Since October 2025, social landlords in England have had fixed deadlines to investigate and fix damp and mould. From 30 November 2026 those same deadlines extend to seven further hazard categories, including excess cold and excess heat, which almost no provider can currently evidence. This is what changes, and what it takes to be ready.
Awaab's Law is being introduced in stages. Each stage keeps the same timescales and widens the range of hazards they apply to, so the operational burden compounds rather than resets.
Statutory timescales apply to significant damp and mould hazards, and to all emergency hazards regardless of type. Already live and enforceable today.
The same timescales extend to excess cold, excess heat, falls, structural collapse, fire and explosion, electrical hazards, and hygiene and food safety. Subject to parliamentary approval of the draft regulations.
Coverage extends to the remaining HHSRS hazards, with the exception of overcrowding. In practice, almost every health and safety risk in a home falls under a fixed statutory clock.
Awaab Ishak was two years old when he died in December 2020. The coroner found that his death was caused by prolonged exposure to mould in the Rochdale flat his family had repeatedly reported as unfit. The hazard was known. What was missing was any obligation to act within a defined period of time.
Awaab's Law closes that gap. Introduced through section 42 of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, it writes fixed repair timescales into every social housing tenancy agreement in England as an implied term. That matters legally: a resident does not need a regulator to intervene, because the duty sits inside their own tenancy and is enforceable directly through the courts.
It is not a new standard of repair, and it does not change what counts as a hazard. It changes how long a landlord has to do something about one, and it puts the burden of proving what happened, and when, squarely on the provider.
These are the same deadlines in force today for damp and mould. From 30 November 2026 they apply to seven further hazard categories, across the whole portfolio, at the same time.
Where a hazard presents an imminent and significant risk of harm, the landlord must investigate and make it safe within 24 hours of becoming aware. This duty already applies to every hazard type, not only damp and mould.
A potential significant hazard must be investigated within 10 working days of the landlord becoming aware of it. The investigation has to be capable of establishing whether a significant hazard exists and what is causing it.
Within three working days of the investigation concluding, the resident must receive a written summary of the findings and of what the landlord intends to do next. This is a communication duty with its own deadline, missing it is a breach in its own right.
Works needed to make the hazard safe must be completed within five working days of the investigation concluding. Where the property cannot be made safe in time, the landlord must offer suitable alternative accommodation at its own expense.
Any further remedial work required to deal with the hazard properly must begin within 12 weeks of the investigation concluding, not simply be scheduled or budgeted for.
Summarised for clarity and current as of September 2026. Phase 2 remains subject to parliamentary approval of the draft amendment regulations. This page is general information about the regime, not legal advice. For the binding position, refer to the government's Awaab's Law guidance on GOV.UK and take your own advice.
Damp and mould is already there. These seven categories join it, and two of them cannot realistically be evidenced without continuous data.
Significant damp and mould hazards, already subject to the full statutory timescales.
Live since Oct 2025Homes too cold to be healthy. Requires indoor temperature evidence over time, not a single visit.
Overheating risk, increasingly common in newer and retrofitted stock. Again, only provable with a data record.
Falls on stairs, on the level, between levels and in baths, a survey-led hazard with a statutory deadline attached.
Structural collapse and falling elements, including ceilings, render and external fabric.
Fire and explosion hazards across the dwelling, including detection coverage and means of escape.
Electrical safety defects presenting a significant risk of harm to residents.
Domestic and personal hygiene, sanitation, drainage and food safety hazards.
The deadlines themselves are not the difficulty. The difficulty is that the clock starts when you become aware of a hazard, and most awareness today arrives late, by phone, from a resident who has already been living with the problem for weeks.
A surveyor standing in a living room in October can record a temperature. They cannot show what it was at 4am in February, how long it stayed there, or whether the heating was ever capable of holding the home at a safe level. Phase 2 puts both hazards on a statutory clock without most providers holding a single hour of indoor temperature history.
If the first you know of a hazard is a complaint, you have already lost the period in which it developed. Every day of that delay is a day the resident has been exposed, and a day you cannot account for if the case is later examined.
The duty is not simply to investigate but to explain, in writing, what you found and what you will do. Teams working from handwritten survey notes and photographs struggle to produce that consistently across hundreds of cases inside 72 working hours.
Awaab's Law is enforceable by the resident directly. In a dispute, the question is when the landlord became aware and what happened next. Without a timestamped record, that question is answered by recollection on both sides.
Phase 1 concerned one hazard family. Phase 2 concerns eight, and Phase 3 nearly all of them. Deciding which of several thousand homes needs attention first is a data problem long before it is a repairs problem.
Our platform does the two things the statutory clock actually turns on: it tells you a hazard exists before anyone reports it, and it hands you a timestamped record proving what you knew and when you acted. Here is exactly which Phase 2 hazards it evidences directly, which it flags for attention, and which our survey teams pick up instead, so you can see the whole portfolio covered end to end.
| Hazard | Phase | What we measure | How we cover it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Damp & mould | Phase 1 | Temperature, relative humidity, dew point and sustained mould-risk conditions, per room | Direct, conditions detected before visible growth |
| Excess cold | Phase 2 | Continuous indoor temperature against healthy-home thresholds, by room and by hour | Direct, the hazard is a temperature record |
| Excess heat | Phase 2 | Indoor temperature, overheating duration and night-time cooling failure | Direct, the hazard is a temperature record |
| Fire & explosion | Phase 2 | Smoke and heat detection, carbon monoxide, device health and battery status | Live detection, plus escape routes covered by our fire survey teams |
| Hygiene & food safety | Phase 2 | Humidity and temperature in kitchens and bathrooms, water leak detection, ventilation performance | Conditions flagged for action, confirmed on inspection |
| Falls | Phase 2 | Occupancy and movement patterns where a vulnerable-person service is in place | Movement insight, with hazard assessment by our survey teams |
| Electrical hazards | Phase 2 | Certification and remedial status tracked against every property | Delivered by our qualified electrical teams |
| Structural collapse | Phase 2 | Inspection and remedial status tracked against every property | Delivered by our structural survey teams |
Every Phase 2 hazard is covered: by the platform, by our surveys and remediation teams, or by both together. See the full Smart Monitor range, or the detail on damp and mould monitoring.
You should not have to take a supplier's word for what monitoring produces. Monitor twenty properties in a location you choose, run them for sixty days, and judge the evidence trail on your own stock before Phase 2 lands.
Trial availability, installation arrangements and end-of-trial options are confirmed in writing before deployment. Subject to survey and availability.
A single side of A4, written to be forwarded. No jargon, no sales pitch. Just the phases, the deadlines, the seven new hazards and an honest view of what it takes to evidence them. Built for the person who has to explain this to a board.
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Open the PDFPhase 2 applies from 30 November 2026, subject to parliamentary approval of the draft amendment regulations. Phase 1, covering damp and mould and all emergency hazards, has been in force since 27 October 2025.
The duties set out on this page apply to registered providers of social housing in England: local authorities, housing associations and other registered providers. Private rented sector tenants do not gain these statutory deadlines on 30 November 2026. The Renters' Rights Act provides a route to extend comparable duties to the private sector, but on a separate timetable.
The timescales sit in the tenancy agreement as an implied term, so a resident can bring a claim directly rather than waiting for regulatory action. Alongside that, the Regulator of Social Housing and the Housing Ombudsman can act where failures are systemic. The practical exposure is a combination of legal cost, compensation, and the reputational consequence of a case that turns on records you cannot produce.
Compliance ultimately rests on investigating and repairing within the statutory timescales, but monitoring is what makes hitting those timescales achievable at portfolio scale. It starts the clock earlier by surfacing hazards before a resident reports them, and it produces the timestamped evidence that proves what you knew and when you acted. For excess cold and excess heat, where the hazard is defined by duration, continuous data is effectively the only way to evidence it.
Surveys give you a detailed picture on one day. Awaab's Law is concerned with conditions that develop between visits, and with a clock that starts the moment you become aware. Monitoring fills the interval, and for hazards defined by duration, such as excess cold, the interval is the hazard. The two work together: monitoring flags where to look, surveys establish what to do.
Deployment timescales depend on portfolio size, access arrangements and connectivity at each location. The 60-day trial across 20 properties exists precisely so you can establish this on your own stock before committing to a wider rollout. Talk to us on 0800 152 2099 and we will give you a realistic timeline for your properties.
Smart Installers - Creating Healthier Homes.
Talk to our team about evidencing Phase 2 hazards across your portfolio, or start with twenty sensors and sixty days.