File on 4 Investigates - No Win No Fee... No thanks?

File on 4 Investigates reveals new data showing a significant rise in housing disrepair claims, now a growing market for unscrupulous No Win No Fee lawyers. Adrian Goldberg asks, has the Solicitors Regulation Authority learned its lessons from the collapse of the law firm SSB which left hundreds of householders with huge legal bills, and are they able to protect vulnerable social housing tenants from potentially risky NWNF claims?

File on 4 Investigates have been told by 5 major housing providers across England and Wales that housing disrepair claims have been growing significantly.

One social housing provider in the South of England with an estate of 85,000 homes has told us its seen a 375% rise in the number of legal claims launched by tenants in the last 5 years. We speak to John Golding, a 74 year old pensioner living in a housing association flat in Staffordshire about how a canvasser knocking on his door tried to pressurise him into pursuing a housing disrepair claim with a Manchester based No Win No Fee solicitors' firm.

Reporter: Adrian Goldberg
Producer: Jim Booth
Additional research: Laura Longworth
Technical Producers: Richard Hannaford & Cameron Ward
Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Tara McDermott

Published on Tuesday, 13th January 2026.

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