What Awaab's Law is
Awaab's Law is the Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025, in force since 27 October 2025. It applies to registered providers of social housing, councils and housing associations, for social homes in England (not shared ownership). It works as a term implied into every tenancy, so a tenant can take action if the landlord misses a deadline. The landlord's defence is that it used all reasonable endeavours.
Phase 1 covered damp and mould, and emergency hazards of every kind.
What changes on 30 November 2026
Amendment regulations, due to take effect on 30 November 2026, extend the significant-hazard deadlines to:
- Excess cold and excess heat
- Falls: on the level, on stairs and steps, and between levels
- Electrical hazards
- Fire and explosions
- Structural collapse and falling elements
- Domestic hygiene, pests and refuse
A third phase, planned for 2027, is expected to bring in the remaining hazards in the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, apart from overcrowding.
The clocks
- Emergency hazards: investigated and made safe within 24 hours, round the clock.
- Significant hazards: investigated within 10 working days of the landlord becoming aware.
- Written summary to the tenant: within 3 working days of the investigation.
- Made safe: within 5 working days of the investigation.
- Work to stop it coming back: begun within 5 working days, or, where that is not reasonably practicable, booked in that time and begun within 12 weeks.
- If the home cannot be made safe in time, the household must be offered suitable alternative accommodation.
There is no exception for no access. Access needs 24 hours' written notice, so every attempt, with its date, time and method, needs to be on the record.
Fire: what is in and what is out
Fire hazards inside a home, such as a missing smoke alarm, come under Awaab's Law from 30 November.
Fire risks in the parts of a block that the Fire Safety Order already covers are excluded. The government's examples are damaged fire doors, a blocked means of escape and gaps in compartmentation. They stay with the building's Responsible Person under fire safety law.
That is not a lighter duty. The Fire Safety Order, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and the Building Safety Act still require those defects to be found, fixed and evidenced. They are simply not on the Awaab's Law clock.
Asbestos: an emergency hazard now, more to come
Asbestos is not one of the Phase 2 significant hazards, but it already counts as an emergency hazard: disturbed asbestos that poses an imminent risk has to be investigated and made safe within 24 hours today. Phase 3 is expected to bring asbestos into the significant-hazard deadlines.
Up-to-date surveys and registers are what make fast investigation possible. A landlord that knows where its asbestos is can answer quickly when a tenant reports damage.
How we help landlords meet the clocks
- Competent investigation: BOHS P402 asbestos surveyors and compartmentation surveyors.
- Make-safe and remedial work by our own teams, with no subcontract chain to wait on.
- Licensed asbestos removal under our full three-year HSE licence, with independent clearance.
- Photographs, times and findings recorded on site, so the written summary and the record of every access attempt are ready when you need them.
Sources
Awaab's Law Phase 2: guidance for social landlords (GOV.UK) · Awaab's Law: regulations (GOV.UK) · SI 2025/1042 (legislation.gov.uk)
LE Group technical team · Reviewed November 2026. General guidance only, not legal advice.