Awaab's Law sets legal deadlines for social landlords in England to investigate and fix hazards in their tenants' homes. It started with damp and mould and emergency hazards on 27 October 2025, extends to a much wider set of hazards on 30 November 2026, and is due to cover almost every housing hazard from 2027.
This guide explains what the law requires, in plain English, and what a landlord needs on record to show it has met those requirements. It is general guidance, not legal advice. The official source is GOV.UK, linked at the end, and it should be your reference for any decision.
What Is Awaab's Law?
Awaab's Law is named after Awaab Ishak, a two year old who died in December 2020 from a respiratory condition caused by prolonged exposure to mould in his family's social housing flat in Rochdale. His family had reported the mould repeatedly. The inquest into his death led to a campaign for fixed, enforceable deadlines on repairs in social housing.
The Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 gave the government the power to set those deadlines. The detail is in the Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025, which came into force on 27 October 2025. The requirements take effect as terms of the tenancy, which is why a tenant can enforce them in court as a breach of contract.
Who Awaab's Law Applies To
Awaab's Law applies to registered providers of social housing in England. In practice that means housing associations and local authorities that let social homes, and it covers almost all social housing occupied under a tenancy.
It does not currently apply to:
- Private rented homes (the government has committed to extending it, with no date set; see does Awaab's Law apply to private landlords)
- Long leaseholds and shared ownership
- Owner-occupied homes
- Accommodation occupied under a licence rather than a tenancy
Contractors and managing agents are not directly bound by the regulations, but the landlord's clock can start from what they report, and the landlord will rely on their records to prove what happened. In practice the obligations flow down to anyone who inspects or repairs on a landlord's behalf.
Significant Hazards and Emergency Hazards
The law works on two levels of risk.
A significant hazard is one that poses a significant risk of harm to the health or safety of the occupier. The test is whether a reasonable landlord, knowing what you know, would take steps to make the home safe as a matter of urgency.
An emergency hazard is one that poses an imminent and significant risk of harm. The test is whether a reasonable landlord would take steps to make the home safe within 24 hours.
Who lives in the home matters. Landlords are expected to take reasonable steps to understand the household, including age, health conditions and disability. The same patch of mould can be a significant hazard in one home and not in another. A tenant does not need a specific vulnerability to be at risk, though.
The Awaab's Law Timescales at a Glance
- Emergency hazard: investigate and make safe within 24 hours
- Significant hazard: investigate within 10 working days of becoming aware
- Written summary to the tenant: within 3 working days of the investigation concluding
- Relevant safety work for a significant hazard: within 5 working days of the investigation concluding
- Supplementary preventative work: begin, or take steps to begin, within 5 working days; if it cannot physically start then, it must start within 12 weeks
- Alternative accommodation: if the home cannot be made safe in time, offer suitable alternative accommodation until it is
Each deadline, when it starts and what it means in practice is covered in Awaab's Law timescales explained.
When the Clock Starts
Every deadline runs from the day the landlord becomes aware of a potential hazard. That can be a tenant's report, something an operative notices while in the home for another job, or a report from a third party such as a contractor, a managing agent or a health professional.
The day the landlord becomes aware is day zero. Day one is the next working day. That makes the date and source of every report the first entry in the record, and the one most often missing.
The Investigation
An investigation must be carried out by someone the landlord reasonably considers competent to do it. For a potential significant hazard it should establish whether there is a significant or emergency hazard and, where possible, what work is needed to make the home safe.
An investigation can sometimes be done remotely, for example from photographs and video sent by the tenant. If it is, the tenant can ask for an in-person investigation, which must then happen within 10 working days of the request. Where the first investigation cannot establish the cause or the extent of the problem, a further investigation is needed.
What to record on the day is set out in the damp and mould inspection checklist.
The Written Summary
Within 3 working days of the investigation concluding, the tenant must receive a written summary that says:
- Whether a significant or emergency hazard was found, and what it is
- If action is needed, what it is and the target dates for starting and finishing it
- If no action is needed, that no action will be taken and why
- How to contact the landlord
The summary is only as good as the inspection record behind it. If the findings are scattered across a notebook, a phone and an email, three working days goes quickly.
Relevant Safety Work and Preventative Work
Relevant safety work is whatever makes the home safe from the hazard. For a significant hazard it must be done within 5 working days of the investigation concluding; for an emergency hazard, within 24 hours.
Supplementary preventative work goes further, dealing with the cause so the hazard does not return. It must begin, or steps must be taken to begin it, within 5 working days. Where it cannot physically start within that time, for reasons such as a specialist contractor, materials or approvals not being available, it must start within 12 weeks.
The Reasonable Steps Defence
A landlord has a defence if it can prove it took all reasonable steps to comply but could not, for reasons genuinely beyond its control. The GOV.UK guidance gives examples: being unable to get access to the home despite reasonable attempts, specialist contractors or materials being unavailable, required approvals not being granted, or no suitable alternative accommodation being available despite a reasonable search.
The important word is prove. The defence is only available to a landlord that can show what it did, when, and why it was not enough. That is a records problem, and it is why the evidence trail matters as much as the repair. The full list is in what records Awaab's Law requires.
How Awaab's Law Is Enforced
- Tenants can take legal action for breach of contract, following the Pre-Action Protocol for Housing Conditions Claims
- The Housing Ombudsman investigates complaints and will decide disputes about Awaab's Law compliance using its usual powers
- The Regulator of Social Housing oversees landlords against the consumer standards, including the Safety and Quality Standard
The Phased Rollout
- Phase 1, from 27 October 2025: damp and mould that present a significant risk, and all emergency hazards
- Phase 2, from 30 November 2026: extends to excess cold and excess heat, falls, structural collapse, fire and explosions, electrical hazards, and domestic and personal hygiene and food safety
- Phase 3, planned for 2027: all remaining Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) hazards except overcrowding
The timescales do not change between phases. What changes is how much an inspection has to cover. Awaab's Law Phase 2 and the HHSRS hazards explains what that means for inspections.
Why the Record Matters
Most Awaab's Law failures will not be landlords who ignored a report. They will be landlords who acted but cannot show it: a visit with no photographs, a finding with no room, an access attempt that was never logged, a summary sent with no record of when.
A usable record answers the same questions every time. What was reported, by whom and when? Who investigated, when, and what did they find, in which room? What was the tenant told, and when? What work was done, and when was it finished? Where a deadline was missed, what was tried and why did it not work?
How SiteSurvey Helps
No software makes a landlord compliant. Compliance depends on people and processes meeting the deadlines. What SiteSurvey provides is the record behind them.
- Every finding is recorded against the room it was found in, on a floor plan of the home
- The same damp and mould form, or any other hazard form, is used in every room by every inspector, so findings are consistent and comparable
- Photographs are marked up and measured where they are taken, so the extent of a hazard is recorded rather than estimated
- Walk Cam films the whole inspection with live voice notes
- Everything works offline and syncs when back in signal
- Every entry records who captured it and when
- The inspection exports as a PDF report to base the tenant's written summary on
SiteSurvey does not track the Awaab's Law deadlines for you. See the damp and mould inspection app for how the inspection itself works.