Awaab's Law Is Coming for Private Landlords - Here's What Letting Agents Need to Do Now

[H2] What is Awaab's Law?

Awaab's Law is named after Awaab Ishak, a two-year-old boy who died in December 2020 after prolonged exposure to mould in his family's social housing flat in Rochdale. His family reported the damp and mould to their housing association repeatedly. The landlord failed to act. A coroner ruled that Awaab's death was caused by the mould exposure.

The government's response was to introduce legally binding timeframes for landlords to investigate and fix serious housing hazards. These timeframes are not guidelines. They are enforceable duties with real penalties behind them.

Awaab's Law came into force for social housing on 27 October 2025. It is being extended to the private rented sector through the Renters' Rights Act 2025.

[H2] What are the actual response timeframes?

Under the current social housing rules (which set the template for what's coming to the PRS), landlords must meet these deadlines once they become aware of a potential hazard:

Emergency hazards (imminent risk of serious harm):

• Investigate within 24 hours
• Begin safety works within 24 hours
• If the property can't be made safe, offer alternative accommodation at the landlord's expense

Significant hazards (e.g. damp and mould presenting a risk of harm):

• Investigate within 10 working days
• Provide a written summary to the tenant within 3 working days of completing the investigation
• Begin safety works within 5 working days of the investigation
• Complete supplementary works within 12 weeks

The clock starts at "Day Zero" — the moment the landlord or their agent becomes aware of the potential hazard. Not when they get around to checking their emails. Not when the maintenance team picks it up on Monday morning. The moment it's reported.

[H2] When does this apply to private landlords?

Right now, Awaab's Law applies only to social housing tenancies — council landlords and housing associations. But the Renters' Rights Act 2025, which received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025, contains provisions to extend Awaab's Law to the private rented sector.

Here's the implementation timeline:

Phase 1 (1 May 2026): The big-bang reforms. Section 21 no-fault evictions abolished, all tenancies become periodic, rental bidding banned, discrimination protections introduced. This is happening in just over a month.

Phase 2 (late 2026): The national PRS Database goes live regionally and a Landlord Ombudsman is established. All landlords must register.

Phase 3 (timeline to be confirmed, consultation pending): Awaab's Law extended to the private rented sector. The updated Decent Homes Standard also applies to PRS from 2036.

The government has said it will consult on the specific details of how Awaab's Law applies to private landlords before bringing it into force. But the legal framework is already in the Act. The mechanism exists. The question is when, not if.

For social housing, Awaab's Law is also expanding in scope. From October 2026, it will cover additional hazards beyond damp and mould — including excess cold and heat, falls, fire and electrical hazards, structural collapse, and domestic hygiene issues. From 2027, it covers nearly all remaining hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System.

Private landlords should expect the same trajectory.

[H2] What are the penalties?

The Renters' Rights Act introduces a civil penalty regime enforced by local councils. The penalties are significant:

• Up to £7,000 for initial or minor non-compliance
• Up to £40,000 for serious, persistent, or repeat non-compliance
• Criminal prosecution as an alternative to civil penalties in serious cases

Local councils have been given expanded investigatory powers — they can request repair logs, maintenance records, and communication histories. They have also been told by the government to be proactive in enforcement, not just complaints-led. Councils can keep and reinvest penalty revenue into further enforcement activity.

The government guidance is explicit: landlords must keep clear records of all correspondence with tenants and contractors, and records must demonstrate that they acted within the required timeframes. If records are poor or missing, this increases the likelihood of enforcement action.

[H2] Why this matters more for letting agents than landlords

If you're a letting agent managing properties on behalf of landlords, you might think this is the landlord's problem. It isn't — or at least, it won't stay that way.

Industry experts have already identified a dangerous gap in many agency agreements. The landlord assumes the agent is handling maintenance compliance. The agent assumes they need to be explicitly instructed. When something goes wrong, neither party has a clear audit trail showing who knew what and when.

As the Property Redress Scheme's Sean Hooker warned earlier this month: a gap could emerge where responsibility falls between landlord and agent, and neither has documentation to prove they acted.

If you're the one receiving the tenant's email, WhatsApp message, or phone call about a leaking ceiling or black mould in the bathroom — you're the one who needs to prove that the information was received, logged, escalated, and acted upon within the required timeframes.

And here's the uncomfortable reality: most letting agents are managing this process through a combination of email inboxes, WhatsApp groups, phone calls, and sticky notes. There is no centralised record. There is no timestamped audit trail. When a council inspector asks for proof that you acknowledged a damp report within 10 working days, what exactly are you going to show them?

[H2] Five things letting agents should do right now

You don't need to wait for the private rented sector regulations to be finalised. The direction is clear, and the agents who prepare now will be the ones who are protected when the law takes effect.

1. Audit your current communication channels

Map out every way a tenant can contact you. Email? WhatsApp? Phone? Your website contact form? Property portal messaging? Now ask yourself: if a tenant reported a mould problem via WhatsApp at 6pm on a Friday, would you have a timestamped record of when you received it, when you acknowledged it, and when you escalated it? If the answer is no, you have a compliance gap.

2. Centralise your maintenance records

Every maintenance request should be logged in one place with automatic timestamps. Not in a WhatsApp thread. Not in someone's email inbox. Not in a shared spreadsheet that three people have different versions of. One system, one record, one audit trail.

3. Implement a status workflow for maintenance requests

Adopt a simple status workflow: Reported → Acknowledged → In Progress → Resolved. Each status change should be timestamped automatically. This creates the evidence chain that Awaab's Law demands: you can show exactly when you became aware, when you investigated, when you started works, and when you completed them.

4. Stop relying on personal devices for tenant communications

When a staff member leaves your agency and their personal WhatsApp history goes with them, you lose the record of every tenant conversation they had. Under Awaab's Law, that lost record could be the difference between a £7,000 fine and proof that you acted within timeframes. Business communications need to live on business systems, not personal phones.

5. Start documenting everything now

Even before Awaab's Law formally applies to the PRS, councils already have powers under the Housing Act 2004 to take enforcement action on hazards. And the Landlord Ombudsman being established under Phase 2 will provide tenants with a new complaints route. Building good documentation habits now means you're not scrambling to create systems under pressure later.

[H2] The bottom line

Awaab's Law represents the most significant shift in landlord accountability for property hazards in decades. For letting agents, the implications are clear: you need a system that captures every tenant communication, tracks every maintenance request with timestamps, and produces an audit trail that can withstand regulatory scrutiny.

The agents who treat this as an opportunity to professionalise their operations — rather than a burden to be dealt with later — will be the ones who thrive. The ones who wait will be the ones explaining to a council inspector why they can't find the email where a tenant first reported black mould in the bathroom.

The law is here. The timeline is set. The only question is whether you'll be ready.

TenantComms is building a unified communication and maintenance tracking platform for UK letting agents — with compliance-grade audit trails built in from day one. Join the early access list to be first in line when we launch.