Duration: 20 minutes
Platform: Microsoft Teams
Speakers: Kerri Harrison, Baljit Basra, & Donna McCarthy
Landmark reforms will require social landlords to investigate and fix hazards within specified time frames (or rehouse tenants where hazards cannot be made safe).
From October 2025, the reforms will apply to certain issues, including damp and mould, and require landlords to act within set time periods (including some within 24 hours).
Why Boards need to be thinking about it:
- Legal obligations – Awaab’s Law will introduce new and precise legal obligations which will result in additional legal exposure on landlords.
- Practical issues – Resourcing issues, budgetary control and training of staff will all need to be considered. Landlords will need to ensure their contractors are also informed (with the possibility of refreshing their external contracting obligations/KPIs) and ensuring their access procedures are up-to-date and utilised with speed.
- Reputational damage – There is the risk of damage to reputation if enforcement is necessary, which could lead to sanction from the Ombudsman and/or Regulator.
- Tenant safety – The need to ensure compliance with new timeframes is likely to trigger additional complaints/escalation and legal action – which in turn will result in more costs and legal exposure.
- Phased implementation – While the first stages of implementation will focus on damp and mould, along with emergency hazards, subsequent implementations are expected to cover a wider range of issues.
In this session we will cover:
- A brief explanation/intro of what Awaab’s Law is – As part of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, this section will set out what the policy proposals behind the changes are.
- Explain the phased approach – This will detail the changes happening in October 2025 and what is expected beyond that.
- Why Boards need to be thinking about this – This will highlight the risks and new exposure on organisations along with how to plan and mitigate them.
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