Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Radio 4,13 Jan 2026,37 mins

No Win No Fee... No thanks?

File on 4 Investigates

Available for over a year

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

Programme Website
More episodes