Awaab’s Law
Awaab’s Law will be effective from October 2025. This page shares our latest casework and learning on complaints about housing hazards related to the new law.
What is Awaab's Law?
Awaab's Law is a new law that comes into force on 27 October 2025. This legislation requires social landlords to fix reported damp, mould and emergency repairs within strict timeframes.
The law will focus first on damp and mould before covering further housing hazards from 2026.
The Government has published guidance to help landlords understand these new requirements.
Awaab’s Law guidance for social landlords on GOV.UK
Ahead of the introduction of this law we have published a series of reports on complaints about hazardous living conditions. This is to help landlords prepare for the legislation and prevent future complaints.
These reports cover:
- challenges faced by residents and landlords
- key learning points
This page provides resources and guidance on housing hazards covered by Awaab's Law. We will continue to share updates and learning from our casework.
Key topics pages related to Awaab’s Law
Our key topics pages highlight important trends and learning from our casework. They provide guidance for both landlords and residents. This includes practical actions for improvement and clear routes to access information.
Damp and mould
Damp and mould makes up 50% of our cases and can cause serious health risks.
Find guidance, case studies and training for landlords from our casework on our key topics page.
Repairs
Repairs are the most complained about topic in our casework. When disrepair is not handled well, it can harm residents' daily lives.
Our key topics page shares guides, case studies, reports and recommendation on this topic.
Knowledge and Information Management (KIM)
Effective knowledge and information management allows landlords to make informed decisions using data about residents, properties, and maintenance.
Discover guidance, spotlight reports, and training options to help you understand this key topic.
Noise complaints
Noise affects many people's peace at home. It can cause stress and harm health. It can be a difficult issue for landlords to resolve.
Explore our guidance, spotlight reports, and training options for landlords to help you navigate through this key topic.
Decants and moves
When homes need big repairs, residents sometimes need to move out. This is called a "decant" in social housing.
Our key topic page shares the latest learning on this topic and shares recommendations for landlords.
Pest infestation
Pest issues can cause stress for residents and can be hard for landlords to fix quickly.
Discover guidance, case studies and learning from our reports to help you understand this key topic.
Learning from severe maladministration reports
We have produced a series of ‘learning from severe maladministration’ reports providing lessons to help the sector prepare for Awaab’s Law.
Emergency repairs
Residents face dangerous conditions when landlords delay emergency repairs.
Our report shows why landlords must sort repair needs quickly, act fast in emergencies, and put the needs of households first.
Good communication
Poor communication can lead to complaints. Awaab's Law will set new rules for how quickly landlords must write to residents after problems are reported.
Our report highlights the importance of good communication.
Building safety
This report focuses on the 'Big 6' safety areas: asbestos, fire, water, gas, electrics and lifts.
The cases will help in the future elements of Awaab's Law as we move into 2026-27. We show what went wrong and how to avoid these safety failures in the future.
Inspections on damp and mould
Landlords must check homes quickly when residents report damp and mould issues.
This report helps landlords prepare for Awaab's Law by sharing key lessons on timely inspections and good record-keeping—problems that dominate our casework.
Hazards
This report covers 12 of the 29 hazards that Awaab's Law will address.
It shows the harm caused when hazards aren't found and fixed quickly. Hazards featured include bad water supply, risk of falls, unsafe electrics, and damp and mould.
Damp and mould
We share learning from 100 severe maladministration cases about damp and mould.
This report focuses on fixing issues quickly. Damp and mould make up 50% of our cases and can cause serious health risks.
Decants and moves
This report examines failures in temporary moves for residents, including a case where a resident was left in temporary accommodation for 3 years.
It shares learning to help landlords prepare for Awaab's Law when moves are required for repairs or health risks.
Leaks
This report examines how landlords respond to leaks and the resulting damp and mould, which drive many complaints to us.
It shares learning from complex cases to help landlords improve their handling of these issues
Spotlight reports
Our Spotlight reports examine common landlord service problems we see in our casework. These reports share key lessons and practical recommendations to help improve housing services.
Spotlight report on repairs and maintenance - repairing trust
This Spotlight report reveals a 474% increase in repair complaints. Exploring the critical role trust plays in effective repairs and maintenance.
It shows the need for stronger relationships between residents, landlords, and contractors.
Spotlight report on knowledge and information management
Discover how improved knowledge and information management can transform complaint handling.
The report highlights how weaknesses in landlords' data systems can impact complaints. Our follow-up report reveals that 89% of landlords who used our recommendations experienced positive service improvements.
Podcast with the Centre for Learning
Repairs and preparing for Awaab's Law
Eastlight Community Homes talks with us about their repairs approach.
They share how they are preparing for Awaab's Law and what they learned while contributing to our Spotlight report "Repairing Trust".
Listen to learn about their work and experiences.
Landlord Learning Hub
Centre for Learning online platform
The Learning Hub is the Centre for Learning’s dedicated training platform. It is exclusively available for member landlords of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme.
All landlords are required to create an account to access the range of learning materials.
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.
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.
Noise complaints
This information is for residents who need to report an issue with noise in their home.