Awaab’s Law: Raising Standards Across the Rental Sector

In December 2020, two-year-old Awaab Ishak tragically died after prolonged exposure to mould in his family’s housing association flat in Rochdale. The coroner concluded that his death was the direct result of damp and mould conditions in the property, and the case sparked widespread public concern about the way landlords manage housing hazards. It also revealed systemic failings, relating to complaints being dismissed as “lifestyle issues,” slow response times, and a lack of clear legal duties for landlords to act promptly.

The Government’s response was to introduce Awaab’s Law through the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, creating statutory timeframes for investigating and remedying damp and mould hazards. Awaab’s Law will apply to all registered social housing providers from October 2025, marking a step change in landlord obligations. But its significance extends beyond the social housing sector. The Renters’ Rights Bill now going through Parliament includes provisions to extend similar requirements to the private rented sector (PRS), meaning landlords, investors and managing agents across student housing (PBSA) and build-to-rent will soon need to meet the same standards.

For surveyors, landlords and asset managers, the message is clear, the handling of damp and mould is no longer a matter of discretionary good practice. It is becoming a legally enforceable duty, with consequences for compliance, asset management and resident health.

What Awaab’s Law Requires

For the first time, housing providers will be subject to statutory deadlines for responding to damp and mould hazards, transforming what was once guidance into a legal duty. Draft regulations published in 2024 set out specific deadlines, where an issue is judged to pose a serious risk to health or safety, landlords must act within 24 hours to make the hazard safe. In less urgent cases, reports of damp and mould must be investigated within 10 working days, with written findings communicated to the tenant within a further 3 working days. If repairs are required, works must be started within 5 working days, and more extensive works must physically commence within 12 weeks. Where conditions are severe enough to make a property temporarily uninhabitable, landlords will also be responsible for providing suitable alternative accommodation.

Compliance will be enforced both through the courts, where tenants may seek remedies for breach of tenancy obligations, and by the Regulator of Social Housing. In practice, Awaab’s Law means that social landlords must overhaul their inspection, repairs and record-keeping systems. They will need processes in place to triage hazards quickly, mobilise contractors at short notice, document investigations and decisions, and communicate clearly with residents. The emphasis is shifting from reactive maintenance towards proactive risk management, ensuring that housing stock not only meets the Decent Homes Standard but can withstand increasing regulatory scrutiny.

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How Awaab’s Law Fits Into the Wider Regulatory Landscape

Although Awaab’s Law introduces new statutory deadlines, it does not exist in isolation. Its requirements build directly on the broader framework of housing regulation in England, and landlords will need to align their compliance systems with several overlapping standards.

At the national level, the Regulator of Social Housing’s Consumer Standards provide the foundation. Updated in April 2024, these standards require registered providers to ensure that tenants live in safe, well-maintained homes, supported by accurate stock condition data and responsive repairs systems. The new Safety and Quality Standard in particular makes explicit reference to timely repairs and the elimination of serious hazards. Awaab’s Law complements these requirements by introducing measurable time limits, making it far easier for regulators and tenants to determine whether a landlord is in breach.

Health guidance also plays a critical role. The UK Health Security Agency and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) also published consolidated advice highlighting the significant health risks of exposure, particularly for children, older adults and those with respiratory conditions. It underlines the need for landlords to treat damp and mould as urgent hazards rather than minor defects.

Cultural change is another essential part of the framework. The Housing Ombudsman has repeatedly highlighted that landlords must stop attributing damp and mould to tenant “lifestyle” factors such as cooking or drying clothes indoors. Its thematic reports emphasise that these conditions are almost always linked to the building fabric, ventilation and heating systems, and must be addressed as such. Awaab’s Law gives statutory weight to that principle, creating a direct legal incentive for landlords to investigate and remediate rather than deflect responsibility.

For surveyors, asset managers and compliance officers, the interaction between these frameworks means that Awaab’s Law cannot be managed as a standalone obligation. It requires integration with existing compliance programmes, from stock condition surveys to repairs and maintenance scheduling, and from tenant communications to board-level reporting. Effective landlords will view it not as an additional burden, but as part of a wider shift towards proactive asset management and resilience, ensuring their housing stock is safe, sustainable and legally defensible.

What Awaab’s Law Means for the Private Rented Sector and PBSA

Although Awaab’s Law will first apply to social landlords, the Government has already signalled its intention to extend the same protections to the private rented sector (PRS). The forthcoming Renters’ Rights Bill, currently progressing through Parliament, contains provisions that would apply Awaab’s Law–style duties to private landlords and letting agents. If enacted in its current form, this would mean that the same statutory timeframes for investigation and repair of damp and mould hazards would apply across both social and private tenures.

For the PRS, this marks a significant shift. At present, obligations are largely enforced through the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) and through tenants bringing claims under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018. Both frameworks give local authorities and tenants the ability to pursue enforcement, but they do not set specific deadlines for landlords to act. By contrast, Awaab’s Law will create statutory performance targets with enforceable timeframes, raising the compliance bar considerably. Landlords will need to demonstrate robust processes for logging complaints, triaging hazards, mobilising contractors, and keeping evidence records that show legal deadlines have been met.

The implications are particularly important for the PBSA (purpose-built student accommodation) sector, which often operates on licence agreements rather than assured shorthold tenancies. The Government has confirmed that consultation will take place on how Awaab’s Law should apply to accommodation outside the traditional tenancy model, including student housing. Early indications suggest that PBSA will be expected to meet the same standards of investigation and response, given the vulnerability of student populations to poor housing conditions and the reputational risks for providers.

For PBSA operators, there is already a strong benchmark in the ANUK/Unipol National Codes, which require compliance with government guidance on damp and mould and mandate prompt responses to health and safety issues. In practice, Awaab’s Law is likely to align closely with these expectations, but it will add the weight of legal enforcement. Providers who are already Code-compliant will be in a stronger position, but they too will need to review record-keeping, contractor capacity, and resident communication protocols to ensure statutory timeframes can be met.

The message for both private landlords and PBSA operators is clear: Awaab’s Law is not just a social housing issue. It represents a wider cultural and regulatory shift in how housing conditions are managed across the rental market. Surveyors, managing agents and investors in the PRS and student sectors should be preparing now, embedding robust damp and mould protocols into compliance frameworks before the legislation formally extends beyond the social sector.

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Diagnosing Damp and Mould and Evidencing Compliance

Meeting the requirements of Awaab’s Law will depend not only on responding within strict timeframes, but also on demonstrating that investigations are thorough and evidence-based. For landlords and surveyors, this means adopting a more structured approach to the diagnosis of damp and mould, ensuring that underlying causes are properly addressed rather than treated with superficial fixes.

The Government’s draft guidance makes clear that landlords must distinguish between an emergency hazard, where immediate action is required within 24 hours, and a significant hazard, which must be investigated within 10 working days. To do this effectively, surveyors will need robust triage systems that capture the nature of the complaint, any evidence of health impacts, and whether vulnerable residents are involved.

Technical assessment remains critical. Damp and mould can arise from a range of building pathology issues, including penetrating damp from defective gutters or roofs, rising damp due to failed damp-proof courses, or interstitial condensation linked to inadequate insulation and ventilation.

Surveyors should therefore ensure that investigations include objective measures: moisture readings, thermal imaging to identify cold bridges, checks on ventilation performance, and photographic evidence of affected areas. Findings must be recorded and communicated in writing to residents within three working days of the inspection outcome, as required by the draft regulations.

Equally important is the evidence trail. Landlords will need to demonstrate not just that hazards were investigated and rectified, but that every step was completed within the statutory timeframe. This requires time-stamped logs of when complaints were received, inspections carried out, works instructed and completed, and confirmation that hazards were removed. Such records will be vital both for internal assurance and in the event of regulatory scrutiny or legal challenge.

In this way, Awaab’s Law pushes landlords towards a more professionalised, forensic approach to housing condition management. For surveyors, it elevates their role as the key technical experts who can identify root causes, specify effective remedies, and provide the evidence base that underpins compliance.

Service Design and Operational Readiness

Awaab’s Law is not simply about setting new timescales; it requires landlords to redesign the way their housing services operate so that statutory deadlines can be met consistently. This shift will be most challenging for organisations that have historically relied on reactive repairs models, as the law demands an end-to-end system capable of triaging hazards, mobilising resources and recording outcomes with precision.

At the front end, landlords will need a robust intake process to ensure that reports of damp and mould are logged accurately and flagged according to risk. Where significant hazards are identified, the law also requires landlords to provide alternative accommodation if residents cannot safely remain in their homes while works are carried out. This raises operational questions about decant protocols, resident support, and coordination with local authorities or partner agencies.

Equally important is the communication strategy. The draft regulations stipulate that landlords must provide written findings within three working days of completing an investigation. Templates and processes will need to be developed so that residents receive clear, plain-English updates on what was found, what works are planned, and the timeline for completion.

Finally, every stage of the process must be supported by record-keeping and monitoring systems. Digital case management platforms will be essential to track deadlines, store time-stamped evidence, and produce audit trails for regulators or the courts. Landlords that cannot evidence compliance will remain at risk, even if works are carried out.

In short, Awaab’s Law demands a cultural and operational shift: from ad-hoc responses to a systematic, process-driven service designed around statutory obligations. For surveyors and asset managers, this means working closely with housing providers to design workflows, specify performance standards and ensure that organisational structures are capable of delivering compliance in practice.

Governance, Risk, and Enforcement Exposure

The introduction of Awaab’s Law raises the stakes for housing providers by making the management of damp and mould a matter of legal compliance rather than good practice. This brings with it new governance responsibilities, regulatory oversight, and enforcement risks that landlords cannot afford to ignore. Landlords that fall short face the prospect of regulatory downgrade, reputational damage and, in the most serious cases, intervention or enforcement action.

For individual tenants, the law provides a new pathway to legal redress. Failure to meet statutory deadlines will constitute a breach of the tenancy agreement, giving tenants the right to pursue enforcement through the courts. This sits alongside existing routes under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, meaning landlords could now face parallel claims based on both habitability and statutory non-compliance. The costs of litigation, compensation awards and legal fees could be substantial, particularly if landlords cannot evidence compliance.

The Housing Ombudsman will also continue to play a critical role. Its thematic reports have highlighted systemic failings in landlord responses to damp and mould, and its decisions increasingly reference whether providers demonstrate learning from previous complaints. Non-compliance with Awaab’s Law may therefore lead not only to legal action but also to Ombudsman findings that carry reputational and financial consequences.

From a governance perspective, boards and executive teams must treat Awaab’s Law as a strategic risk. Compliance cannot be delegated solely to frontline staff; it requires board-level oversight, clear performance metrics, and assurance mechanisms to track whether statutory deadlines are being met. Many landlords are already beginning to develop key performance indicators covering the proportion of damp and mould cases triaged within 24 hours, the percentage of investigations completed within 10 working days, and the rate of repeat defects. Regular board reporting on these indicators will be essential both to satisfy regulators and to provide confidence that risks are under control.

In essence, Awaab’s Law reframes damp and mould as a compliance and governance issue, not just a technical or operational one. Landlords that fail to adapt will face regulatory sanction, legal liability, and reputational harm. Those that succeed will demonstrate not only compliance but also leadership in protecting resident health and ensuring housing resilience.

Awaab’s Law – From Compliance to Resilience

Awaab’s Law marks a turning point in housing regulation. By setting statutory deadlines for addressing damp and mould, it moves landlord obligations from discretionary good practice into the realm of enforceable legal duty. For social landlords, compliance will be mandatory from October 2025. For private landlords and PBSA providers, similar requirements are on the horizon through the Renters’ Rights Bill.

For surveyors, asset managers and housing providers, the implications are clear. Damp and mould can no longer be treated as routine defects; they must be managed as health and safety hazards with strict response times, robust evidence trails and clear governance oversight. Meeting the requirements will demand investment, better diagnostics, stronger contractor capacity and clear communication with residents.

Yet Awaab’s Law also offers an opportunity. By embedding risk-based inspection, proactive maintenance and long-term asset improvements into their strategies, landlords can not only comply with the law but also build healthier, safer and more resilient homes. For the property sector, this is not just a matter of regulation, it is a matter of reputation, trust and long-term value.

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At Kingswood Real Estate Advisory, we work with landlords, investors and operators to navigate these changes. From compliance frameworks and risk-based surveys to long-term asset resilience strategies, our team helps ensure portfolios are both legally robust and future-ready. To explore how we can support your organisation, please get in touch.

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