22/10/2025
⚡ Failure to Send the EICR to Tenants – What the Court Decided ⚖️
A while back we posted about a major case involving Coastal Housing Group, one of Wales’s largest housing providers. They’d obtained Electrical Installation Condition Reports (EICRs) for their homes (as required under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act) — but hadn’t actually sent them to tenants before the legal deadline of 30 November 2023.
Under the Act, not sending the EICR has the same effect as not having one at all — meaning the property is legally not Fit for Human Habitation (FFHH). When a property is unfit, no rent is due.
That raised the prospect of hundreds of tenants potentially reclaiming rent — even for over a year!
The case has now been decided, and the outcome is fascinating 👇
🏛️ What the Court Found
The tenants didn’t know about the breach and continued paying rent.
The Court accepted that, given their good relationship with Coastal Housing, the tenants would likely have paid rent anyway even if they had known.
The landlord eventually complied by providing the EICRs, so the statutory purpose was achieved. Requiring rent repayment would therefore have been disproportionate.
The Renting Homes (Wales) Act does not give tenants a right to reclaim rent already paid in these circumstances — unlike other breaches (such as late Written Statements).
✅ Result:
No rent repayment was ordered.
⚖️ However…
The Court stressed that the outcome was fact-sensitive. In a different case — for example, if relations between landlord and tenant were strained or if a tenant could show they wouldn’t have paid had they known — the result might differ.
📚 Key Takeaway
For landlords: Failure to serve an EICR still breaches the law and renders the property unfit, but this judgment suggests you may not automatically have to repay rent if the tenant was unaware and you later comply.
For tenants: You might still have a cause of action for the breach itself, but recovering historic rent is difficult unless you can prove you’d have withheld payment if you’d known.
Finally, note that most of this judgment isn’t binding precedent — it’s persuasive guidance, not a hard-and-fast rule.
If you’ve got questions about EICRs, Fitness for Human Habitation, or any aspect of Renting Homes (Wales) compliance, our team at Homelink Property is here to help.
📧 [email protected]
