A recap of Awaab's law
Clause 42 of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 (known otherwise as Awaab's law) inserts into social housing tenancy agreements an implied term that will require social housing landlords to comply with new requirements to be detailed in secondary legislation. This secondary legislation must require social housing landlords to repair certain hazards (including mould and damp) within prescribed timescales. If a social housing landlord fails to meet these prescribed timescales then tenants will be able to take action against the landlord for breach of contract.
Consultation on the secondary legislation ran from 9 January 2024 to 5 March 2024. The consultation document proposed that social housing landlords must:
- investigate a hazard within 14 calendar days of being made aware of the potential hazard and produce a written report;
- commence repairs to fix the hazard within 7 calendar days of the written investigatory report being issued if the hazard could pose a significant risk to the health or safety of the tenants. Hazards can be defined as "significant" through guidelines set out by the government, which considers issues such as the severity of the problem alongside the age and vulnerability of the tenants. Notably, defining a risk as "significant" to health will not require a doctor's note;
- complete repair works within a "reasonable time period". The consultation does not propose to set fixed timescales for the repairs, given that what is reasonable will depend on the circumstances. However, repairs must not be unreasonably delayed;
- emergency repairs must be completed within 24 hours;
- social housing landlords must source alternative accommodation if repairs cannot be completed within the required timescales where the hazard poses a significant risk of harm or danger to the tenants.
Government press release (February 2025)
To date, the secondary legislation required to implement Awaab’s law has not been introduced. However, the government did provide some further clarity on the timings and the content of the secondary legislation in a press release dated 6 February 2025, issued by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
The press release detailed that the secondary legislation will be implemented via a phased approach as follows:
Phase 1 – from October 2025, social housing landlords will be required to:
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address damp and mould hazards that present a significant risk of harm to tenants within fixed timescales (such timescales have not been provided at this stage and will be specified in the secondary legislation);
- address all emergency repairs including for damp and mould or other hazards as soon as possible and within 24 hours.
Phase 2
- in 2026, the secondary legislation will extend to a wider range of hazards which the government expects to include: excess cold and excess heat, falls, structural collapse, fire, electrical faults and explosions and hygiene hazards.
Phase 3
- in 2027, the secondary legislation will apply to all remining hazards listed in Schedule 1 to the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (England) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/3208) (with the exception of overcrowding).
Reflections
While the government press release has provided some further clarity on the secondary legislation to be introduced, there are still points of uncertainty.
1. Timescales for investigation and repair of hazards
While the press release confirmed the time-frame that social housing landlords will have to implement emergency repairs for hazards (24 hours), the timescales that landlords will have to investigate hazards and commence repairs to fix hazards which are not emergencies (but still pose a significant risk to health and safety) are yet to be confirmed. The only indication of these timescales has come in the 2024 consultation document described above. However, there is significant concern among social housing landlords that such timescales will be impossible to meet given financial constraints and the resource and skills shortages which burden the affordable housing sector.
Much of the discussion around Awaab’s law so far has focussed on warning social housing landlords to be proactive and to ensure they have sufficient resources to meet the impending timescales. Such calls are made with the best of intentions but will the timescales be realistic for social housing landlords to achieve without a significant further cash injections? Such injections may be essential to ensure that social housing landlords do not continually fall foul of the regulations.
2. Defences
A further concern of social housing landlords is whether there will be statutory defences available to them under the regulations. As highlighted by The Social Housing Law Association, the government is yet to provide any guidance as to what defences will be available where landlords are prevented from complying with the new requirements (for example, due to lack of access or tenant co-operation).
3. A ‘quick fix’ only?
Another area of uncertainty is how detailed the secondary legislation will be in terms of prescribing what social housing landlords must do in order to have satisfactorily completed repair works.
Section 10A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 refers to the secondary legislation detailing the timelines within which social housing landlords must “take action” with regard to prescribed hazards while the 2024 consultation document proposed that social housing landlords will have 7 calendar days from the written investigation being issued to commence repairs to “fix the hazard” (where the hazard poses a significant risk to health or safety).
There is concern from some quarters that if the wording of the secondary legislation is unspecific as to what counts as remedying a hazard then landlords may simply be able to ‘paper over the cracks’ of the hazard (e.g. wipe away any mould) in order to comply with the timescales in the legislation rather than actually being obliged to take any action to address the underlying issues causing the hazard. Notably, damp and mould problems can stem from structural issues with the building itself and will keep re-manifesting unless the root cause is dealt with.
It remains to be seen how the secondary legislation will deal with this issue. One option could be for landlords to be required to produce a written investigation or report (as mentioned in the consultation document) which requires a detailed account of the hazard and the recommended action to rectify it and which can be scrutinised at a later date.
