Awaab’s Law: what social landlords must do about damp and mould

It’s 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. The coroner’s findings led directly to legislation.

The route in is indirect. Section 42 of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 inserted a new section 10A into the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, implying into every relevant social housing lease in England a covenant that the landlord will comply with prescribed requirements. Those requirements are set by the Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025, which came into force on 27 October 2025.

Awaab’s Law is an implied term of the tenancy. Breaching it is a breach of covenant, enforceable by the tenant in the county court.

That’s the structural point most summaries miss. This isn’t only a regulatory standard policed by the Regulator of Social Housing. It’s a contractual right the tenant holds directly, and the regulations expressly provide for specific performance as a remedy. A court can order the landlord to do the work.

Phase 1, in force since 27 October 2025, covers two categories.

• All emergency hazards, across the full range of Housing Health and Safety Rating System hazards, except those arising from overcrowding.
• Damp and mould where it presents a significant risk of harm to the health or safety of the occupier.

The regulations define the two triggers. A significant hazard is one presenting a significant risk of harm that a reasonable landlord with the relevant knowledge would take steps to make safe as a matter of urgency. An emergency hazard poses an imminent and significant risk of harm that a reasonable landlord would take steps to make safe within 24 hours: gas leaks, exposed live wiring, a total heating failure in cold weather, or mould at a level materially affecting the occupier’s health.

NoteHazards caused by overcrowding are outside Awaab’s Law at every phase.

There are two work obligations, they’re different, and both apply. Relevant safety work is what removes the significant risk of harm: treating the mould, stopping the leak, restoring the heating. Supplementary preventative work is the longer job that stops it coming back, such as replacing a failed ventilation system or dealing with a cold bridge. Only the first carries a five-day completion deadline.

The clock starts when the landlord becomes aware of the hazard, not when it gets around to logging it.

"Becoming aware" is drawn broadly. It covers a report from the tenant, but also something noticed by a contractor on another job, raised by a councillor, or written up on a gas service visit. If your operatives can see a hazard and have no way to report it, you’re already burning days.

Within 3 working days of the investigation ending, the tenant must be given a written summary of the findings. It has to say something. An acknowledgement isn’t a summary.

• Whether the investigation found a significant hazard or an emergency hazard
• What that hazard is and where it is
• What relevant safety work is needed and when it will be done
• What supplementary preventative work is needed, if any, and the expected timescale
• What the landlord will do next if no hazard was found

NoteThe summary is written. A phone call doesn’t satisfy it, and it has to reach the tenant in a form they can actually use. That matters where a tenant has a communication need or doesn’t read English.

The regulations require the landlord to secure suitable alternative accommodation for the tenant and their household, at the landlord’s expense, until the relevant safety work is complete. That obligation is unqualified by cost.

It’s the provision with the largest financial consequence. A hazard found on day two and fixed on day nine costs you the repair, and nothing more. The same hazard investigated late and still unresolved costs the repair plus temporary accommodation for a whole household, for as long as it takes.

There’s also a duty to keep the property safe after the work, and to keep the tenant updated where deadlines will be missed. Silence is itself a breach.

Phase 2 comes into force on 30 November 2026 and extends the same timescales to a much wider set of Housing Health and Safety Rating System hazards where they present a significant risk of harm. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published its Phase 2 guidance and hazards annex on 13 July 2026.

The hazard groups added in Phase 2 are:

• Excess cold and excess heat
• Falls: on the level, on stairs, from windows, and in baths
• Structural collapse and explosions
• Fire, and electrical hazards
• Domestic and personal hygiene, and food safety

Phase 3, expected in 2027, brings in the remaining HHSRS hazards other than overcrowding. In practical terms, from 30 November 2026 a large slice of ordinary reactive repairs will sit inside statutory timescales rather than a repairs policy. A broken boiler in winter. A loose stair balustrade. A failed smoke alarm.

From 30 November 2026, excess cold is an Awaab’s Law hazard. A winter heating failure is on a statutory clock.

Every deadline in the regulations runs from a moment, and every moment has to be provable. In a county court claim or a Housing Ombudsman investigation, nobody asks whether you’ve got a policy. They ask what your records show.

1. 01The date and time you became aware, and how you became aware: the report itself, in the tenant’s own words where possible.
2. 02The date the investigation happened, who did it, and what they found.
3. 03The written summary, its content, and the date it went to the tenant.
4. 04The date the relevant safety work was completed, with evidence.
5. 05The supplementary work programme and its start date.
6. 06Every update given to the tenant where a deadline moved.

NoteThe single most common evidential failure is the first one. Reports arrive by phone, by email, through a councillor and through a contractor. If only some of them reach the repairs system, the clock has been running on hazards you can’t even see.

The Reactive Maintenance module runs repairs on priority SLA targets measured from the time the repair was reported, not from the moment somebody triaged it. A report that sat unopened for two days shows as late. Damp and mould and emergency hazard are hazard categories carrying Awaab’s Law presets that override the ordinary priority mapping, so a damp report can’t be triaged onto a 28-day routine clock by accident. Every property has its own public reporting link, no login needed, so a tenant can send a photo without ringing the office.

Two honest limits. The statutory targets are stored as calendar hours rather than working days, so they don’t exclude weekends and bank holidays. That makes them tighter than the regulations rather than looser, but it isn’t the same measure. There’s no automatic breach alerting either: overdue response and overdue completion are counted across the register when you look, not emailed to you at the eleventh hour.

Reactive Maintenance is a bolt-on on top of any plan, priced to the stock you look after. Property Compliance, which tracks the landlord Big Six safety obligations per property including EICRs and gas safety records, is quoted the same way. Not all of them end in a certificate, and the register says which intervals the law fixes and which are defaults. See reactive maintenance in Estimark.