Awaab Ishak was two years old when he died in December 2020 from a respiratory condition caused by prolonged mould exposure in his family's flat. His parents had reported it repeatedly. The coroner found the mould had not been remedied.
Awaab's Law was the response: statutory deadlines for investigating and fixing serious hazards, first in social housing under the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, and extended to the private rented sector by the Renters' Rights Act 2025.
What it changes
Repair obligations already existed. Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires the structure, exterior and installations to be kept in repair. The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 requires the property to be fit throughout the tenancy.
What neither supplied was a clock. "Within a reasonable time" is argued after the fact, by which point the tenant has lived with the hazard for months. Awaab's Law replaces that with fixed periods: a deadline to investigate once a hazard is reported, a deadline to provide written findings, and a deadline to begin the work — with an emergency track for anything presenting a significant risk to health or safety.
The exact periods are set by regulations and are being phased by hazard type, damp and mould first. The structure is what to plan around: report → investigate → written findings to the tenant → remedy, each with its own deadline.
What starts the clock
Notice of a potential hazard. Not a formal complaint, not a letter from a solicitor — a tenant telling you there is a problem, however they tell you.
This is the part landlords underestimate. A WhatsApp message saying "there's black stuff on the bathroom ceiling again" is notice. So is a passing remark at an inspection you noted down. The clock runs from when you knew or ought to have known, not from when you decided it was serious.
The records that decide it
Every deadline is proved or lost on dates:
- When it was reported, and how — the tenant will have their copy.
- When you investigated, and what you found.
- When you sent written findings to the tenant.
- When work started and finished, with the contractor's record.
Two of those are things landlords routinely do not write down: the date of the report, and the written findings. A repair carried out promptly but with no record of when it was reported cannot be shown to have met the deadline.
Where it bites
A breach feeds the ombudsman, which can order compensation and remedial action; the local authority's hazard powers under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System; and the tenant's own claim under the 2018 Act. The same trail defends all three.
What to do now
- Give tenants one reporting route and acknowledge in writing, with the date, every time.
- Treat damp and mould as the priority hazard — it is first in the phasing and it is what the law is named for.
- Send written findings even when the answer is "no hazard found". That is a deadline in its own right.
- Keep contractor dates, not just invoices.
Keep the trail per property. Landlord HQ holds obligations and dates against each property so the record exists before you need it. See what it costs.
Information tool, not legal advice. Commencement and the precise periods are set by regulations and are being phased.