The Complete Guide to Awaab's Law

If you manage repairs at a UK social housing provider, Awaab's Law has changed the rules. Since 27 October 2025, every hazard report your team receives starts a set of legally binding deadlines — and missing them can increase the risk of Housing Ombudsman complaints, Regulator of Social Housing intervention, and disrepair litigation.

This guide covers every deadline, every phase, and the practical details (like working-day calculations and bank holidays) that determine whether you're compliant or exposed.

The Deadlines at a Glance

Awaab's Law — formally the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, Section 42, implemented through the Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025 — sets these timescales:

Deadline	Timescale	Starts from
Emergency hazard: investigate and make safe	24 hours	Landlord becomes aware
Investigation (significant damp/mould)	10 working days	Hazard reported
Written summary to tenant	3 working days	Investigation concluding
Safety works complete	5 working days	Investigation concluding
Supplementary preventative works begin	5 working days	Investigation concluding
Supplementary works — physical start	12 weeks	Investigation concluding

Need the exact dates for a specific case? Use the free deadline calculator — it accounts for weekends and bank holidays automatically.

Phase 1: Damp, Mould, and Emergency Hazards (October 2025)

Phase 1 has been in force since 27 October 2025. (For a quick status check on which phases are live and the key dates, see Is Awaab's Law in force?.) It covers two categories:

Emergency hazards — dangerous electrical faults, damaged external doors or windows, major leaks, and any hazard posing an imminent risk. These must be investigated and made safe within 24 hours of the landlord becoming aware. The 24-hour deadline runs on calendar hours, not working days.

Significant damp and mould — the hazard type that led to the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in Rochdale in 2020, and the reason this legislation exists. The timescales are:

1. Investigate within 10 working days of the report. This means an inspection, not just an acknowledgement.
2. Written summary to the tenant within 3 working days of the investigation concluding. This must include the findings and what action will be taken.
3. Safety works completed within 5 working days of the investigation concluding. The property must be made safe — this is the immediate fix.
4. Supplementary preventative works must begin (steps taken, e.g. contacting contractors) within 5 working days, with physical work starting on-site within 12 weeks at the latest.

If the property cannot be made safe within these timescales, the GOV.UK guidance states that the landlord should offer suitable alternative accommodation at their own expense until the tenant can safely return.

What counts as "significant"?

A damp and mould hazard is significant if it presents a risk of harm to the health or safety of the tenant. This is assessed against the HHSRS framework under the Housing Act 2004. In practice, most reported damp and mould cases will meet this threshold — if a tenant reports visible mould growth or persistent damp, treat it as significant until the investigation confirms otherwise.

Phase 2: In Force from 30 November 2026

Phase 2 extends Awaab's Law to a further set of HHSRS hazard descriptions from 30 November 2026. Regulation 1 of the draft Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 states: "These Regulations come into force on 30th November 2026." The GOV.UK collection gives the same date: "Phase 2 will come into force on 30 November 2026". For a detailed breakdown of what's changing and how to prepare, see Awaab's Law Phase 2: What's Changing in 2026.

The collection lists the Phase 2 hazards verbatim as "excess cold, excess heat, falls on the level (including falls on the level, falls on stairs, etc, and falls between levels), structural collapse, fire and explosions, electrical hazards, domestic hygiene (including personal hygiene and food safety)". Those map onto Schedule 1 as amended through reg 3(3)(c)(ii) of the draft instrument, which names "paragraph 2, 3, 14A, 18A, 21, 22, 23, 23A or 29 of Schedule 1" alongside damp and mould growths:

• Excess cold (para 2) and excess heat (para 3)
• Falls on the level (para 18A) — including falls associated with baths, showers and toilets
• Falling on stairs etc (para 21) and falling between levels (para 22)
• Electrical hazards (para 23)
• Fire and explosions (para 23A) — subject to the excluded-fire-hazard carve-out below
• Domestic hygiene, including personal hygiene and food safety (para 14A)
• Structural collapse and falling elements (para 29)

Paragraphs 14A, 18A and 23A are the consolidated descriptions inserted by SI 2026/571 on 23 June 2026. The retired names — "falls associated with baths etc", "falling on level surfaces etc", "food safety", "personal hygiene, sanitation and drainage", "fire", "explosions" — now sit inside them. Note in particular that explosions merged with fire under para 23A; they are not part of structural collapse.

⚠️ "Fire and explosions" is partly carved out. Reg 3(3)(b) of the draft instrument defines an "excluded fire hazard" as fire risk that "arises from a deficiency in a FSO-regulated part of a building that contains two or more sets of domestic premises", and 3(3)(c)(i) puts it outside the definition of "relevant hazard". Communal fire hazards in blocks of flats go to the Responsible Person under the Fire Safety Order; fire hazards inside an individual flat or home remain in scope.

The Phase 1 timescales carry into Phase 2 unchanged — 10 working days for investigation, 5 working days for safety works, 3 working days for the written summary. The amending instrument was still in draft and had not been made as a UK Statutory Instrument as at this update, so confirm its current status on GOV.UK before relying on it formally.

Use the Phase Checker tool to look up any HHSRS hazard and see which phase covers it.

What this means for your caseload

Phase 2 is the step change. A housing provider that currently only needs to track damp and mould deadlines will suddenly need to track deadlines for falls (the most common cause of home injuries), fire safety, electrical hazards, and cold-related risks. For illustration, if you manage 200 open repair cases and a significant proportion involve Phase 2 hazards, that could mean dozens of additional cases with statutory deadlines — all tracked against working-day rules.

Phase 3: Remaining HHSRS Hazards (no commencement date set)

Phase 3 extends the timescale requirements to the remaining HHSRS hazard descriptions except overcrowding. The GOV.UK collection says only that "Phase 3 will extend requirements to the remaining Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) hazards, excluding overcrowding". No commencement date has been set; the Phase 1 landlord guidance said Phase 3 would follow in 2027, and the Phase 2 guidance gives no year. This includes:

• Asbestos and MMF (para 4)
• Indoor Air Pollutants (para 4A — the consolidated description now covering biocides, carbon monoxide and other combustion products, uncombusted fuel gas and volatile organic compounds)
• Lead (para 7) and Radiation (para 8)
• Entry by intruders (para 12)
• Lighting (para 13) and Noise (para 14)
• Water supply (para 18)
• Flames, hot surfaces etc (para 25)
• Collisions, Entrapment and Ergonomics (para 25A — the consolidated description now covering collision and entrapment, and the position and operability of amenities)

(These are the post-June-2026 Schedule 1 descriptions. If you hold a list using the pre-consolidation names, see HHSRS hazards and Awaab's Law Phase 2 for what moved where.)

After Phase 3, every hazard report across the full HHSRS spectrum will trigger statutory deadlines.

Working-Day Rules: Where Spreadsheets Get It Wrong

Most of the statutory deadlines under Awaab's Law run on working days, not calendar days. A working day is any day that is not:

• A Saturday or Sunday
• An England and Wales bank holiday

This matters more than it sounds. A hazard reported on a Wednesday before a bank holiday weekend could have a deadline that falls several calendar days later than a quick mental calculation suggests. For example:

Scenario: A damp report comes in on Wednesday 22 April 2026. The investigation deadline is 10 working days. The report day counts as day zero — the first working day after that is day one.

Counting forward: day 1 is Thursday 23 April. You skip the weekend (25-26 April), skip the early May bank holiday (4 May), and skip the next weekend (2-3 May). The 10th working day falls on Thursday 7 May — 15 calendar days later, not 10.

Multiply that complexity across 50-200 open cases and you can see why spreadsheets — which cannot automatically calculate working days across bank holiday periods — are a common source of compliance failures.

What Happens If You Miss a Deadline

Non-compliance is not hypothetical. The Housing Ombudsman made 7,082 determinations in 2024-25 — a 30% year-on-year increase — with 714 findings of severe maladministration. Housing disrepair claims have risen significantly since pre-pandemic levels.

Missing an Awaab's Law deadline can lead to:

• Housing Ombudsman investigation — a formal determination that becomes publicly available. Many landlords had high maladministration rates in 2024-25.
• Regulator of Social Housing intervention — the RSH can issue regulatory notices, require improvement plans, and in serious cases restrict a provider's activities.
• Disrepair litigation — tenants (or solicitors acting on their behalf) can bring legal claims for compensation. The rise in no-win-no-fee disrepair claims means even a single missed deadline can result in legal costs.
• Reputational damage — the Housing Ombudsman publishes all decisions. A pattern of missed deadlines becomes a public record.

The key defence is a complete audit trail: dated evidence showing when the hazard was reported, when the investigation happened, when safety works were completed, and what communications were sent to the tenant. Without this trail, you cannot demonstrate compliance even if you met the deadlines.

How to Track Compliance Across Your Caseload

The three free tools on this site can help you manage individual cases right now:

1. Deadline Calculator — enter the hazard type and report date, get every statutory deadline with working-day adjustments.
2. Phase Checker — look up any HHSRS hazard to see which phase it falls under and when the deadlines apply.
3. Compliance Checklist — work through the case lifecycle from report to closure and export a PDF for your records.

For a framework tailored to smaller providers evaluating their systems, see How Small Housing Associations Can Comply Without Enterprise Software. For a plain-English overview of the regulation written for housing officers, see Awaab's Law Guidance: A Plain-English Summary for Housing Officers. If you are evaluating software options, the buyer's checklist for compliance software covers the features that actually matter.

For the operational walkthrough of each deadline stage from awareness to closure, see our step-by-step guide to complying with Awaab's Law. For the detail on which hazards Phase 2 adds and how to prepare for them, see our guide to Awaab's Law Phase 2 hazard categories.

If you're wondering whether this applies outside of social housing — particularly whether Awaab's Law applies to private landlords — see our dedicated guide on the current scope. Managing agents have their own preparation list — see how managing agents can prepare in the private rented sector.

For individual cases, these tools replace the manual working-day calculations that cause errors. For managing a full caseload of 50-200 cases simultaneously — with automated countdown alerts, team notifications, and an evidence trail — that is what HazardClock is built to do.

Join the waitlist to get early access when HazardClock launches.

Key Takeaways

• Awaab's Law sets legally binding repair timescales for all registered providers of social housing in England.
• Phase 1 (damp/mould and emergencies) is in force now. Phase 2 comes into force on 30 November 2026, adding a further set of HHSRS hazard categories. Phase 3 (the remaining HHSRS hazards except overcrowding) has no commencement date set — the Phase 1 guidance said 2027; the Phase 2 guidance gives no year.
• Deadlines run on working days — excluding weekends and bank holidays. Manual calculation across a full caseload is error-prone.
• Non-compliance triggers Ombudsman investigations, regulatory action, and disrepair litigation. A complete audit trail is your best defence.
• Start with the free deadline calculator for individual cases. For caseload-wide tracking, join the HazardClock waitlist.

This is general guidance for UK social housing providers, not legal advice. Regulations may change — always confirm deadlines against the latest GOV.UK guidance.

Sources

• Awaab's Law: Guidance for social landlords — Timeframes for repairs (GOV.UK, Phase 1 guidance; predates the Phase 2 announcement)
• Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 — legislation.gov.uk
• Housing Act 2004 — legislation.gov.uk
• Awaab's Law in the social rented sector — GOV.UK collection (Phase 2 date and hazard list)
• Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (draft), reg 3 — legislation.gov.uk
• Housing Health and Safety Rating System (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/571) — legislation.gov.uk
• Annual Complaints Review 2024-25 — Housing Ombudsman