> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.logbook.co.uk/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Can You Still Claim for a Defect From 2013? What the Records Decide - URL: https://www.logbook.co.uk/building-defects-claim-records-limitation-uk/ - Published: 2026-10-05T18:33:39.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-05T18:33:39.000Z - Description: A 2013 building, a 2026 claim. Since 2022 you may have up to 30 years to sue over a defective home. Here is the paperwork that decides whether you can. - Author: Jamie Dawson - Tags: Property Logbooks, News Since 28 June 2022, a claim that a home was not fit to live in when it was built can be brought up to 30 years after completion if the building was finished before that date, and up to 15 years after completion if it was finished afterwards. That is a much longer window than most owners assume they have. Whether you can actually use it depends almost entirely on whether you can still produce the handover paperwork, the specification and a dated record of what was found and when. ## What has happened On 13 August 2026 it was reported that Poplar HARCA, a London housing association, has issued a High Court claim against the contractor Rydon over two blocks of flats in Tower Hamlets that were completed in June 2013. The association alleges the buildings were built with combustible cladding and insulation and with missing or inadequate cavity barriers, and that they were not fit for human habitation when they were completed. It is seeking £3.4 million. The claim relies partly on the [Defective Premises Act 1972](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1972/35?ref=logbook.co.uk). None of it has been tested in court, and at the time of the report Rydon had not commented publicly. The detail worth holding on to is the arithmetic. The building was finished in 2013\. The claim was issued in 2026\. That is thirteen years, and until fairly recently a claim that old would have been dead. ## The rule that changed in 2022 Section 1 of the Defective Premises Act 1972 says that anyone taking on work to provide a dwelling owes a duty to build it properly, with proper materials, so that it is fit for habitation when completed. That duty has existed since 1972\. The problem was always the deadline. The old limitation period was six years, which meant that by the time a serious hidden defect surfaced, the right to do anything about it had usually expired. [Section 135 of the Building Safety Act 2022](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/30/section/135?ref=logbook.co.uk) changed that. It inserted a new section 4B into the Limitation Act 1980 and set two periods: - **15 years** from completion, for claims where the right of action arose on or after 28 June 2022. - **30 years** from completion, for claims where the right of action arose before that date. The second figure is the remarkable one, because it reaches backwards. A house or flat completed in 2013 sits in the 30 year group. On the face of it, that window runs to around 2043. This is legal information rather than legal advice, and limitation is unforgiving. There are conditions, exceptions and arguments about when a right of action arose, and 30 years is not a promise. Before you rely on any date, get a solicitor to look at your specific building. But do not assume you are out of time, because for a great many homes built this century, you are not. ## Why the paperwork is the whole game A long deadline is only useful if you can prove something. Thirteen years after completion, three things have usually happened: the site team has dispersed, the subcontractors have changed names or dissolved, and nobody remembers anything. What survives is documents. To run a claim like this you need to establish what you were promised, what you actually got, and what it cost to put right. Each of those is a document, and each is one people throw away. **What you were promised** lives in the contract, the specification, the drawings and the handover pack. This is why a [new build handover pack](https://www.logbook.co.uk/new-build-property-logbook-handover-documents-uk/) is not a formality to be filed and forgotten. It is the baseline. Without a specification you cannot show that what was installed differed from what was agreed, and the whole claim becomes an argument about standards in the abstract. **What you actually got** is harder, and it is the reason the Poplar HARCA claim exists in 2026 rather than 2015\. The alleged defects were behind the facade and above the ceilings. Nobody knew about them until intrusive investigations were carried out after the Grenfell Tower fire. That gives you a practical rule: an inspection report is not just a compliance document, it is the dated evidence that a defect existed and when it was discovered. Keep the report, keep the photographs, and keep the date. **What it cost to put right** is the invoices, the remediation contract, the grant paperwork and the correspondence in which you asked the original builder to fix it and recorded what they said. The reported claim includes the detail that remediation was eventually carried out by a different contractor after the original one declined to do the work. That sequence only exists as a provable fact because somebody kept the correspondence. If you are a leaseholder rather than a freeholder, the same logic applies but the documents sit in more than one place, which is covered in [leasehold property documents](https://www.logbook.co.uk/leasehold-property-logbook-documents-uk/). ## One practical point about format None of this requires software. A 2013 handover pack in a box in a cupboard is potentially the most valuable document in your property file, and a dated paper inspection report dates perfectly well. What matters is that you can still find it, that it is legible, and that it has not been thinned out by three changes of managing agent. That is the honest case for scanning: not because paper is invalid, but because the thing you need in 2043 has to survive twenty more years of moves, handovers and cupboard clearances. For anything created from now on, keep the original and keep a copy somewhere that is backed up. If you own a home or a building completed this century, keep these for at least 30 years from completion: ### Records you must keep - ✓The **contract and specification**, including any variations - ✓**Drawings**, including as built drawings if you were ever given them - ✓The **handover pack** in full, and the building control completion certificate - ✓**Warranty documents** and the policy wording, including what the warranty excludes - ✓Every **inspection or survey report**, dated, with photographs - ✓**Fire risk assessments** and their review history, covered in [fire risk assessment records](https://www.logbook.co.uk/fire-risk-assessment-record-keeping-uk/) - ✓Records of any **works carried out since handover**, because these both create defects and prove when things changed - ✓**Correspondence** in which you reported a problem and the response you got - ✓**Invoices and grant paperwork** for any remediation A fuller list of what belongs in a property file is in [what goes in a property logbook](https://www.logbook.co.uk/what-goes-in-a-property-logbook-uk-documents/), and landlords have some extra obligations set out in [property logbooks for landlords](https://www.logbook.co.uk/property-logbook-for-landlords-uk/). ## Frequently asked questions ### Does the 30 year window apply to any defect? No. Section 4B applies to claims under the Defective Premises Act 1972, which is about whether a dwelling was fit for habitation when it was completed. It is not a general warranty on everything that goes wrong in a house. Ordinary wear, later damage and most disputes about workmanship that falls short of unfitness are different questions with different deadlines. ### I am a leaseholder. Can I bring a claim myself? Possibly, but it depends on your lease, on who holds the relevant interest and on what is being claimed. Structural and external elements are usually the freeholder's or the management company's responsibility to pursue. Take advice early, because coordinating with other leaseholders takes time you may not want to spend against a deadline. ### I do not have the handover pack. Is that fatal? Not necessarily. Building control records, the warranty provider, the original architect or contractor, the managing agent and the Land Registry may all hold pieces. It is slower, more expensive and less complete than holding your own copy, which is the argument for asking for the pack now if you have never seen it. See [fire door inspection records](https://www.logbook.co.uk/fire-door-inspection-logbook-uk/) for an example of how quickly an undocumented element becomes unprovable. ### Should I commission an intrusive survey? That is a judgement about your building, not a general answer, and it costs money and disruption. What is fair to say is that hidden defects are not found by looking at drawings, and that a dated report is what converts a suspicion into a claimable fact. ### Primary sources [**Defective Premises Act 1972**Section 1](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1972/35?ref=logbook.co.uk) [**Building Safety Act 2022**Section 135](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/30/section/135?ref=logbook.co.uk) [**Limitation Act 1980**Section 4B as inserted](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/58?ref=logbook.co.uk) [**Inside Housing**13 August 2026, report of the Poplar HARCA claim](https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/poplar-harca-sues-rydon-for-fire-safety-defects-in-london-towers-98346?ref=logbook.co.uk)