Social housing providers across the UK are already facing one of the most significant regulatory changes in decades. Awaab’s Law, introduced through the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, requires landlords to investigate and fix serious health hazards such as damp and mould within strict, legally enforceable timeframes.
The law is named after Awaab Ishak, a two-year-old who tragically died in 2020 due to prolonged exposure to mould in a social housing property. His death prompted national scrutiny of how housing providers respond to hazardous living conditions.
The first phase of Awaab’s Law came into force on 27 October 2025, covering damp, mould, and emergency hazards. Further phases — covering additional hazard categories such as fire — are expected to follow in 2026 and 2027. For housing associations and local authorities, compliance is no longer a future consideration: it is a present legal obligation.
This article explains what Awaab’s Law requires in practice and how housing providers should be responding right now.
What Is Awaab’s Law?
Awaab’s Law introduces legally enforceable timeframes for social housing landlords to address dangerous living conditions. These hazards fall under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), which assesses risks to tenants’ health and safety within residential properties.
Under the rules now in force, housing providers must:
- Investigate reported hazards within 10 working days
- Provide written findings to tenants within 3 working days of completing that investigation
- Begin remedial works within 5 working days of the investigation (or within 12 weeks where delays are unavoidable)
- Address emergency hazards within 24 hours
- Maintain clear records of all actions taken
- Communicate progress with tenants throughout the process
Failure to meet these obligations could lead to enforcement action from the Regulator of Social Housing.
Why Awaab’s Law Changes Day-to-Day Housing Management
Many housing providers already have maintenance processes for dealing with property issues. However, Awaab’s Law introduces a much higher level of accountability and transparency — with specific, measurable deadlines attached to each stage.
Instead of responding to issues through standard maintenance workflows, providers must now have systems that can demonstrate:
- When a problem was reported
- When inspections took place
- What evidence was gathered
- Which actions were assigned
- When the issue was resolved
In effect, housing providers must be able to prove they acted quickly and appropriately — within defined timeframes that are now legally binding.
This shift aligns with broader regulatory changes introduced following the Building Safety Act 2022, where digital documentation and traceability have become central to compliance.
The Scale of the Challenge
The urgency behind Awaab’s Law reflects the widespread nature of housing hazards in the UK. Data from the English Housing Survey highlights that hundreds of thousands of homes across all tenures have serious damp problems, with social housing properties among those most affected.
However, the real issue is often not the presence of damp itself, but how quickly and effectively it is addressed. Investigations into housing conditions across the UK have repeatedly found:
- Delayed responses to tenant complaints
- Poor record-keeping on inspections and repairs
- Lack of communication between housing teams and contractors
Awaab’s Law is designed to address these operational failures with enforceable standards.
What Housing Providers Need to Do Now
With the first phase already in force, housing providers that have not yet adapted their operations need to act urgently. There are five key areas to address.
1. Faster Hazard Identification
Providers must have processes that ensure tenant reports are logged, prioritised, and investigated within 10 working days. This means improving how housing teams capture information, including:
- Photographic evidence of hazards
- Location details within properties
- Time and date of inspections
- Follow-up actions required
Without structured documentation, it becomes difficult to demonstrate compliance within the required timeframes.
2. Clear Inspection and Repair Workflows
Awaab’s Law requires that hazards are not left unresolved. Written findings must follow within 3 working days of inspection, and remedial works must begin within 5 working days. Housing providers should establish defined workflows covering:
- Initial hazard assessment
- Inspection scheduling
- Repair task assignment
- Completion verification
These workflows must be consistent across housing officers, maintenance teams, and external contractors.
3. Stronger Evidence and Audit Trails
Documentation is critical under the new regulations. Housing providers must be able to show a clear timeline of events, from tenant report to final resolution, within the prescribed deadlines.
This means keeping records such as:
- Inspection photos
- Site notes and observations
- Communication logs
- Completion reports
Digital systems can help ensure this information is captured automatically and stored securely, creating a reliable audit trail if investigations occur.
4. Better Communication with Tenants
Transparency with residents is a central principle of Awaab’s Law. The written findings requirement — to be delivered within 3 working days of inspection — makes formal tenant communication a legal obligation, not a courtesy.
Tenants should be able to understand:
- When their complaint has been received
- What action will be taken and within what timeframe
- When repairs will be completed
Clear communication reduces frustration and ensures residents remain informed throughout the process.
5. Greater Oversight Across Housing Portfolios
For housing associations managing thousands of properties, leadership teams also need portfolio-level visibility to ensure the 24-hour emergency response and other deadlines are being met consistently. This includes insight into:
- Outstanding hazards across housing stock
- Response times to tenant complaints
- Inspection and repair performance against legal deadlines
Without this level of oversight, identifying systemic failures — and avoiding enforcement action — becomes difficult.
How Digital Tools Are Becoming Essential
To meet the operational demands of Awaab’s Law, many housing providers are digitising their inspection and maintenance processes. Digital platforms allow teams to:
- Capture inspection evidence directly on site
- Assign repair tasks instantly
- Track progress across properties
- Generate reports showing response timelines against legal deadlines
By centralising documentation and communication, housing providers can reduce administrative delays while maintaining a clear compliance record. For organisations managing large property portfolios, this kind of digital oversight is no longer optional — it is essential for meeting current regulatory requirements.
Acting Now
Awaab’s Law is not a future concern — for damp, mould, and emergency hazards, it is already the law. Housing providers that have not yet built compliant processes are already at risk of enforcement action.
Key steps to take immediately include:
- Auditing current maintenance response times against the new legal deadlines
- Improving hazard reporting processes to ensure 10-working-day investigation targets are met
- Standardising inspection documentation and written findings
- Introducing digital systems for tracking repairs and demonstrating compliance
- Preparing for further phases covering additional hazard categories in 2026 and 2027
Ultimately, the goal of Awaab’s Law is straightforward: no tenant should have to live in unsafe conditions while waiting for action. For housing providers, the challenge is building operational systems that ensure hazards are addressed quickly, transparently, and within legally defined timeframes.
Those that succeed will not only meet their regulatory obligations but also strengthen trust with residents and demonstrate a genuine commitment to safe, healthy homes.
Book a demo with the PlanRadar Team to find out how our platform can help you handle the extra workload that Awaab’s Law brings.
