Awaab's Law for landlords: damp and mould obligations

In December 2020, two-year-old Awaab Ishak died from a respiratory condition caused by prolonged exposure to mould in his family's flat, owned by Rochdale Boroughwide Housing. The coroner's inquest in November 2022 found that Awaab's death was a direct consequence of mould his parents had been reporting for years and which the housing association had repeatedly failed to investigate, blaming the family's lifestyle and ventilation habits.

The case triggered immediate regulatory and political reaction. The Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, given Royal Assent in July 2023, included provisions requiring social landlords to investigate hazards within strict timeframes. These provisions — known collectively as Awaab's Law — set the precedent that damp and mould complaints can no longer be deferred or attributed to tenant behaviour without investigation.

The detailed Awaab's Law obligations are set in secondary legislation, with provisions phased in by hazard category. Broadly, social landlords must: investigate hazards within a defined working-day window once reported; provide a written summary of the investigation and proposed remedial action to the tenant; complete repairs within set timeframes; and treat emergency hazards (those posing a significant and imminent risk to health) with same- or next-day response.

Damp and mould fall within the most prominent hazard category covered. The Decent Homes Standard, which governs social housing condition more broadly, was also strengthened in parallel, lowering the threshold for what counts as a serious damp or mould hazard.

The Renters' Rights Bill, currently progressing through Parliament, is the main vehicle for extending Awaab-style obligations into the private rented sector (PRS). The Bill takes a similar approach to the social-housing regime: timed investigation duties, written reports, defined remediation windows, and emergency response for serious hazards. Specific timeframes and the precise hazard categories will land in secondary legislation once the Bill is enacted.

Even before that comes into force, every landlord is already subject to the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, which makes any property let on a tenancy 'fit for human habitation' an implied term of the contract. Damp and mould serious enough to render the property unfit are already actionable under that Act, and tenants have brought successful cases under it since 2019.

Three things put a landlord in a defensible position. First, a documented investigation process. When a tenant reports damp or mould, attend or commission an independent survey within a few working days; record the date, the report received, the action taken, and the outcome. The Renters' Rights Bill will codify timeframes — but a landlord with a habit of investigating within a week regardless will already comply with most plausible commencement standards.

Second, an independent damp survey on file for any non-trivial case. Free damp checks from contractors who sell chemical DPC injection are not credible evidence. An independent surveyor — typically PCA member with CSRT (Certificated Surveyor in Remedial Treatment) qualification — has no contractor relationship and produces a written report that names the actual cause. That document is the central piece of evidence for any subsequent insurance, tribunal, or rent-repayment-order question.

Third, a remediation pathway that addresses cause, not just symptoms. Most UK damp problems are condensation, not rising damp — the right remediation is usually ventilation upgrades (MVHR, PIV, bathroom and kitchen extractors), surface temperature improvements (insulation, thermal upgrades on cold spots), and tenant communication. Painting over visible mould without addressing the underlying cause is precisely the failure pattern Awaab's Law was written to stop.

A typical 1- to 3-bed property survey runs 1.5–3 hours on site. The surveyor walks the property externally and internally, takes environmental readings in affected rooms (relative humidity, surface temperature, dew point), uses a moisture meter on suspect walls and timbers, and — where rot is suspected — takes a borescope sample or a salts swab. The deliverable is a written report (PDF, usually within 5 working days) that names the cause, the affected fabric, and a prioritised set of remedial recommendations.

On larger or older properties the surveyor may recommend follow-up specialist work — drainage tracing, thermal imaging, or invasive timber inspection. The independent fee for a typical UK property is £150–£400 — a small fraction of the cost of a poorly diagnosed treatment job, and a fraction again of the cost of regulatory enforcement or a rent-repayment-order claim.

Awaab Ishak's death was rooted not just in the mould itself but in years of dismissed reports and unanswered communications. Landlords who acknowledge damp reports promptly, document the response, and explain the remediation plan in writing are in a substantially stronger position regardless of how the regulation lands. The cost of a polite written acknowledgement within 24 hours is zero; the cost of looking like you ignored a tenant for six months is, increasingly, very high.