Awaab's Law for Private Landlords: The Proposed Timescales Explained

Awaab's Law does not yet apply to private landlords in England. The government is consulting until 18 December 2026 on how section 60 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 should extend it, with options to investigate significant hazards in 5, 10 or 15 working days and deal with emergencies in 12, 24 or 48 hours. The earliest feasible start date is 2027.

This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Landlords should seek independent legal advice for their specific circumstances. It describes the position in England.

What is the Awaab's Law consultation, and when does it close?

The consultation, titled Extending Awaab's Law to private rented tenancies and to licences, was published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) on 9 October 2026. It closes at 11.59pm on 18 December 2026 and covers England only.

It asks how the hazard response rules that already bind social landlords should work in the private rented sector, and whether they should also cover three kinds of accommodation occupied under a licence: supported housing, temporary accommodation for homeless households, and accommodation for care leavers. The full document is on GOV.UK.

Our earlier explainer, when does Awaab's Law apply to private landlords, covers the background and the social housing rollout. This article focuses on the options now on the table.

What is the legal basis for extending Awaab's Law?

The power comes from section 60 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025. It amends section 10A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which at present applies only to social housing, so that it can apply to dwelling-houses in England let on leases of less than seven years. Section 61 of the 2025 Act makes the equivalent provision for some licences.

Section 60 was not brought into force at Royal Assent, and legislation.gov.uk still shows it as prospective. The detailed requirements, including every timescale, will be set by regulations made after the consultation. Until then, nothing in this article is a current legal duty for private landlords.

What timescales are proposed for private landlords?

The consultation takes the social housing timescales as its baseline and, for each step, asks whether private landlords should have the same period, a shorter one or a longer one. Working days are used for every step except emergencies. In the social housing rules, a working day excludes weekends, bank holidays, Christmas Day and Good Friday; the private sector definition will be set by the regulations.

Each question also allows an "other" answer. The figures in the right hand column are options, not proposals the government has chosen, and the final regulations may differ from all of them.

The consultation also notes that a physical inspection would not generally be required unless the tenant asks for one, and that photos and video may allow a remote investigation in some cases.

Which hazards would be covered?

The default proposal is to cover every hazard in the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) except crowding and space. The consultation asks respondents to say, hazard by hazard, which of the 21 hazards should be included. The hazard list itself was revised in 2026, and our guide to the HHSRS reform sets out what changed.

It also asks two narrower questions that matter to landlords:

• Tenant breach. Whether hazards caused by the tenant's breach of contract should be excluded. The consultation says there is a good case for this, supported by clear guidance, and notes that in social housing the exclusion does not allow damp and mould to be dismissed on assumptions about a tenant's "lifestyle".
• Leasehold flats. Where the hazard is in a part of the building the freeholder controls, whether to exclude it or require the landlord to take reasonable steps to get the freeholder to act.

A further question asks whether a hazard should be judged on its severity alone, as the HHSRS does, or with the circumstances of the people living there, as social landlords must.

When could Awaab's Law start for private landlords?

No start date has been set. The consultation states that the earliest feasible implementation date would be 2027, because regulations have to be made after responses are considered. It asks respondents to choose between 2027, 2028, 2029 or another year (Q30), and whether the rules should be phased in, with damp, mould and emergency hazards first, as in social housing.

It also asks whether the Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman, which the consultation expects landlords to join in 2028, should be operating before Awaab's Law applies. Our guide to the Landlord Ombudsman explains how that scheme is expected to work.

For comparison, the social housing rules are arriving in stages:

How would the rules be enforced against private landlords?

The consultation describes enforcement mainly through the tenancy itself. The requirements would take effect as a term implied into the tenancy, so a tenant could bring a claim for breach, and the court could order the work to be done, award compensation and award costs. The Ombudsman would also be able to order action, an apology or compensation.

Councils are not proposed as the enforcers of the timescales. They would keep their existing HHSRS powers, including action on category 1 hazards. Section 10A(5) of the 1985 Act gives a landlord a defence if it proves it used all reasonable endeavours to avoid the breach. Section 60 does not remove that defence, so it would apply to private tenancies covered by the new rules. How it works in practice will depend on the final regulations and on how the courts apply it, so a landlord relying on it would need evidence of every step taken.

One proposal the government itself doubts is a duty to offer temporary alternative accommodation when a home cannot be made safe in time. The consultation notes that 45% of private landlords own a single property and says it has concerns about the feasibility of this requirement.

What applies to private landlords now?

The existing law already requires landlords to deal with damp, mould and serious hazards, even before any Awaab's Law timescales arrive:

What Awaab's Law adds is a fixed clock. Under section 11, the standard is a reasonable time after notice, which depends on the facts. The proposed regulations would replace that judgement with set periods for each step. Our article on damp and mould and the response deadlines covers how the current duty works in practice.

Should landlords respond to the consultation?

Landlords who expect to be affected are advised to consider responding, because the questions on timescales, the tenant breach exclusion, the start date and alternative accommodation are all open. Responses can be made through the online survey linked from the GOV.UK consultation page, by email to [email protected], or by post, before 11.59pm on 18 December 2026.

Answers carry more weight where they describe practical experience, such as how long it takes in your area to get a damp specialist or a roofer on site, or how often access is delayed.

What can landlords do now to prepare?

1. Read the consultation and decide whether to respond before 18 December 2026.
2. Set up one route for tenants to report problems, and record the date and time of every report.
3. Line up contractors for damp, roofing, plumbing and electrical work who can attend at short notice.
4. Record each investigation: who looked, when, how, and what they found.
5. Put findings and next steps to the tenant in writing, and keep a copy with the date sent.
6. Keep completion evidence, including invoices and dated before and after photos.
7. Record every access request and refusal, since access delays are likely to matter if a timescale is missed.

Most of these steps also help with the current section 11 duty, and our guide to the first 14 days after a repair report walks through them.

Keeping a dated hazard record in LLCR

If Awaab's Law reaches private renting in the form proposed, a dispute is likely to turn on dates: when the landlord knew, when they investigated, what they told the tenant and when the work was done. The LLCR Issue Register is designed to hold that record. Each repair or hazard has a timestamped timeline that cannot be edited after the fact, with photos, quotes and invoices attached, and a Hazard Response Pack PDF can be exported where an HHSRS hazard type is recorded. LLCR does not set statutory deadlines or carry out HHSRS assessments, which remain matters for the law and the local authority. LLCR is free for one property.

Want to see where your properties stand before any new timescales arrive? The free LLCR compliance checker takes a few minutes, and the Issue Register keeps a dated record of every repair from report to completion.