency rules will force over the coming years.
For a landlord, the sensible reading is that insulation is cheaper than repeated call-outs, void periods and a tenant who leaves in March.
What about damp that comes with the cold?
Treat it as the same conversation, because it usually is.
Cold surfaces plus everyday moisture produce condensation, and condensation produces mould. That makes it a shared problem: the landlord deals with the building, the tenant deals with the ventilation and the drying of washing. Blaming each other wastes the month in which it could have been sorted.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a legal minimum temperature for a rented home?
No single legal figure applies to a private tenancy. The landlord's duty is to keep the heating installations in repair and proper working order under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. Whether a home is unacceptably cold is judged by the council under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System.
How quickly does a landlord have to fix a broken boiler?
The law says a reasonable time, judged against the seriousness. A total loss of heating in winter is treated far more urgently than a dripping tap. The strict timescales under Awaab's Law apply to social landlords and have not been extended to the private rented sector.
Can I be evicted for complaining about the cold?
Retaliatory eviction protections exist and Section 21 was abolished on 1 May 2026, so a landlord now needs a valid ground to seek possession. Report problems in writing and keep records, which is your best protection either way.
If you know someone shivering through this in a rented home, please send it to them.
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Sources: Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 11; The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, in force 23 June 2026; Awaab's Law in force for social housing from 27 October 2025 and not yet extended to the private rented sector; Renters' Rights Act 2025. Checked and verified in force 9 September 2026.