Awaab's Law for Private Landlords: When It Applies and What Is Confirmed

Awaab's Law for Private Landlords: When It Applies and What Is Confirmed

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 applies to England only.

The short answer

Awaab's Law does not yet apply to private landlords, and no start date has been confirmed. It is in force for social housing in England, and the Renters' Rights Act 2025 gives the government the power to extend it to the private rented sector, but the detailed rules and the date they take effect will be set by regulations after a consultation. Commentary from housing bodies suggests a private sector start is unlikely before 2027, though that is an expectation rather than a fixed date.

The direction is settled and the timing is not. That gap is an opportunity: a private landlord who builds good habits now, prompt responses to hazards and a clear record of them, will be ready whenever the rules arrive. Keeping that record is one of the things LLCR is designed to make simple, through the Property Issue Log described below.

What Awaab's Law is

Awaab's Law is the name given to Section 42 of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, which inserted a new duty into the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. It works by implying a term into the tenancy that requires the landlord to take action on prescribed hazards within timescales set by regulations. It is named after Awaab Ishak, the two-year-old who died in 2020 after prolonged exposure to damp and mould in his social home in Rochdale.

The significance is that it converts a general expectation to act on hazards into hard deadlines. A landlord can no longer treat a damp and mould report as something to get to eventually. Once the duty applies, the clock starts when the report is made, which places a premium on recording exactly when a tenant raised an issue and what happened next. That single fact, the date a hazard was first reported, is often the hardest thing to prove after the event, and it is the first thing LLCR's Property Issue Log captures.

What the timescales look like in social housing

The social housing rules give a good indication of the shape a private sector version might take, though the private timescales will be set separately and could differ. Under the current social housing regime, a landlord must make an emergency hazard safe within 24 hours, investigate a significant damp and mould hazard within 10 working days, provide the tenant with a written summary of the findings within 3 working days of the investigation, and begin to address a confirmed significant hazard within 5 working days. Where the work cannot begin in that window, it must begin within 12 weeks, and if the home cannot be made safe in time the landlord must offer suitable alternative accommodation at its own expense.

The timescales are set by the Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025. The first phase, from 27 October 2025, covers emergency hazards and significant damp and mould. The government has said it will extend the duty to a wider range of Housing Health and Safety Rating System hazards, such as excess cold, falls, and fire and electrical hazards, during 2026, and to almost all remaining HHSRS hazards, except overcrowding, in 2027. None of these figures binds a private landlord yet, but they show the direction of travel clearly, and a landlord who logs and tracks responses now will already be working to the kind of timeline the rules describe.

How it will reach the private rented sector

Section 60 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 extends the Section 42 duty to the private rented sector, requiring private landlords under an assured tenancy to address prescribed hazards, such as damp and mould, within specified time periods. The Act provides the power. It does not by itself set the timescales or the start date.

Those details will be set out in regulations, and the government has committed to consulting first. Ministers have noted that private and social landlords differ, for example in the size of their portfolios, and have said they want to consult on how Awaab's Law should apply to privately rented homes. Until that consultation concludes and regulations are made, the private sector duty is not in force, so any specific date circulating for private landlords should be treated as an estimate rather than a deadline. The sensible response is to watch for the consultation and prepare in the meantime, rather than wait for a date to be announced and then react.

What already applies to private landlords now

It would be a mistake to read "Awaab's Law does not apply yet" as "damp and mould can wait." Private landlords already have duties that bite today. Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires landlords to keep the structure and key installations in repair. The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 implies a term that the home is fit for human habitation throughout the tenancy, which includes being free from serious damp and mould.

Councils can also assess hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System and take enforcement action, and the Renters' Rights Act has widened council powers and the reach of rent repayment orders. A tenant facing a serious hazard therefore already has routes to a remedy, and a landlord who ignores a report is already exposed. The stakes are not small. Where a landlord commits a relevant housing offence, the enforcement toolkit now includes civil penalties and rent repayment orders that can require rent to be repaid to the tenant, and a poor record of dealing with disrepair can also weigh against a landlord in a possession claim. It is worth noting that Awaab's Law will eventually cover more than the existing repairing duty, because it reaches hazards caused by deficiencies such as defects and a lack of maintenance, not only disrepair. A landlord who already keeps a clear record of how hazards were handled is therefore protecting themselves under today's law, not only preparing for tomorrow's, and that record is precisely what LLCR's Property Issue Log is designed to build as events happen rather than after a dispute begins.

How LLCR helps you prepare

The most useful preparation is the habit Awaab's Law will eventually require: respond to hazard reports quickly, and keep a clear record of what was reported, when, and what was done in response. Many private landlords are already choosing to mirror the social housing timescales as good practice, and a documented timeline is what turns that good practice into evidence.

This is the specific job LLCR's Property Issue Log is built for. It records a hazard report and every step that follows, the inspection, the works, and the completion, as a dated, ordered timeline, and it can produce an Issue Response Pack as a factual record of what happened and when. The Issue Response Pack is a factual record only, not a defence pack and not an assessment of hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, but as a clear, chronological account it is exactly what a landlord will want to hand over if a tenant, council, or court later asks how a damp and mould report was handled. Alongside it, LLCR tracks the certificates and deadlines that sit around property condition, and the Ava AI assistant can answer questions about what a specific duty requires, so a landlord is never guessing about their obligations.

This page reflects the position as of July 2026 and will be updated as the government consults on Awaab's Law for the private rented sector and confirms the timescales and start date.

LLCR's Property Issue Log lets landlords in England record a hazard report and every response to it as a dated, ordered timeline, and produce an Issue Response Pack as a factual record of what happened and when.