Awaab's Law and Private Landlords: What Applies Today

Not yet.

Awaab's Law came into force on **27 October 2025 for registered providers of social housing**. It does not currently bind private landlords.

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 contains the power to extend it to the private rented sector, but doing so requires a consultation and separate secondary legislation. Commentators — including Shelter — point to **2027 at the earliest**, and no date has been confirmed.

Be careful with guidance that tells you otherwise. A good deal of content online states flatly that Awaab's Law now applies to private lettings. It does not, and acting on that is as unhelpful as ignoring the direction of travel entirely.

These are worth knowing because they are the likely template for the private sector version:

• **24 hours** to respond to an emergency hazard
• **10 working days** to investigate a reported significant hazard such as damp or mould
• **5 working days** to complete safety works where a significant hazard is confirmed

If you want to be ready for the extension without waiting for it, running your own repairs process to roughly these timescales is the simplest way to do it.

This is the part that gets lost. Private landlords are not unregulated on damp and mould in the meantime — the existing duties are substantial:

Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018. Your property must be fit for human habitation at the start of and throughout the tenancy. Serious damp and mould can render a property unfit, and a tenant can take you to court directly without going through the council.

Section 11, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. You must keep the structure and exterior in repair, including the things that commonly cause damp — roofs, gutters, external walls, window frames.

The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS). Damp and mould growth is a recognised Category 1 hazard. Local authorities can serve improvement notices and prosecute.

The Decent Homes Standard, which the Renters' Rights Act extends to private rentals, requires properties to be free of serious hazards.

The practical position: a tenant reporting damp today already has routes to enforce. Awaab's Law would add fixed timescales, not a new obligation from nothing.

Damp problems and electrical safety overlap more often than landlords expect, and an EICR is frequently where the overlap surfaces.

Persistent moisture degrades cable insulation, corrodes earthing and bonding connections, and causes problems in consumer units in unheated hallways and cupboards. These appear on an EICR as C2 observations — potentially dangerous, and requiring remedial work within 28 days.

Equally, inadequate heating and ventilation is both a damp cause and an EPC issue. A property rated F or G is usually one that is expensive to heat, which is exactly the property where tenants under-heat and condensation follows.

If you have a damp complaint and your EICR is more than a couple of years old, it is worth checking both together rather than treating them as separate problems.

There is no certificate for Awaab's Law — it is a process obligation, not a document. What you can do is make sure the documents behind it are current and the property itself is sound.

We cover all 32 London boroughs and the M25 corridor, with EICRs from £77.99 and EPCs from £99.99, both issued the same day. If a damp issue has been reported and you want the electrical installation checked properly, call 07426 409342 or book online.