Awaab’s Law: What Repair Contractors Need to Know

Since 27 October 2025, social landlords in England have had fixed timescales for dealing with emergency hazards and significant damp and mould hazards. The law is known as Awaab's Law, after Awaab Ishak, a two-year-old who died in 2020 after prolonged exposure to mould in his family's social rented home in Rochdale.

The duty is the landlord's. But if you carry out repairs for a council or a housing association, you will be working to their deadline, and the clock has usually started before the job reaches you.

This guide covers what the first phase of the law requires, the timescales, and what a contractor can do to help a landlord show it met them. It is not legal advice.

What the law is

Awaab's Law is section 42 of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023. It added sections 10A and 10B to the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. Section 10A makes it a term of every social housing tenancy it covers that the landlord will meet requirements set out in regulations. The Act sets no timescales itself.

Those regulations are the Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025, in force since 27 October 2025. They apply to social homes in England only.

They cover homes let by registered providers of social housing, which means councils and housing associations. Shared ownership and other low-cost home ownership, long leaseholds, and accommodation held under a licence rather than a tenancy are not covered.

Which hazards the first phase covers

• Emergency hazards: any hazard in the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), except overcrowding, that poses an imminent and significant risk of harm. That is a risk a reasonable landlord with the relevant knowledge would take steps to make safe within 24 hours.
• Significant damp and mould hazards: damp and mould that presents a significant risk of harm, meaning a risk a reasonable landlord with the relevant knowledge would act on as a matter of urgency.

It applies to reports made on or after 27 October 2025. Whether a hazard qualifies is judged by what a reasonable landlord would do, not by the landlord's own view, and landlords are told not to put condensation or mould down to the tenant's "lifestyle" without investigating.

The timescales

Emergency hazards

• Investigate, and complete the work to make the home safe, within 24 hours of becoming aware of the hazard. The 24 hours start as soon as the landlord becomes aware, not the next morning. Temporary measures that make the home safe count.

Significant hazards

• Investigate within 10 working days of becoming aware of a potential hazard.
• Tell the tenant in writing what the investigation found, within 3 working days of it concluding. The summary must be given or sent within that time. It can be skipped if all the work is finished within those 3 working days, but not when the investigation finds no hazard.
• Make the home safe within 5 working days of the investigation concluding. If the investigation finishes early, the 5 days run from then, not from the 10-day deadline.
• Start any work to stop the hazard coming back within 5 working days of the investigation concluding. Where that is not reasonably practicable, the landlord must take steps within those 5 days so that the work starts as soon as reasonably practicable, and within 12 weeks. The 12 weeks is a backstop for starting the work, not for finishing it: the work must then be finished within a reasonable time.

If the home cannot be made safe in time (24 hours for an emergency hazard, 5 working days for a significant one), the landlord must secure suitable alternative accommodation at its own cost until the safety work is done.

A working day is any day other than a Saturday, a Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday or a bank holiday in England and Wales. For the 10 working days to investigate, the day the landlord becomes aware counts as day zero, so the count starts on the next working day. The periods that run from the end of the investigation count from the day after it ends.

When the clock starts, and who answers for a missed deadline

The clock runs from when the landlord becomes aware of a potential hazard. A tenant's report to the landlord's own staff, such as a maintenance officer, counts. So by the time a job reaches a contractor, some of the time has usually gone.

The landlord keeps full legal responsibility for the timescales when it uses contractors or managing agents, because the duty is a term of the tenancy. Enforcement runs mainly through the tenant, and Awaab's Law itself creates no fines. A tenant can complain, go to the Housing Ombudsman or sue for breach of contract, and a court can order repairs, compensation and legal costs. The Regulator of Social Housing takes failures into account against its consumer standards, but does not decide individual complaints.

A landlord has a defence if it can show it "used all reasonable endeavours" to avoid the breach. The government's guidance tells landlords to keep clear records of every attempt to comply, including correspondence with tenants and contractors, access attempts, when each written summary was given, and every repair. Those records are what a landlord relies on to show it did all it reasonably could, and some of them, such as access attempts and what was found and done, come from the contractor.

What helps a landlord show it met the deadlines

Awaab's Law puts none of this on the contractor directly, though your contract with the landlord may. It is the information a landlord is likely to need from you:

• Note when you received the job and the deadline the landlord gave you, so any gap between their awareness and your instruction is on record.
• Record every access attempt: the date, the time, how you tried and what happened.
• Photograph what you found before you start, and the work when it is done. A dated photo shows the state of a room on a given day.
• Report findings the day you investigate. For a significant hazard, the landlord's deadlines for the written summary and for making the home safe run from the end of the investigation. An emergency hazard has to be investigated and made safe within 24 hours of the landlord becoming aware, so report it at once.
• Say who investigated. Investigations must be carried out by a competent investigator: someone the landlord reasonably considers has the skills, qualifications where relevant, and experience to decide whether a hazard is significant or an emergency. An investigation can sometimes be done remotely, from the tenant's photos or videos, if they are enough to decide, so say if that is how it was done.
• Record the make-safe work and the work to stop the hazard coming back separately. They have different deadlines.

What is coming next

The government is bringing Awaab's Law in by phases. Later phases add more hazards, and the plan is for every remaining HHSRS hazard except overcrowding to be covered in 2027. Check the GOV.UK Awaab's Law collection for which hazards are in force on the date you are working to.

Private renting is not covered yet. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 lets the government apply Awaab's Law to private tenancies, but no start date had been set when this was written in October 2026.

Tracking the deadlines in Field Forge

Field Forge's compliance forms and inspections can keep a deadline in front of the right person and hold much of the evidence a landlord asks you for:

• Record the hazard as a failed item on a Quick check, an inspection or a form, with a note and photos, and Field Forge offers to raise it as a corrective action with an owner, a due date and reminders. Pick the Awaab's Law emergency or significant hazard code and a deadline is set for you that the app gives no way to move: a day after you raise the action for an emergency hazard, and 10 working days after for a significant one.
• Those deadlines count from when you raise the action, not from when the landlord became aware. The 10 working days are the length of the landlord's time to investigate; once a hazard has been found, the home must be made safe within 5 working days of the investigation ending, so for an action raised from a failed item the landlord's deadline is usually well before the app's date. Field Forge also counts working days as Monday to Friday, without skipping bank holidays, Christmas Day or Good Friday. Use the app to keep the action in front of the right person, and work to the deadline the landlord gives you.
• An action can need a sign-off before it is closed.

Sources

• Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, section 42, legislation.gov.uk
• Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 10A, legislation.gov.uk
• The Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025, legislation.gov.uk
• Awaab's Law: guidance for social landlords, timeframes for repairs in the social rented sector, GOV.UK
• Awaab's Law: guidance for tenants in social housing, GOV.UK
• Awaab's Law in the social rented sector, GOV.UK collection
• Safer homes for 4m tenants with quicker action on dangerous homes, GOV.UK
• Renters' Rights Act 2025, legislation.gov.uk