Awaab’s Law

What is Awaab’s Law?

Awaab’s Law is named after Awaab Ishak, who died in 2020 aged two, after prolonged exposure to mould in his family’s housing association flat in Rochdale. His family had reported the mould repeatedly over years. The coroner found the mould caused his death, and that the landlord had not acted on what it had been told.

The law that followed does something narrow and specific: it puts a **clock** on the landlord. Social landlords already had repairing duties, but those duties were owed within a "reasonable time" — a standard that could only be argued about after the fact, and usually only in court. Awaab’s Law replaces the argument with a number.

It is implied into the tenancy agreement, so it binds the landlord regardless of what the written agreement says. That also means a breach is a breach of contract, which is what makes it enforceable rather than merely a standard the landlord is encouraged to meet.

Does Awaab’s Law cover my home?

Awaab’s Law applies to **social landlords in England**. That means local councils that still own housing stock, and private registered providers of social housing — housing associations and similar. If your landlord is one of those and you rent your home from them, you are very likely covered.

Council tenants

Yes. If you rent from a local authority under a secure or introductory tenancy, Awaab’s Law applies to your home. It applies to the council as landlord — which is a separate role from the council as enforcement authority, and that distinction matters later: your council’s Environmental Health team can, in principle, act against your council’s housing department.

Housing association tenants

Yes. Housing associations and other registered providers are covered on the same terms as councils. Awaab Ishak’s home was a housing association property, and the case that gave the law its name is the reason the sector is in scope at all.

Private tenants

No. Awaab’s Law does not apply to private landlords. If you rent privately your repair rights come from section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018. Those impose real duties, but no fixed statutory clock — the standard remains a reasonable time. There has been provision made to extend Awaab’s Law to the private rented sector in future, but that has not happened, and nothing on this page applies to a private tenancy today. See private landlord disrepair claims.

Tenants in Wales

No. Awaab’s Law is England-only. Wales has its own framework under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, which requires the home to be fit for human habitation throughout the occupation contract rather than setting fixed investigation deadlines. It is a different system with different words — you are a contract-holder, not a tenant. See housing disrepair claims in Wales.

Tenancy or licence — the distinction that catches people out

Awaab’s Law covers social housing let under a **tenancy**. Accommodation occupied under a **licence** is generally outside it — and some supported housing and temporary accommodation is let under a licence rather than a tenancy. The government’s own guidance tells residents of those to check which they have, because the two look similar and the label on the paperwork is not always right.

**Shared ownership** and **long leases** are outside it too. So it is possible to rent from a housing association in England and still have no Awaab’s Law rights, which is the case people do not see coming.

This is worth settling before you rely on a deadline. Asserting a statutory period that turns out not to apply to you gives your landlord something to answer other than the disrepair. Your agreement should say which you have, and Shelter or Citizens Advice will tell you free of charge.

The deadlines, in full

Since 27 October 2025, the deadlines below apply to the hazards currently in scope. They are the heart of Awaab’s Law and the reason it matters: before them, "as soon as reasonably practicable" was the whole standard.

Where a hazard presents a significant risk of harm

• **10 working days** — Investigate, once the landlord is aware of a potential significant hazard.
• **3 working days after the investigation** — If a significant hazard is confirmed, give the tenant a written summary of the investigation and what it found.
• **5 working days after the investigation** — Complete the relevant safety work, and begin — or take steps to begin — any further preventative work.
• **Within 12 weeks of the investigation** — Where further preventative work cannot start within five working days, it must begin as soon as reasonably practicable and within this period.

Where the hazard is an emergency

• **24 hours** — Investigate and, where an emergency hazard is confirmed, complete the relevant safety work and make the property safe.

They are also **maximum** periods, not targets. A landlord that waits nine working days to look at a mould problem affecting a baby has not necessarily complied just because it beat the tenth.

When does the clock start?

The clock starts when the landlord **becomes aware** of the potential hazard. Not when it accepts there is one, not when it decides the hazard is significant, and not when it gets round to opening a repair job.

Awareness can arrive in several ways, and not all of them involve you: a housing officer seeing the problem on a visit, a contractor reporting it, a support worker raising it, or the landlord’s own damp survey finding it all start the clock just as a tenant’s report does.

But the version you can prove is the one you sent. This is the single practical reason to **report in writing** even after you have phoned: a dated email or portal message fixes the moment the clock started, and removes the argument about whether the call happened. You do not need to use the words "Awaab’s Law" — describe the problem, where it is, when it started, and who lives in the home.

Our repair letter templates include a first report that captures the right details, and the chronology builder turns your notes into a dated timeline.

What counts as a “significant” hazard?

A significant hazard is one presenting a significant risk of harm to the health or safety of someone living in the home. It is not defined by a list of defects, because the same defect is not equally dangerous in every household.

The landlord is expected to weigh the nature of the defect, how likely harm is, how serious that harm would be, how much of the home is affected, how long it has gone on — and crucially, **who lives there**. A cold, mouldy bedroom is a different risk for a healthy adult than for an infant with asthma, an elderly resident, or someone who is pregnant or immunosuppressed.

What counts as an emergency?

An emergency hazard is one posing an **imminent** and significant risk of harm. Imminence is the difference: the question is not how bad the problem is in the abstract, but whether someone could be seriously hurt now.

Exposed live wiring, a suspected gas leak, a ceiling that is visibly failing, serious flooding, a broken external door leaving the home insecure, or a fire-safety failure would ordinarily fall here. The response is 24 hours, and 24 hours is 24 hours — it does not become "the next working day" because the report arrived on a Friday.

What the landlord has to put in writing

This is the most under-used part of Awaab’s Law. After investigating, the landlord owes you a **written summary**, and it is due within 3 working days of the investigation concluding. It should tell you:

• whether the landlord found a hazard, and if so what kind
• whether it considers the hazard significant, or an emergency
• what it relied on to reach that view
• what work it intends to do, and when

A summary that says only "no hazard found" does not really do the job, because it does not tell you what was inspected or why the conclusion was reached — which is exactly what you would need to challenge it.

Ask for it by name if it does not arrive. It is a document the landlord is obliged to produce, it is dated, and it commits them to a position. If they later change their account of what they found, you have the earlier version.

What if my home cannot be made safe in time?

Where the landlord cannot make the home safe within the deadline that applies, it must offer suitable alternative accommodation, at its expense, until the work is done.

This is the least-known duty in Awaab’s Law and the one tenants most rarely invoke. It is conditional — it bites when the work genuinely cannot be completed inside the applicable deadline, not whenever the home is unpleasant to live in — but where it applies, the cost falls on the landlord and not on you.

If you are told to stay put in a home the landlord accepts is unsafe, and no rehousing is offered, that is worth putting in writing and asking them to address directly.

What happens if the landlord misses a deadline?

Missing a deadline does not by itself entitle you to compensation. What it gives you is a clear, dated failure — which is what a complaint, an Ombudsman case or a solicitor will want to see.

What a missed deadline changes is the shape of the argument. "They took too long" is a matter of opinion; "they were told on 4 March and did not investigate until 2 April" is not. The routes below all work better with that second sentence available.

1. The landlord’s own complaints procedure

Start here, because the Ombudsman will normally require it and because it often works. Say plainly that you are complaining about a failure to meet the Awaab’s Law timescales, and give the dates.

2. The Housing Ombudsman

Free, and open to social tenants once the landlord’s complaints process is exhausted. The Ombudsman can order the landlord to put things right and to pay compensation for the failure. This is the route most tenants should try before anything else.

3. Environmental Health

Your council’s Environmental Health team can inspect serious hazards and require the landlord to act. This works even where your landlord is the council itself, and it runs in parallel with a complaint rather than instead of one.

4. A disrepair claim

A legal claim can seek an order that the work be done and damages for the period you lived with the disrepair after the landlord knew. It is not the first step, and the free routes above are worth exhausting first — see free help options.

Does a missed deadline mean compensation?

No, and any page that implies otherwise is selling you something. Awaab’s Law sets deadlines; it does not create a payment that falls due when one is missed.

Compensation for disrepair is worked out from the effect on you — how bad the conditions were, how much of the home was affected, how long it went on after the landlord knew, and any specific loss such as damaged belongings or medical harm. A missed Awaab’s Law deadline is powerful evidence going to that last point, because it establishes the date the landlord knew and the date it acted.

There is no tariff and no calculator that can give you a figure without seeing the facts. How housing disrepair compensation is worked out explains what it is actually based on.

What changes under Phase 2?

Phase 1 covers emergency hazards and damp and mould presenting a significant risk. Phase 2 is scheduled to come into force on 30 November 2026, and would widen the duties to a much broader set of hazards — adding electrical hazards, falls, fire and explosions, excess cold, excess heat, structural collapse and falling elements, domestic hygiene, including personal hygiene and food safety.

The deadlines themselves are not what changes. The 24-hour, 10-day, 3-day and 5-day periods described above stay the same; what widens is the range of problems they reach. This is the point most easily got wrong, in both directions — a tenant who thinks the deadlines start with Phase 2 will not chase a landlord who is already late.

For what Phase 2 would reach hazard by hazard, and how each is likely to be assessed, see our guide to Awaab’s Law Phase 2.