Awaab’s Law Year One: What’s Changed, What Hasn’t, and What’s Next

The results have been stark: 97% maladministration is the Housing Ombudsman's finding rate on completed Awaab's Law cases, according to The Guardian. The most common failings were not realising that Awaab’s Law applied, failing to investigate emergency hazards within the set timeframe, and not keeping records.

That sums up the first year of Awaab’s Law. The rules are built around repair deadlines, but so far landlords are being caught out on recognition and evidence. Phase 2 starts on 30 November 2026 (GOV.UK), and those same weaknesses will then apply across seven more hazard categories.

What has Awaab’s Law changed in its first year?

Awaab’s Law turned repair timescales from internal policy into a legal requirement. Since 27 October 2025, fixed deadlines have applied to almost every social tenancy in England for all emergency hazards and significant damp and mould hazards.

Under the government’s guidance, for significant hazards landlords must:

• Investigate within 10 working days of becoming aware of a potential hazard
• Complete safety works within 5 working days of the investigation concluding
• Send the resident a written summary within 3 working days of the investigation concluding, unless all works are already finished
• Begin, or take steps to begin, work to stop the hazard recurring within 5 working days, and within 12 weeks at the latest

For emergency hazards, the investigation and the safety work must both be completed within 24 hours of the landlord becoming aware.

Over the past 12 months, three things have changed in practice:

1. Landlords have been held to "day zero". The clock runs from the point of report, notice or knowledge, not from when a job is raised (Housing Ombudsman).
2. The Ombudsman has started ruling on Awaab's Law cases. By 15 July 2026, it had logged more than 400 cases where Awaab’s Law came into play (The Guardian).
3. The Phase 2 date slipped. Phase 2 was once expected in October 2026 (Shelter). On 13 July 2026, the Government confirmed Phase 2 will come into force on 30 November 2026 (Pennington).

Why are landlords still failing Awaab’s Law cases?

Most Awaab’s Law failings start when the report comes in, not when the operative arrives. Missing a case, missing a deadline and missing a record are all triage or evidence problems. More contractor capacity doesn’t fix any of them.

Awareness can also start earlier than many teams assume. Government guidance says a landlord can become aware of a hazard through a housing officer, a contractor or another third party, not only through a formal report.

Here is how it goes wrong. A resident calls about “a bit of mould behind the wardrobe” and mentions her son’s asthma. The call handler logs it as a routine cosmetic repair. The 10-day clock is already running, and nobody knows. Months later, the case reaches the Ombudsman. The landlord can’t show when it first knew, what it investigated, or what it told the resident.

The legal defence doesn’t rescue that case. Social landlords have a defence if they use all reasonable endeavours to comply. That defence only works if the evidence exists.

What hasn’t changed for residents?

For many residents, very little feels different yet. Residents and campaigners told The Guardian there is an enforcement gap. Campaigners said it is no easier for people to enforce their legal rights than before Awaab’s Law. The Ombudsman is bringing on 77 new caseworkers to cut its backlog, and complaints take an average of nine to 12 months to resolve.

The law also isn’t retrospective. Landlords don’t have to investigate hazards reported before 27 October 2025 until the hazard is reported again or there is a material change (Shelter).

For housing providers, this cuts both ways. Redress won’t stay slow as the Ombudsman grows its team. Every case that does reach it will be judged on the records you hold today.

What does Awaab’s Law Phase 2 mean for housing providers?

From 30 November 2026, Phase 2 applies the same investigate, make-safe and remedy timescales to seven more hazard categories. These are excess cold, excess heat, falls, structural collapse, fire and explosions, electrical hazards, and domestic hygiene (including personal hygiene and food safety). The same written summary rules apply to all of them.

Two points matter most:

1. Excess cold arrives just as winter starts. Government guidance notes that a broken boiler is likely to be a more severe issue in colder months.
2. Many “routine” repairs will be on a legal clock. A failed boiler in an older resident’s home, a loose stair handrail or a faulty consumer unit could all qualify, depending on severity and who lives there.

Read our step-by-step guide to Awaab's Law Phase 2 for more on hazard mapping, evidence trails, triage, reporting, contractor SLAs and team briefings.

What comes after Phase 2 in 2027?

Phase 3 is expected in 2027 and will extend Awaab’s Law to all remaining Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) hazards, excluding overcrowding (RPC). No start date has been confirmed.

Separately, the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 contains the legal framework to extend Awaab’s Law to the private rented sector, but the timetable has not yet been confirmed (Osbornes Law).

The direction is clear. By the end of 2027, nearly every significant hazard in a social home will carry a legal deadline. Processes built only for damp and mould won’t cope with that.

What should housing teams do before 30 November?

Eight weeks is enough time to close the gaps that year one exposed, if you start with those gaps.

1. Test recognition at first contact. Take 20 recent repair reports. For each one, ask whether the person who logged it would have spotted a Phase 2 hazard. If the answer depends on who took the call, your triage needs fixing, not your policy.
2. Close the evidence gaps. Every case needs one timestamped record covering four things: report received, investigation logged, written summary sent, and works completed. If that record is split across your Housing Management System (HMS), contractor job sheets and a shared inbox, choose one source of truth now.
3. Plan for winter volume. Excess cold reports will arrive at the same time as the seasonal rise in damp and mould. Estimate how many extra cases will be on a legal clock. Then check your contractor SLAs match the legal timescales, rather than the other way round.
4. Connect first contact to the evidence trail. Most year-one failings happened in the gap between a report coming in and a record being kept. Technology that triages each report on first contact and logs every step automatically closes that gap without adding admin. More on how that works below.

How askporter Housing closes the gaps

askporter Housing deals with both first contact and the evidence trail. Smart Repairs uses AI-powered repair triage to classify reports correctly from the start. At Legal & General Affordable Homes, 97% of repairs are automatically diagnosed and allocated to the right supplier (read the case study).

Every conversation, investigation and update sits in one audit trail, from first report to completed works. It works alongside any HMS.

If year one has left you unsure where your gaps are, book a demo. We’ll map Phase 1 and 2 against your current repairs process.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

• The Guardian, “Awaab’s law is not working, say social housing tenants stuck in mouldy homes”, 21 September 2026: link
• MHCLG, “Awaab’s Law Phase 2: Guidance for social landlords”, GOV.UK, updated 31 July 2026: link
• Housing Ombudsman, “Guidance on complaints involving hazards”: link
• Shelter England, “How Awaab’s law changes the rules on hazards in social housing”, October 2025: link
• Pennington, “Awaab’s Law: What to expect”: link
• RPC, “Awaab’s law: the latest”: link
• Osbornes Law, “Awaab’s Law for private landlords”: link
• askporter, “Legal & General Affordable Homes” case study: link