The Complete Guide to Awaab's Law: Timescales, Phases, and Compliance for Housing Providers

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. 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: The 2026 Expansion

Phase 2 extends Awaab's Law to 13 additional HHSRS hazard categories. For a detailed breakdown of what's changing and how to prepare, see Awaab's Law Phase 2: What's Changing in 2026. According to GOV.UK guidance, the Phase 2 categories are:

• Excess cold and excess heat
• Falls — associated with baths, level surfaces, stairs, and between levels
• Structural collapse and falling elements
• Explosions
• Fire and electrical hazards
• Domestic hygiene, pests and refuse
• Personal hygiene, sanitation and drainage
• Food safety

The exact Phase 2 start date has not been confirmed at the time of writing. GOV.UK states "2026" without a specific month. Current guidance indicates the timescales will follow the same framework as Phase 1 — 10 working days for investigation, 5 working days for safety works, 3 working days for the written summary.

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: All Remaining HHSRS Hazards (2027)

Phase 3, expected in 2027, extends the timescale requirements to all remaining HHSRS hazard categories except crowding and space (which is addressed under separate overcrowding legislation). This includes:

• Asbestos and manufactured mineral fibres
• Carbon monoxide and fuel combustion products
• Lead, radiation, and volatile organic compounds
• Entry by intruders
• Lighting and noise
• Water supply
• Flames and hot surfaces
• Collision and entrapment
• Position and operability of amenities

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 step-by-step compliance framework tailored to smaller providers, see How Small Housing Associations Can Comply Without Enterprise Software. If you are evaluating software options, the buyer's checklist for compliance software covers the features that actually matter.

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 (13 additional hazard types) comes in 2026. Phase 3 (all remaining HHSRS hazards) follows in 2027.
• 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 — GOV.UK
• Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 — legislation.gov.uk
• Housing Act 2004 — legislation.gov.uk
• Annual Complaints Review 2024-25 — Housing Ombudsman