The introduction of Awaab’s Law in October 2025

Following a significant period of delay the Government has announced that Awaab’s Law will come into force in October 2025.

The law will require social landlords to fix dangerous damp and mould in set time periods and repair all emergency hazards within 24 hours.

Whilst tenants whose properties are subject to hazards to health, including damp and mould, do currently have a number of avenues of recourse against their landlords (including but not limited to (i) raising a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman, (ii) civil claims for breach of tenancy agreement/common law negligence and (iii) private prosecutions brought under the Environmental Protection Act 1990), the introduction of Awaab’s law will potentially make it easier for claimants to succeed in claims for specific performance (i.e. remedying damp and mould).

By extension it also seems likely that it will be easier for tenants to succeed in connected claims for personal injury, where those prescribed time limits are not met by landlords. We therefore envisage that the already significant spike of claims seen by social landlords and insurers will increase, not least as such claims are and will remain a lucrative source of income for claimant firms.

Introduction

The condition of social housing in England and Wales has been the focus of significant media attention in the last 10 years. However, it was the tragic death of a young boy in a flat in Rochdale which has prompted positive action to be taken by politicians to ensure that no tenant in social housing is subjected to unfit or unsafe housing.

Awaab’s Law

Awaab Ishak died in December 2020 following prolonged exposure to mould in a flat owned by Rochdale Boroughwide Housing. In the wake of the coroner’s report, new guidance was issued by the government entitled “Understanding and addressing the health risks of damp and mould in the home”. The crux of this report was that landlords must ensure that the accommodation they provide is free from serious hazards, including damp and mould, and that homes are fit for human habitation.

The Housing Act 2004 (HA 2004) states that properties must be free from hazards at the most dangerous “Category 1” level. These hazards are defined in the “Housing Health and Safety Rating System” (HHSRS). A category 1 hazard is one where an occupier of a property or their visitors may require some form of medical attention if it is left in situ. One such Category 1 hazard set out in the HHSRS is “Damp and Mould Growth”. This includes threats to physical and mental health from “mould or fungal growth”, both of which are caused by dampness and/or high humidity.

Its implementation

Awaab’s Law will be introduced as part of s.10A Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (LTA 1985), which implies into all social housing tenancies that the landlord will comply with all “prescribed requirements” on responding to relevant defects; these “prescribed requirements” are those specified in Awaab’s Law. Tenants will be able to bring a claim for breach of s.10A LTA 1985 and it is likely that we will see this pleaded in conjunction with s.9A and s.11 LTA 1985 which deal with fitness for human habitation and a breach of repairing implied obligations respectively.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced on 6 February 2025 that there will be a phased implementation of Awaab’s Law for social housing, commencing in October 2025. It will initially cover damp and mould, but by 2027 it will also encompass the other hazards set out in HHSRS.

Social landlords (whether these be registered providers or local authorities), will be required to investigate and repair dangerous damp and mould within a set period and fix all emergency hazards within 24 hours of notification. The exact details of what those time periods and the precise requirements will be revealed when the government releases its response to its consultation on Awaab’s Law which was published by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities on 9 January 2024.

This phased approach has been criticised by various bodies, including housing charity Shelter. It will be argued that social landlords will have known of these proposals since the initial consultation on Awaab’s Law took place over 12 months ago. Campaigners for social housing tenants will argue that social landlords should now be in a position whereby they are already eradicating hazards in tenants’ properties in a timely manner, with any adjustments simply being a matter of “fine tuning” to ensure compliance with the specifics of the law when it is in force.

What can social landlords do to ensure compliance with Awaab’s Law?

Previously, social landlords could avoid liability for properties with mould and/or damp if it was not the symptom of a structural defect, as per s.11 LTA 1985. This was a perceived injustice against tenants. Since the introduction of the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, this imbalance has been reset, allowing tenants better recourse against landlords who fail to fix properties which are covered in mould. The introduction of Awaab’s Law is a further step towards this goal.

To ensure tenants’ safety, social housing providers will need to tighten up their processes to ensure that not only is disrepair acted upon promptly upon notice being provided, and fixed properly when it has been attended to, but also that anything which might constitute a hazard, is resolved as a matter of priority.

There are various measures that social landlords can take to ensure compliance with the forthcoming legislation:

1. Ensure staff are aware of potential hazards (including damp and mould): It is important that those dealing with reports of disrepair and hazards are aware of the potential severity of defects to properties. Social landlords’ ability to respond and deal with hazards in the appropriate timeframes will be dependent on those dealing with reports knowing when to highlight a report as being an “emergency” or “high priority” repair.
2. Maintain a list of reliable contractors: Time will be of the essence, for the sake of all parties. It is important that social landlords have a bank of trusted contractors who they can call upon should hazards be identified in properties. We often see social landlords rely on a single firm of contractors which leaves them vulnerable should there be a supply issue or labour shortage affecting that company. Social landlords need to be prepared to maintain a panel of contractors to avoid these issues.
3. Ensure that any reported repairs are fixed within the specified timeframes: This may sound obvious, but due to the nature of the issues which are subject to Awaab’s Law (i.e. hazards), it is imperative that these are fixed promptly. The legislation will not allow any room for flexibility; the hazards will either be abated in time, or they will not.
4. Urgent inspections upon receipt of housing disrepair claims: Upon receipt of a housing disrepair claim, social landlords are required to engage with the Pre-action Protocol for Housing Conditions Claims (“the Protocol”). This involves allowing the parties an opportunity to carry out an inspection using either a single joint expert, or an expert of their choosing. Social landlords should not carry out repairs before the expert(s) have inspected the property, on the basis that it would be destroying evidence and prejudicing the Claimant’s claim. This obviously delays the carrying out of repairs. However, we recommend engaging with the Claimant’s solicitors at an early stage to arrange an inspection by an in-house surveyor to determine whether there are any hazards at the property which might need to be resolved and agreeing for these to be rectified, even if it is before the parties’ experts have attended.
5. Specifically, in relation to damp and mould: Social landlords should provide tenants with education in respect of preventing damp and mould in their properties but should not be used as a scapegoat or blamed as a matter-of-course if damp and mould occurs. It is uncontroversial that damp and mould can arise due to the lifestyle of a tenant, for example, by failing to ventilate the property, allowing rooms to become cluttered preventing air circulation, and drying clothes on radiators touching the walls. However, damp and mould which is significant enough to make the property unfit for human habitation or hazardous will be more than minimal and will usually point to a much more significant problem to which the lifestyle of the tenant can only be considered a contributory factor.

The Housing Ombudsman released a Spotlight report called “It’s not lifestyle” in 2022 advising that social landlords should adopt a zero-tolerance approach to damp and mould and encourages them to be more pro-active, preventing damp and mould before it becomes a severe problem. It also stated that social landlords should avoid automatically blaming their tenants’ lifestyle when it is often not solely their issue.

6. Reallocation of funding: Social landlords’ finances are already suffering from their spend on housing disrepair claims. Often the housing disrepair claims that are received are modest in value but are pursued by claimant firms whose focus is to maximise costs. The claims where tenants are suffering from very significant disrepair are often “lost in the noise”, as a result. The amount spent on the costs incurred by claimant solicitors has stretched social landlords’ finances, meaning that increasing resources to ensure compliance with Awaab’s Law will not be easy. However, it is essential.

Impact Upon Claims for Personal Injury

Housing disrepair claims often include a personal injury element, or indeed claimants seek to pursue standalone claims for personal injury as a consequence of alleged damp and mould within a property. A failure to tackle damp and mould promptly can result in personal injury claims for conditions such as exacerbation of asthma or other respiratory conditions.

Ordinarily for a landlord to have breached their duty of care, they need to have notice of the potential issue and fail to act in a timely manner. What is reasonable in those circumstances will vary dependent upon the extent of the damp of mould and the associated remedial action required. Therefore, in some circumstances, remedying damp and mould within weeks/months rather than days of notification may be deemed reasonable.

However, once the Act is in force, it seems likely that the Court will consider compliance with the Act’s prescribed time limits when considering whether a landlord has acted reasonably. As these prescribed timeframes are expected to require very prompt remedial actions, which will be challenging for many social landlords to meet, claimants may find it easier to establish a breach of in claims for personal injury.

It is noteworthy that the Regulator of Social Housing published a report on 2 February 2023 indicating that between 1-2% of social homes (40,000 to 80,000) are estimated to have serious damp and mould problems, and a further 3-4% (120,000 to 160,000) to have notable damp and mould.

Acknowledging therefore that a significant amount of social housing has been found to have damp and mould problems, the introduction of the Act will inevitability result in an increase in claims against already embattled social landlords.

Social landlords and their insurers therefore need to take proactive steps in anticipation of Awaab’s law in order to suitably manage and mitigate against unnecessary and costly litigation.