Awaab's law

Awaab’s law is a very important piece of legislation taking affect in October 2025, that is going to create a lot of reverberations in the mould industry 

What is it?

• A Statutory law amended to s.10a Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, forcing social housing landlords to remediate mould and damp in tenant homes within specific timeframes

• Social landlords must investigate issues within 14 days and commence repairs within 7 days for significant risks. Emergency repairs must be completed in 24 hours 

• Introduced in phases from October, covering all HHSRS health hazards (covered in a previous post) by 2027

  
  

  What does it change?

• Previously, social landlords could avoid liability for properties with mould/ damp if it wasn’t due to structural defect of the property (e.g. a broken roof) 

• The Homes and Fitness Act 2018 reset the imbalance of power allowing tenants better recourse against social landlords 

• Specific timeframes are now placed on landlords 

• Awaab’s law is another step towards rebalancing the relationship of social landlord to tenant 

What are the limitations?

• Fixing mould/ damp is a complex task often requiring structural changes to a building

• The mould remediation community is small, requiring highly specialised training and therefore there is likely to be a significant shortage of contractors available

• The industry is unregulated, with no agreed standards or best practices and several different approaches

• All of these factors will cause compliance and further legal issues for social landlords and insurers