Before we start: this guide is written for repairs and maintenance contractors working for social landlords in England. It summarises the law and the government's guidance as we read them in October 2026. The rules are new, Phase 2 is still going through Parliament, and your contract with the landlord sets your actual obligations - so check the sources linked below and your contract, and take proper advice if you're unsure.

What Awaab's Law is

Awaab's Law is named after Awaab Ishak, a two-year-old who died in 2020 from a respiratory condition caused by prolonged exposure to mould in his family's social housing flat in Rochdale. It is made up of two pieces of law:

A tenant can take their landlord to court if the deadlines are missed. The landlord has a defence if it can prove it used "all reasonable endeavours" to comply. That defence lives or dies on records - which is where contractors come in.

Awaab's Law currently applies to social landlords in England (councils and housing associations). The government has consulted on extending it to the private rented sector, but that is a separate, later step - see the GOV.UK Awaab's Law collection for the latest.

When it came in, and the phases

The government is bringing Awaab's Law in over three phases. Here's where things stand as of October 2026:

Phase Date What's covered
Phase 1 27 Oct 2025 In force. Damp and mould hazards that present a significant risk of harm, plus all emergency hazards (anything posing an imminent and significant risk of harm, apart from overcrowding).
Phase 2 30 Nov 2026 Planned, subject to Parliamentary approval. Adds excess cold, excess heat, falls, structural collapse, fire and explosions, electrical hazards, and domestic and personal hygiene and food safety, where they present a significant risk of harm.
Phase 3 2027 Planned. All remaining Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) hazards apart from overcrowding. No exact date published yet.

On Phase 2: the government laid the amending regulations before Parliament on 13 July 2026 and published Phase 2 guidance for social landlords and a copy of the regulations as they will apply from 30 November 2026. When we checked in early October 2026, the regulations had not yet completed their passage through Parliament. Until it is approved, it is not law - check GOV.UK for the final position.

For contractors, expect the same deadlines and evidence demands to spread from damp and mould jobs to cold, electrical, falls and fire-related repairs.

The Awaab's Law timescales

The regulations sort hazards into two levels. A significant hazard is one a reasonable landlord would make safe urgently, but not necessarily within 24 hours. An emergency hazard poses an imminent and significant risk of harm and needs making safe within 24 hours. These are the deadlines, taken from the regulations and the GOV.UK guidance for social landlords:

Step Deadline Clock starts
Emergency hazard 24 hours From when the landlord becomes aware. Both the investigation and the work to make the home safe must be done within the 24 hours.
Investigate significant hazard 10 working days From when the landlord becomes aware of a potential hazard.
Written summary to tenant 3 working days From the end of the investigation.
Make safe (relevant safety work) 5 working days From the end of the investigation.
Start longer-term (supplementary preventative) work 5 working days From the end of the investigation. If that isn't reasonably practicable, it must start as soon as it is, and within 12 weeks. It must then be finished within a reasonable time.

A few details that matter on the ground:

  • Working days exclude Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas Day, Good Friday and bank holidays in England and Wales. The 24-hour emergency clock does not stop for weekends.
  • Day one is the next working day after the landlord becomes aware.
  • The written summary tells the tenant whether a hazard was found, what will be done and target dates to start and finish, or why no action is needed - plus how to contact the landlord.
  • If the home can't be made safe in time (24 hours for emergencies, 5 working days for significant hazards), the landlord must offer suitable alternative accommodation at no cost to the tenant.

Who the duty sits with - and how it reaches you

The legal duty is the landlord's. The government's guidance is clear that landlords "retain full responsibility" for compliance even when they use contractors or managing agents. A tenant can't sue a repairs contractor under Awaab's Law.

That doesn't mean it's not your problem. It flows down to you in three ways:

  1. Contracts. Landlords are rewriting repairs contracts, schedules and priority codes so that contractor response times sit inside the statutory deadlines - usually with a margin for the landlord's own steps.
  2. KPIs and payment. Expect KPIs on attendance within the window, make-safe within the window, first-visit fix, and complete evidence submitted. Check your own contract for what applies to you.
  3. Evidence. The landlord's only legal defence is proving it used all reasonable endeavours. If your operative couldn't get in, or a part was unavailable, the landlord needs dated proof of that - from you.

There's one more point worth knowing. The Phase 2 guidance tells landlords to take legal advice on whether a contractor's knowledge of a hazard counts as the landlord's knowledge. Either way, the guidance expects contractors to report hazards they spot, including on unrelated jobs. If your plumber sees black mould in a bedroom while fixing a tap, that report may be what starts the landlord's clock - so it needs to go in the same day, in writing.

What evidence landlords will ask contractors for

The GOV.UK guidance tells landlords to keep "clear records" of investigations, access attempts, contractor correspondence and communication with tenants. In practice, landlords will want this from every Awaab's Law job:

  • Attendance times - when the operative arrived and left, so the landlord can show the 24-hour or 10-day window was met.
  • Who attended - and their competence (investigations need a "competent investigator").
  • Before photos - wide shots of the room plus close-ups of the hazard, with a date and time. For mould, the guidance says to take photos or samples before removing it.
  • Findings - what you found, how severe, the likely cause, and any other hazards spotted in the home.
  • Work done - what was done to make it safe today, materials used, and after photos.
  • Follow-up needed - any further work, specialist visit or survey required, with your recommendation for timing. The landlord uses this in the written summary.
  • No-access evidence - time of each attempt, photo of the card left, and calls made. The guidance gives repeated failed access as an example of reasonable endeavours - but only if it's recorded.

Damp and mould: what's different

Damp and mould is the hazard Awaab's Law was built around, and it's the one in force for significant hazards right now. A few things the government guidance makes clear:

  • It can be an emergency. Prevalent damp or mould that has a material impact on a tenant's health can be treated as an emergency hazard - 24 hours, not 10 days. Who lives in the home and their health matter when judging the risk, so record anything the tenant tells you about it.
  • Don't blame the tenant's lifestyle. The guidance says landlords must not assume damp or mould is caused by how the tenant lives. Everyday moisture from cooking, bathing and drying clothes is expected. Operatives should record what they see, not write "lifestyle" as the cause.
  • A mould wash is a make-safe, not a fix. Cleaning the mould and providing a dehumidifier can be the immediate safety work, but the root cause - missing or broken ventilation, leaks, poor insulation, rising or penetrating damp - is the landlord's to put right through supplementary preventative work.
  • Note the cause. Record extractor fans that don't work, trickle vents that are blocked or missing, leaks, defective gutters, cold bridging and moisture readings where you take them. This is what the landlord needs to scope the follow-up work.

The government's damp and mould health guidance for rented housing providers is worth a read for supervisors and surveyors.

A practical workflow for contractors

You need the same steps, every time, with a time stamp on each one:

  1. Log the order the moment it arrives - with the landlord's job reference, the priority (emergency or significant), the address, and the date and time received.
  2. Work back from the deadline. If the landlord's contract says attend within 24 hours or 5 working days, put the due time on the job, not just the date it came in.
  3. Assign a competent operative with the job details and access notes.
  4. On arrival, record attendance and take before photos of every affected area.
  5. Inspect and record findings using the same checklist on every job - hazard, extent, likely cause, other hazards spotted.
  6. Make safe on the day where you can, and photograph the result.
  7. Raise follow-up work straight away as a linked job, with your recommendation and photos.
  8. If there's no access, record each attempt with time, photo and contact made, and tell the landlord the same day.
  9. Send the report to the landlord the same day - they have only 3 working days to issue the written summary.
  10. Close the loop - record completed follow-up work, with photos, against the same property.

Awaab's Law contractor checklist

  • Read your contract's priority codes and response times and check they fit inside the statutory deadlines.
  • Record date and time received for every repair order.
  • Record arrival and departure times on every visit.
  • Take before and after photos on every visit - before touching any mould.
  • Use the same findings checklist for every inspection, including cause and other hazards spotted.
  • Record every no-access attempt with time, photo and contact made.
  • Report hazards found on unrelated jobs to the landlord the same day, in writing.
  • Raise follow-up work as a linked job and track it to completion.
  • Keep operative training and competence records up to date.
  • Keep all evidence together per property, so you can answer a query in minutes.

Common mistakes

  • Counting from the wrong day. The clock starts when the landlord becomes aware - which may be before the order reaches you. Ask what time the landlord logged it.
  • Treating 24 hours as "next working day". Emergency means 24 hours, including weekends and bank holidays.
  • Washing mould before photographing it. The evidence disappears with the mould.
  • Writing "condensation - tenant lifestyle". The guidance warns landlords against assuming this. Record what you find and the likely building cause.
  • No-access with no proof. "Tenant not in" on a job sheet is not evidence. A time-stamped photo and a record of calls is.
  • Photos on personal phones. Pictures in a camera roll or WhatsApp group are hard to tie to a property and date.

How software helps you keep timestamped evidence per property

Awaab's Law is mostly about proof: when did you know, when did you go, what did you find, what did you do. DuoApp is job and team management software that keeps it all against the property. Here's what it can do today, as part of our property maintenance software:

  • Jobs per property. Set each property or block up as a project with jobs under it, assign them to operatives or teams, and see every visit for that address (projects & tasks).
  • Inspection checklists with photos. Build a damp and mould inspection checklist with pass / fail / N/A checks, photos, signatures and timestamps. It works offline and syncs later (quality control).
  • Attendance times. Operatives can clock in and out on their phone, optionally checked against the site boundary at that moment, and you can run attendance reports (site attendance).
  • Follow-up and callbacks. Log follow-up work and callbacks, schedule them, and sign them off with photos (aftercare).
  • Full audit trail. Every change is recorded with who did it and when, and documents and photos sit in a file manager (audit).
  • Operative competence. Store training certificates and cards per person with expiry dates and warnings (document compliance).
  • Landlord access. You can add a client as a user who sees only their own jobs, at the same £10 per user per month (permissions).

To be clear about what it doesn't do: DuoApp won't produce the landlord's written summary or any statutory form, it isn't an asset register, and it doesn't pull jobs in automatically from a landlord's system - orders are entered by your team. Every feature is included for £10 per user per month, with a 14-day free trial and a free onboarding session with a real person. See how it fits repairs and maintenance firms on our property maintenance page. If you're the landlord rather than the contractor, see how DuoApp works for housing associations.

Frequently asked questions

Does Awaab's Law apply to contractors?

The legal duty is on social landlords, not contractors. But landlords meet the deadlines through their repairs contractors, so the timescales and evidence demands are passed down through contracts, priority codes and KPIs.

What are the Awaab's Law timescales?

Emergency hazards must be investigated and made safe within 24 hours. Significant hazards must be investigated within 10 working days, with a written summary to the tenant within 3 working days and safety work within 5 working days of the investigation ending. Longer-term preventative work must start within 5 working days, or within 12 weeks if that isn't practicable.

When did Awaab's Law come into force?

Phase 1 came into force on 27 October 2025, covering damp and mould and all emergency hazards in social housing in England. Phase 2, adding hazards such as excess cold, falls, fire and electrical hazards, is planned for 30 November 2026, subject to Parliamentary approval. Phase 3 is planned for 2027.

Does Awaab's Law apply to private landlords?

Not yet. It currently applies to social landlords in England. The government has consulted on extending it to the private rented sector, so check GOV.UK for the latest position.

What evidence should a contractor keep for Awaab's Law jobs?

Keep the date and time the order was received, attendance times, who attended, before and after photos, findings including the likely cause, work done, follow-up needed, and a record of every failed access attempt. Keep it together per property so you can answer a landlord's query quickly.

A reminder: this guide is general information, not legal advice. Last checked October 2026. Awaab's Law is new and Phase 2 is still subject to Parliamentary approval - always confirm the current rules on GOV.UK and check your contract with the landlord.