Awaab’s Law in Practice: Emergency, Significant, and Routine Hazards

In our recent webinar, 'Awaab's Law in Practice: Your Questions Answered', our experts answered the top questions emerging now Awaab's Law has been implemented, covering categorising significant and emergency hazards and managing the demand of resources. You can catch up on the full webinar on-demand here. 

With phase 1 of Awaab’s Law now in full force, housing providers across the sector are beginning to identify common challenges and what good practice looks like in reality. The first month has shown how important clear processes, consistent categorisation, and good communication are to ensuring compliance. This blog focuses on how the new requirements are changing day-to-day practices, including categorising damp and mould hazards, how cases are assessed, and learning from best practices emerging across the sector.

For a comprehensive breakdown of your legal obligations, who the legislation applies to, and what’s coming next, head over to our dedicated blog, ‘Awaab’s Law: What to expect’ here.

Understanding the three routes for damp and mould cases

Awaab’s Law introduces strict time frames to address damp and mould hazards and emergency hazards. The categorisation process remains broadly the same as it was before, with organisations still responsible for determining how each case is classified. This means your contact centres, surveyors, and contractors must assess reports as they come in and decide whether they are emergency or significant hazards, or, if they do not meet these thresholds, categorise them as routine and therefore outside the scope of Awaab’s Law. 

What's changed? 

The key difference is that housing providers must now overlay the resident’s specific and unique circumstances onto the categorisation process. Vulnerabilities, disabilities, and any other relevant factors must also inform the categorisation of each case.

Once the categorisation has been made, this is when the new time frames for addressing the hazard comes into play. 

Who carries out the initial investigation?

The investigation to determine whether a hazard is emergency, significant, or routine can be carried out by anyone who usually determines the category of your damp and mould cases, including:

• Contact centre staff
• A surveyor arranged to attend within the 10-day window
• A contractor
• A specialist damp and mould surveyor

You have 10 working days to make this determination.

Emergency Hazards

Emergency hazards must be addressed within 24 hours, either by removing the hazard from the resident or moving the resident away from the hazard. Although this time frame is now mandated, nothing has fundamentally changed from before Awaab’s Law, as organisations have always prioritised repairs as emergencies given the severity.

Since the implementation of Awaab's Law, organisations have seen an increase in cases where residents need decanting while the hazard is dealt with. Best practices show housing providers who are managing this increase in decants by using void properties as temporary accommodation, booking rooms in hotels, or short-term lets, such as Airbnbs. Using your void properties is beneficial if you have a large housing stock, but it will mean your voids must be in a suitable condition for use as temporary accommodation.

If you’re looking to carry out Damp and Mould Surveys to prepare your void properties to decant residents into, get in touch with our team, who can provide you with a tailored, comprehensive programme of Damp and Mould Surveys. 

Significant Hazards

Potential significant hazards must be investigated within 10 working days. Following the investigation visit or phone call, you then have three working days to issue a written investigation of findings that summarise what was identified. If all emergency and significant works are fully completed before the three-day window expires, the summary of findings does not need to be issued.

If further works are required, you have:

• Five working days to carry out the initial repair
• Five further working days to complete any additional linked works

If the full repair cannot be completed in that time, you must either:

• Carry out temporary works to remove the hazard and begin the 12-week long-term repair period, demonstrating reasonable progression throughout
• Move the resident out while the full repair is completed.

The 12-week period is not a grace window; it requires ongoing progress and evidence of reasonable action throughout.

Routine Hazards

Any hazard that does not meet the emergency or significant categorisation is treated as a routine case and falls outside of the remit of Awaab’s Law. Although routine cases typically have longer time frames (around 20 days), many organisations are discovering that emergency and significant cases are consuming so much resource that routine cases are being delayed and neglected.

One way organisations are overcoming this is by removing the routine category for damp and mould altogether. Managing all damp and mould cases with the same priority reduces the likelihood of routine cases being overlooked and improves resident outcomes.

Common Challenges Since Implementation

From our lessons learnt over the initial implementation period, two common challenges have emerged:

• Resource pressures from the volume of cases: The fixed time frames have placed increased pressure on resources. Many providers are struggling to resource the volume of routine cases while meeting emergency and significant deadlines.
• Increased number of decants: Due to emergency hazards requiring action within 24 hours, the number of decants is increasing. Where voids or temporary accommodation options are limited, this is creating challenges.

Best Practices

Despite these challenges, organisations have been quick to develop effective strategies to help maintain compliance and improve service quality, including:

Preparing now for the 2026 requirements: Leading organisations are already aligning their approach to include the wider HHSRS hazards that will fall under Awaab's Law in 2026.

Removing the routine category for damp and mould: By treating all damp and mould cases in the same way, organisations ensure all cases are prioritised equally.

Strengthening temporary accommodation options: Ensuring voids are ready to be used for decants and pre-planning hotels or short-term accommodation options to ensure there are alternative accommodation options for residents in the event of an emergency hazard that cannot be fixed within 24 hours.

Improving evidence and communication: Consistent, recorded communication with residents is key to ensuring compliance with Awaab’s Law. Whether this is a phone call recorded in your asset management system, a letter, or a text message, ensure you have some evidence to demonstrate that the communication took place.

If you're looking for support adapting your damp and mould approach to meet Awaab's Law time frames or you require Damp and Mould Surveys on your homes, reach out to get in touch with our team of damp and mould surveying and consultancy experts.