Read our damp and mould report focusing on Awaab's Law

Complaints involving hazards and Awaab’s Law

We are a free, independent and impartial service that investigates unresolved complaints.

This fact sheet gives a summary of how we’ll investigate residents’ complaints about hazards and Awaab’s law.

On this page

Our role in complaints about hazards

We investigate complaints about social housing landlords.

A hazard is a potential risk of harm to you or your household caused by the condition of your home.

Landlords must take reasonable steps to investigate hazards in your home.

Awaab’s Law requires landlords to meet set deadlines where there are emergency hazards or significant hazards.

You can read more about what emergency and significant hazards are in the government’s guidance.

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What we can and cannot investigate

What we can investigate
What we cannot investigate
If your landlord:
  • failed to identify potential hazards in your home
  • did not investigate hazards within fair and reasonable timescales
  • did not recognise when Awaab's law applies to your situation
  • failed to keep you properly informed
  • did not share a clear summary of their findings with you
  • failed to consider suitable alternative accommodation
  • did not keep adequate records of the action they took
  • failed to follow their own published policies and procedures
  • did not offer fair compensation
We are unable to:
  • investigate a complaint referred to us before the landlord’s complaint procedure
  • investigate complaints that are better dealt with by the court, like personal injury claims
  • investigate councils in their role outside of being a landlord
  • decide if there is a category 1 or 2 hazard present
  • order your landlord to offer you a permanent move outside its policies and procedures

 

 

What we can do following an investigation

If we decide your landlord got things wrong, we can order it to:

  • apologise
  • pay compensation
  • inspect your home
  • undertake works
  • offer suitable temporary alternative accommodation
  • help with an insurance claim
  • consider reviewing its policy and practices

Other ways to get help with hazards in your home

Councils have enforcement powers where they believe there are certain hazards in your home. You can report the problems in your home to your council. Councils cannot use enforcement powers against themselves. If you’re a council tenant this will not apply to you.

If you have concerns your council will not take enforcement action against your landlord, you may be able to complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

Reporting a change to your landlord

Awaab’s Law applies to hazards reported to your landlord on or after 27 October 2025. If you’ve already reported a hazard like damp and mould before this date, the new time limits will not apply.

If your situation changes after 27 October 2025, you must tell your landlord. This is called a 'material change' and could mean your landlord must follow Awaab's Law time limits.

What counts as a material change:

  • a change in the condition of your home - for example, the damp and mould has got worse since you first reported it
  • a change in how the problem affects you - for example, you now have symptoms, or your symptoms have got worse because of the hazard

A material change can be either of these on their own, or both happening together. This could also include a change in your individual circumstances.

What to do if your landlord does not respond to your complaint?

If your landlord is not responding to your reports, you can raise a formal complaint.

Your landlord has 5 working days to acknowledge your complaint and 10 working days to issue a stage 1 response. At stage 2, a landlord has 5 working days to acknowledge this and 20 working days to respond. It can sometimes extend these timescales, but it should tell you if it does.

If you’ve raised a complaint and your landlord has not provided a response within these timescales, you can contact us for help.

Where you provide evidence, you raised a complaint and the timescale for the landlord to respond has passed, we can talk to your landlord and tell it to respond.

Referring your complaint to us

Once you’ve received your final response, you can ask us to investigate.

You can refer your complaint to us within 12 months of your landlord's final response. We’re unlikely to investigate complaints referred after this deadline unless there are good reasons for the delay.

Resident information

Explore our resident information pages which share topics related to Awaab's Law. Find out how to use our service if you are unable to resolve a complaint with your landlord.

Repairs and property condition

This information explains how residents can get help if you are concerned about repairs or the condition of your home.

Repairs information for residents

Reporting a problem

This information is for residents who need to report an issue to their landlord. This could be any problem, such as a repair, antisocial behaviour or a query about a charge.

Find out how to report a problem

When to get help from us?

Find out when to bring a complaint to us for investigation, how we can help, and what you need to do. 

find out when to contact us