Awaab's Law Phase 2: The Hazard Deadlines Now Heading for Private Landlords阿瓦卜法案第二阶段：正在走向私人房东的危害处理时限

On 30 November 2026 the repair clock in English housing gets faster and wider. Awaab’s Law — the statutory deadline regime for investigating and fixing serious hazards, named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak — moves into its second phase, adding seven hazard categories to the damp and mould duties that have applied to social landlords since 27 October 2025. The extension does not yet bind private landlords, but it shows exactly how landlords will be measured when it arrives.

What actually changes on 30 November 2026

According to the government’s Phase 2 guidance for social landlords, the amended regulations bring these significant hazards into scope for registered providers of social housing:

• Electrical hazards
• Falls — on the level, on stairs and between levels
• Fire and explosions
• Excess cold, and separately excess heat
• Structural collapse and falling elements
• Domestic hygiene, including pest infestations
• Damp and mould, already in scope since October 2025

All emergency hazards other than overcrowding also fall inside the regime. The practical change is that a landlord can no longer treat a report of a broken stair nosing, a failed extractor fan, a cold bedroom or a pest problem as a routine job on a long list. Each one starts a clock.

The clock itself is the story

The timescales private landlords should study are those social landlords must now meet. Where a hazard presents an imminent risk, it must be investigated and made safe within 24 hours — calendar hours, with no pause for weekends or bank holidays. For a significant hazard the sequence is fixed: investigate within 10 working days of awareness; send the tenant a written summary of the findings within 3 working days of the investigation finishing; complete the urgent safety works within 5 working days of that investigation; and begin longer-term preventative work within 5 working days by default, with a 12-week backstop where a start is not reasonably practicable.

The compliance burden here is not really about repairs. It is about evidence: who received the report, when they acted, and what was put to the tenant in writing.

Where private landlords stand today

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 contains the power to extend Awaab’s Law to private tenancies through secondary legislation. That extension sits in the later phase of the Act’s implementation roadmap, behind the PRS Database rollout that begins on 15 December 2026, and no commencement date has been confirmed. Commentators, including Shelter, point to 2027 as the earliest plausible point, with the regulations and a consultation still to come.

Not being covered yet is not the same as being unregulated. Private landlords are already exposed on the same facts. Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires the structure, exterior and the installations for water, gas, electricity, sanitation and heating to be kept in repair. The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 implies a covenant that a home is and remains fit for human habitation, and a tenant can enforce it in the county court without waiting for a council to act. Under the Housing Act 2004, councils have a duty to act where a Category 1 hazard is found, and under the Renters’ Rights Act, civil penalties for serious breaches run to £7,000, rising to £40,000 for repeated or continuing non-compliance.

The data behind the direction of travel

The latest English Housing Survey headline report (2024–25) found around 1.4 million dwellings, or 5% of the stock, with a damp problem, and put damp at 10% in the private rented sector — higher than the social rented sector at 7% and owner occupation at 4%. Roughly 2.3 million dwellings, or 9%, contained a Housing Health and Safety Rating System Category 1 hazard. Government guidance on damp and mould puts the overall estimate range far wider, at 4% to 27% of homes, depending on how the question is asked. Sector surveys also consistently find that tenants report damp and mould far more often than landlords believe it exists in their properties — a gap that becomes expensive once a statutory deadline applies.

What to do before the rules arrive

• Write a damp, mould and hazard response policy now, using the social housing timescales as your internal standard: 24 hours for emergencies, 10 working days to investigate, written findings to the tenant, 5 working days to begin safety works.
• Keep one compliance file per property — EPC, gas safety certificate, EICR, deposit protection evidence and repair history — so deadlines are evidenced, not reconstructed.
• Inspect each property every three to six months and log findings, including anything a tenant did not complain about.
• Treat ventilation, extractor fans, insulation and gutters as risk controls, not cosmetic maintenance. Most damp claims begin as a small, cheap defect.

The bottom line

Awaab’s Law is still a social housing regime, and its extension to the private rented sector remains a question of when, not if. But 30 November 2026 makes the new operating standard visible. Landlords who adopt those timelines now, and keep a dated paper trail, will treat the transition as a formality rather than a rebuild.

Sources: GOV.UK — Awaab’s Law Phase 2 guidance for social landlords; GOV.UK Housing Hub — Renters’ Rights Act implementation roadmap; Renters’ Rights Act 2025; English Housing Survey 2024–25 headline report; GOV.UK guidance on damp and mould in rented housing; Landlord and Tenant Act 1985; Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018.