Awaab’s Law expands to seven housing hazards

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has laid the second phase of Awaab’s Law before Parliament, extending statutory repair timescales across seven additional categories of social-housing hazard.

From 30 November 2026, the duties will cover electrical hazards, falls, fire and explosions, excess cold, excess heat, structural collapse and falling elements, and domestic hygiene risks, including pest infestations.

Where any covered hazard creates an immediate and serious danger, the landlord must investigate and make the property safe within 24 hours. That requirement extends the emergency response duties introduced alongside the first phase of the law.

Serious hazards that are not classed as immediate emergencies will remain subject to fixed deadlines. Landlords must investigate within ten working days, provide the tenant with a written summary within three working days, complete urgent safety work within five working days of the investigation, and begin longer-term repairs within 12 weeks.

Phase 1 came into force on 27 October 2025 and introduced formal response periods for dangerous damp and mould, together with emergency hazards. By extending the regime across a broader range of property conditions, the second phase places more of the repairs service within a statutory, case-by-case timetable.

Repair performance will no longer be measured adequately through average completion times or the total number of jobs closed each month. Compliance will depend on the treatment of every individual report, including when it was received, how the risk was triaged, whether resident vulnerability was considered, when an inspection took place, what temporary action followed, and how the tenant was kept informed.

For contractors, the expanded scope creates a more varied emergency and urgent-workload profile. Electrical failures, unstable components, unsafe stairs, fire-compartmentation concerns, heating loss, overheating, sanitation defects, and infestations require different competencies, equipment, materials, and escalation routes.

Landlords will therefore need response arrangements that extend beyond a single general repairs contract. Electrical contractors, structural engineers, fire specialists, pest-control providers, drainage teams, heating engineers, access contractors, and temporary-accommodation services may all be required within a legally defined period.

Because the 24-hour requirement applies outside routine working patterns, out-of-hours coverage will become particularly important. A landlord may receive an initial report with incomplete information, yet still needs a defensible process for deciding whether the condition represents an emergency.

Call handlers and digital reporting systems must capture enough information to trigger the correct technical response without expecting residents to diagnose the defect themselves. Photographs, video calls, previous repair records, asset data, and clear escalation questions can support the first assessment, although serious hazards will still require competent physical inspection.

Records showing electrical inspection history, known structural concerns, earlier damp reports, fire-risk actions, resident vulnerabilities, component age, and previous repairs can shorten the time required to understand a new complaint. Where information is fragmented or unreliable, each response begins with a costly reconstruction of the property’s history.

The regulatory change arrives while providers are already managing substantial investment demands across decarbonisation, building safety, decent-homes work, planned maintenance, and new development. New approaches to material forecasting and planned maintenance, including the expansion of dedicated social-housing supply services, are intended to reduce time lost between diagnosis and the arrival of suitable components.

Stock availability alone will not secure compliance. A repair may require asbestos information, resident liaison, scaffold or access equipment, isolation of services, specialist design, building-control input, or temporary measures before permanent work can begin.

Contract administrators will need clear authority to approve urgent expenditure without waiting for routine commercial processes. Framework rates and standard schedules may cover common work, but unstable structures, complex fire defects, and unusual electrical failures can demand specialist procurement at short notice.

The written-summary requirement also raises the evidential standard around communication. Informal telephone updates may support resident relationships, but landlords must retain a clear record of the identified hazard, proposed action, expected timescales, and any interim safety measures.

Where work cannot be completed within the prescribed period, the audit trail will become central to regulatory scrutiny and potential legal action. Records must show what prevented progress, what alternatives were considered, whether the resident remained at risk, and how the case was escalated.

Phase 3 is expected in 2027 and will extend the regime to the remaining hazards covered by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, excluding overcrowding. Providers that treat the November change as an isolated compliance exercise may have to rebuild their systems when the final phase arrives.

A durable operating model will need to assign risk, timescale, competence, communication, and escalation across every repair category. By 30 November, that model must function consistently across direct labour teams, call centres, consultants, framework contractors, specialist subcontractors, and resident-facing services.

The practical test will not be the publication of revised policies but the performance of the entire response chain when a resident reports an unsafe condition. Information, authority, technical capacity, materials, access, and communication must align quickly enough to meet the statutory deadline and remove the hazard.