Awaab's Law Phase 2 readiness

Awaab's Law places legally enforceable timescales on social landlords to investigate and resolve hazards. It is being introduced in phases, each widening the range of hazards in scope. Phase 1 covered emergency hazards and significant damp and mould. Phase 2 extends those fixed response deadlines to a much wider set of hazards from 30 November 2026.

This guide is the practical companion to that change — what comes into scope, what a provider has to be able to show, and where the evidence usually falls apart.

The duties widen well beyond damp and mould

From 30 November 2026 the deadlines extend to a wider range of Housing Health and Safety Rating System hazards, including excess cold and heat, falls, structural collapse, fire and explosions, electrical hazards, and domestic hygiene, including personal hygiene and food safety.

That is a different operational problem from damp and mould. It is not one specialist team and one workflow; it is most of the repairs service, running to a statutory clock.

Meeting the deadline is only half the duty

Completing the repair is not enough. For every case, providers need to demonstrate a defensible trail — the kind of assurance that is very hard to hold together when information lives across inboxes, spreadsheets, repairs systems and contractor portals.

What you must be able to show

For every case, the guide sets out seven things a provider has to be able to evidence:

1. When the potential hazard was first reported — through any channel
2. How it was assessed and prioritised
3. Whether household vulnerabilities were considered
4. Which statutory deadline was applied
5. When inspections and safety works were completed
6. What was communicated to the resident, and when
7. How access issues, delays and contractor actions were managed

Each is straightforward on its own. Holding all seven together, for every case, across a whole portfolio, is the part that fails.

The clock starts the moment a hazard is reported

For significant hazards in scope, providers must meet a sequence of fixed deadlines — each one needing to be triggered, tracked and evidenced against the individual case:

Source: Awaab's Law regulations and the Phase 2 guidance for social housing landlords, GOV.UK / MHCLG, July 2026.

Phase 2 is a significant cost as well as an operational shift — £136.2 million of the total Phase 2 cost is expected to fall on registered providers.

A readiness checklist

A practical starting point — if any of these are hard to answer with confidence, Phase 2 is worth a closer look:

• Hazards can be captured through any channel and linked to the right property and household
• Triage of significant versus emergency hazards is consistent and recorded
• Household vulnerabilities are visible at the point of assessment
• Statutory deadlines are applied automatically and escalate before breach
• Colleagues, surveyors and contractors work from one shared view
• Residents receive timely written updates that are logged
• Every decision, action and communication is captured as an audit trail
• Leaders have a live view of approaching breaches and areas of risk

Phase 3 follows

Phase 3 brings the remaining HHSRS hazards, excluding overcrowding. No date has been set for it. Phase 2 is not a discrete piece of work to be closed out — it is the point at which the approach has to become the way the service runs.

Source: Awaab's Law in the social rented sector, GOV.UK / MHCLG. Phase 2 regulations and landlord guidance published July 2026.