Awaab’s Law: what social landlords must do in England

Direct answer. Awaab’s Law gives social landlords in England fixed timescales to investigate and make safe certain hazards. As at 5 October 2026, Phase 1 covers all emergency hazards and significant damp and mould hazards. An emergency hazard must be investigated and the relevant safety work completed as soon as reasonably practicable and within 24 hours of the landlord becoming aware. A potential significant damp and mould hazard must generally be investigated within 10 working days; if confirmed, relevant safety work must be completed within 5 working days after the investigation concludes. The landlord may also have duties to send a written summary, plan preventative work, update the tenant and arrange suitable alternative accommodation if the safety work cannot be completed on time. The detailed legal tests and exceptions matter: do not apply a simple timer to every mould report without triage. MHCLG Phase 1 guidance; government overview.

This is a practical workflow guide for an English social housing landlord, repairs manager or asset/compliance team. It is not a statement that the same statutory timetable already applies to private landlords, or to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Those owners have other repairing and housing duties, but the jurisdiction must be checked separately. Read the regulations and current government guidance for a live case; seek specialist advice when classification, access or a disputed deadline affects a household.

Start with the right scope and date

The Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025 took effect on 27 October 2025. Phase 1 covers emergency hazards regardless of type and significant hazards caused by damp, mould or fungal growth. A serious electrical fault, for example, may fall within the emergency route even though the current significant-hazard route is confined to damp and mould. A report of mould is not automatically a statutory significant hazard, but it must be assessed promptly and with the household’s circumstances in view. MHCLG Phase 1 guidance.

The government says Phase 2 begins on 30 November 2026, extending the significant-hazard requirements to specified additional hazards, including excess cold and heat, falls, structural collapse, fire, explosions, electrical hazards and domestic hygiene. On this article’s verification date that is a future change, not an already operative Phase 1 duty. The current Phase 1 guidance remains effective until 11:59pm on 29 November 2026; the government has separately published Phase 2 guidance. Any publication or later revision close to that commencement date needs a same-day check of the current rules and page date. MHCLG Awaab’s Law collection.

Social landlords should also avoid collapsing this law into every other housing obligation. An issue outside the Phase 1 Awaab’s Law timetable may still call for action under disrepair, fitness, building safety, tenancy, consumer-standard or local-authority requirements. “Out of this timetable” does not mean “safe to ignore”. Conversely, a later preventative repair can have a different deadline from the immediate work needed to make the home safe.

Build a reliable point-of-awareness record

The operational clock depends on when the landlord becomes aware of a potential hazard. Reports can arrive through more than a dedicated repairs form: a tenant, advocate, councillor, contractor, housing officer, complaints team or other route may provide information. Record the time, channel, address, reported condition, photos, affected rooms, who lives there and any immediate health or safety concern. The workflow should avoid a report being stranded in an inbox because it did not use a preferred channel. MHCLG Phase 1 guidance: awareness and triage.

Gather enough facts to prioritise safely, without making the tenant prove a diagnosis before a response. Ask whether electricity, structural failure, heating loss or other immediate danger is involved; whether children, disabled residents or others may be particularly vulnerable; and whether the household can safely occupy the affected space. Keep the tenant’s account alongside photographs and inspection results. A call handler can escalate an apparent emergency, but classification and the work plan need appropriate professional judgement. A digital category such as “mould complaint” is an input, not a lawful finding by itself.

For portfolio teams, establish a named duty owner and out-of-hours escalation route. If an emergency arrives at night, a queue that is only reviewed in office hours can consume most of the 24-hour window. Record who accepted the case and when each handoff occurred. A contractor’s attendance alone does not prove the hazard was investigated or that the home was made safe.

Distinguish emergency from significant damp and mould

An emergency hazard is one where action is needed within 24 hours under the regulatory test. The investigation and relevant safety work must both be completed as soon as reasonably practicable and within 24 hours of awareness. This does not necessarily mean a permanent repair is completed in one day; the immediate requirement is to make the property safe, with further preventative work handled under its own rules. If safety work cannot be done in the statutory time, suitable alternative accommodation must be secured for the household at the landlord’s expense. The exact route should follow the regulations and guidance, not a generic “urgent repair” priority label. Government overview; Phase 1 guidance.

For a potential significant damp and mould hazard, the standard investigation must usually be completed within 10 working days of awareness. The person investigating should consider the cause, extent, impact on the actual occupants and work needed to make the home safe and prevent recurrence. The guidance explains circumstances for remote investigation, tenant requests for an in-person investigation and further investigation; these should be handled under the relevant rule rather than stretching the standard deadline informally. If a significant hazard is found, relevant safety work must be completed within 5 working days of the investigation concluding. Phase 1 guidance: investigation and safety work.

Example. A resident reports widespread mould in a bedroom used by a child with a respiratory condition. The landlord logs awareness, triages the health information, appoints a competent investigator and considers whether the information suggests an emergency rather than simply allocating the case to a routine ten-day inspection queue. A visit may find a leak behind a wall: the immediate safety work and any temporary accommodation decision must address current exposure, while investigation of the leak and lasting repair may require coordinated follow-on work. Do not assume that painting over mould is a sufficient control.

Communicate findings, action and remaining risk

Where regulation 9 applies, the landlord must give the tenant a written summary of investigation findings within 3 working days beginning on the day after the investigation is completed. The regulation contains an exception where the investigation identifies required work and that work is completed within the same three-working-day period. Check this exception against the facts rather than assuming a summary is always or never needed. The summary should make the finding and next actions intelligible to the tenant, including whether a significant or emergency hazard was identified and what work is planned. Use a format the household can access. Keep a copy and evidence of dispatch, and record any telephone explanation or translation support. A standard letter with the wrong room, dates or hazard category can be worse than a short accurate case-specific statement. Regulation 9; Phase 1 guidance: written summary.

The landlord must keep the tenant updated throughout the process and explain how to stay safe where the unsafe premises is not vacated. Do not make communication a one-off letter followed by silence while a contractor is booked. If work is delayed, describe the interim measures, revised plan and accommodation decision. Make sure the complaints team and housing officer see the same case status as the repairs team, subject to appropriate access controls for health information.

The law also requires work to prevent a significant or emergency hazard recurring. The landlord must begin, or take steps to begin, supplementary preventative work within 5 working days of the investigation concluding. If it cannot begin in that period, it must begin as soon as reasonably practicable and within 12 weeks; completion must be within a reasonable time. Document why a delayed start is necessary, who owns the next step and what temporary protection remains. Government overview.

Treat access and contractor coordination as case management

Access problems require careful handling. Record proposed appointments, the resident’s response, barriers such as work or disability, and reasonable attempts to arrange a workable inspection. The government guidance covers a limited defence where compliance was not possible because of tenant action or inaction; it is not a blanket extension whenever an appointment is missed. Do not retrospectively label a case “no access” without evidence of what was offered and what alternatives were considered. Escalate disputed access promptly. Phase 1 guidance: defence.

Where specialists are needed, brief them on the hazard, household circumstances, the relevant clock, safe access and the information you need back. Ask for findings and photographic evidence, not just an attendance timestamp. A contractor may make the property safe temporarily but leave a structural or ventilation cause unresolved; the case owner must distinguish immediate safety work from preventative repair. The statutory landlord duty is not transferred merely by issuing a work order. That is especially important when several teams control survey, repairs, decant, insurance and resident communication.

Set up an exception path for a missed slot or a contractor who cannot make the property safe. Confirm the current hazard, recheck whether the home can be occupied and arrange suitable alternative accommodation where required. The property team should not wait for a weekly performance report to discover that a statutory window was missed. An audit trail should tell the sequence honestly, including failed visits and changes of classification.

Keep the evidence useful, proportionate and secure

A practical case record should connect: first awareness; source report and household impact; triage and decision maker; investigation time and findings; any revised classification; tenant summary and updates; safety work order, attendance and completion evidence; alternative accommodation decision; root cause and supplementary preventative work; review date; and closure sign-off. Timestamp changes without overwriting the earlier account. Distinguish the date a contractor was booked from the date the safety work was actually finished.

Sensitive health or household information deserves restricted access and an appropriate retention policy. Record enough to understand vulnerability and decisions, without turning a repair record into an uncontrolled medical file. The ICO’s UK GDPR guidance helps organisations assess data protection duties; case-specific handling should follow the landlord’s privacy and information-governance process.

At a portfolio level, use overdue and repeat-hazard reviews to find system problems: cases routed to the wrong queue, repeat mould after cosmetic treatment, long gaps between safety and preventative work, or letters generated before an investigation was actually complete. A dashboard should prompt accountable action, not stand in for the underlying evidence. Review contractor capacity and out-of-hours response before a surge in winter reports; the legal clock runs from awareness, not from a convenient procurement date.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Applying Phase 2 early or ignoring it until commencement day. Keep today’s Phase 1 scope clear while preparing processes for 30 November 2026.
• Calling every damp patch a significant hazard, or none of them one. The proper assessment considers the actual condition and household.
• Resetting the awareness time when a report moves between teams. Keep the earliest credible awareness record and the later handoffs.
• Treating “visit booked” as “investigation completed”. Capture findings and the time the investigation concluded.
• Conflating immediate safety work with lasting repair. Track both obligations and the tenant’s safety between them.
• Treating an inaccessible property as an automatic defence. Keep evidence of attempts and apply the actual regulatory criteria.
• Using a generic repair ticket as the entire written summary. The tenant needs a clear, case-specific communication.

The existing Complys social housing page is the commercial destination for teams evaluating a compliance workflow. The landlord compliance page addresses broader portfolio obligations, many of them in the private rented sector; it should not replace this social-landlord legal guide. Ask Complys to demonstrate the deployed case, task, evidence and communication workflow relevant to your team before relying on any advertised functionality. This article does not claim the product legally classifies a hazard, calculates every Awaab’s Law deadline or guarantees compliance.

Source and claim register — checked 5 October 2026