Beware of disrepair ‘claim farmers’ knocking on your door

We’re aware of claim companies knocking on residents’ doors, calling and dropping leaflets across our neighbourhoods. A ‘claims-farmer’ is a middleman who encourages tenants to pursue a claim against their landlord when it is not always for a legitimate reason for potential compensation in respect of disrepair.  The ‘claims-farmer’ then sells these claims along with the resident’s details to a solicitor to make them money. The law firm will also take a large fee for their work.

These companies will often say that they are from ‘the housing’ or working on behalf of Network to gain access to your property. We want you to protect yourself against these bogus callers. It’s important to know that:

• These companies want to make money from you and your home. They will tell you that they have recently won numerous claims against Network Homes.
• These claims can take up to two years to resolve and it’s likely to cause further inconvenience to you, as the solicitor ‘acting’ on your behalf may advise you not to allow us to carry out any repairs while the claim is on-going.
• Once you have initiated a claim and signed the solicitor’s documentation, very rarely will they allow you to change your mind and stop the claim. They may advise you that, if you want to stop the claim, you could be liable for substantial charges which they may not have explained to you at the beginning.

Please be careful before you commit to any agreements with these companies, as they could put you at financial risk.

If someone claiming to be from Network Homes comes to your home or calls you, but you are not sure, please call us to check on 0300 373 3000.

We’re committed to providing a good quality repairs service to our residents. If you live in a home managed by Network Homes and have any concerns about your property, or an unresolved repair issue, please do get in touch with us so we can get this resolved as soon as possible.

If you are not satisfied with any aspect of our service, please follow our complaints procedure which you can find on our website on the Compliments and Complaints page here!