Why Awaab’s Law Is a Turning Point for Social Housing
Enacted as part of the Social Housing Regulation Act (2023), Awaab’s Law is a landmark piece of legislation designed to strengthen safety, accountability, and transparency across the sector when it comes to damp and mould.
For housing providers, this marks more than just another compliance deadline; it’s a pivotal moment to reassess processes, rebuild tenant trust, and ensure that every home meets the highest standards of safety.
From initial investigation to emergency response, Awaab’s Law introduces strict timeframes and documentation standards that will reshape how housing providers manage property conditions and tenant wellbeing.
With the first phase of Awaab’s Law now coming into effect, it's now a legal requirement for social housing providers to take faster, more transparent action when hazards such as damp and mould are reported.
In this blog, we will explore what these changes mean for housing providers, focusing on how Esuasives' integrated housing management solution will support housing providers in taking proactive steps today to strengthen resilience, streamline workflows, and protect their residents for the future.
What Housing Providers Need to Know About Awaab’s Law
Through the introduction of legally binding timeframes and responsibilities, Awaab’s Law will significantly raise expectations regarding how housing providers respond to damp and mould.
Under the new rules, housing providers must take clear, timely, and documented action when tenants report potential hazards, with key requirements designed to promote safety, transparency, and accountability throughout the process.
Here are the key requirements that must be taken into consideration:
- Within 14 days of being made aware, landlords must investigate any reports of damp, mould or similar hazards.
- A written summary detailing the cause, level of risk, and proposed next steps must then be provided to the tenant.
- If a health or safety risk is identified, repair work must begin within 7 calendar days of completing the investigation.
- For issues that pose an imminent threat to life, landlords must take action within 24 hours.
- All works must be completed within a reasonable timeframe, addressing the root cause of the issue rather than temporary or cosmetic fixes.
Beyond addressing individual cases, the legislation also places greater emphasis on record-keeping and traceability.
Housing providers are expected to maintain comprehensive documentation, including investigation records, communications with tenants, photographic evidence, and repair schedules, to demonstrate compliance to regulators.
In practice, Awaab’s Law represents a cultural shift. Housing providers must now be able to evidence consistent, timely and transparent action across every report, every home, and every resident.
Key Compliance Challenges for Housing Providers
Awaab’s Law represents a defining moment for social housing, shifting compliance from reactive to proactive. For housing providers specifically, the challenge isn’t just meeting new timeframes. It’s about rethinking systems, processes, and data foundations that underpin how damp and mould cases are managed, tracked, and resolved.
Here are some of the core challenges facing housing providers, and how they can overcome them:
Increasing operational strain
The new legislation demands faster investigations, tighter timeframes, and full transparency, from the first report to resolution. For housing providers already balancing resource constraints and high workloads, this means finding smarter, more connected ways of working.
Outdated and disconnected systems
Too often, data is fragmented across multiple spreadsheets and legacy systems. This lack of integration makes it difficult to track hazards, schedule work, or build an auditable compliance trail. With Awaab’s Law, those gaps are no longer just inefficiencies; they’re compliance risks.
Complex housing stock and technical limitations
From poor insulation to limited ventilation, a lot of social housing features long-standing challenges that require specialist expertise to diagnose and resolve. Without accurate data, centralised scheduling, or mobile inspection tools, teams are being forced to take a reactive approach to cases instead of a preventive one.
Building tenant engagement and trust
Awaab’s Law places tenants at the heart of the compliance process. But meaningful engagement goes beyond reporting forms. It requires clear communication, real-time updates, and transparency at every stage. For housing providers, this means building digital processes that empower tenants while giving staff meaningful visibility over every interaction.
Compliance through visibility and control
The new legislation prioritises accountability. Every inspection, action, and communication must be logged, tracked, and reportable. Housing providers need systems that don’t just store information, but surface it.
Steps Housing Providers Can Take to Stay Compliant
Meeting the requirements of Awaab’s Law isn’t just about faster response times; it’s about building lasting capability. For housing providers, that means creating connected, transparent systems that bring together people, data, and processes to deliver safer, healthier homes.
At Esuasive, we understand the growing pressures facing housing providers, not only under Awaab’s Law, but with the wave of new compliance standards already on the horizon. Meeting these evolving expectations requires more than quick fixes; it demands connected systems, clear oversight, and a culture of proactive compliance.
Here’s how housing providers can act now to stay ahead of evolving legislation.
Build a single source of truth
Disconnected spreadsheets and manual tracking simply won’t meet new reporting standards. Housing providers need unified systems that connect property, tenant, and maintenance data in one place, providing complete visibility of every case, inspection, and repair.
Automate where it matters most
From triggering investigations within set timeframes to escalating emergency cases automatically, automation removes the risk of missed deadlines. With the right technology, alerts, workflows, and service-level timers can ensure every action happens on time.
Empower field teams and inspectors
Mobile-enabled tools let teams log inspections, upload photos, and update cases instantly. Real-time syncing with central systems ensures data is always accurate, creating a transparent, regulator-ready audit trail.
Strengthen tenant engagement
Clear, proactive communication helps build tenant trust. Digital tools that provide real-time updates, progress notifications, and follow-up reminders make it easier to demonstrate accountability and keep residents informed throughout the process.
Invest in future legislation
Awaab’s Law is just the beginning. With additional compliance phases expected in 2026 and 2027, housing providers need flexible platforms that can evolve as new legislations arise, from damp and mould to wider health, safety, and housing standards.
How Esuasive Supports Damp and Mould Compliance
At Esuasive, we understand that Awaab’s Law isn’t just about faster responses; it’s about visibility, traceability, and restoring confidence between housing providers and residents.
Our dedicated Damp and Mould module, built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 and tailored specifically for the social housing sector, brings case management, scheduling, communication, and compliance tracking together in a single connected platform. It empowers teams to act quickly, stay compliant, and demonstrate accountability at every stage.
Our solution empowers housing providers to:
- Easily raise and manage damp and mould queries using a flexible record type that allows anyone in the organisation to log a concern, ensuring potential issues are captured early and addressed promptly.
- Automatically log, track, and escalate reports from the moment a tenant raises a concern, ensuring every case is actioned, recorded, and visible
- Configure case SLA timers aligned with Awaab’s Law to meet strict legislative deadlines, complete with automated alerts to keep teams on track.
- Trigger real-time alerts for emergency hazards and priority repairs, ensuring urgent cases are handled within hours, not days.
- Dispatch field operatives through our DLO-specific app, integrating with trusted scheduling partners to connect office teams, operatives, and maintenance workflows through one unified system.
- Empower inspectors with mobile tools, allowing them to capture photos, update case notes, and complete digital inspection forms on-site, all synced in real time.
- Leverage AI-powered reporting and summaries, automatically generating plain-language summaries of survey outcomes and recommended next steps, ready to insert directly into tenant letters and saving valuable admin time.
- Generate regulator-ready audit trails and insights through AI and Power BI dashboards, evidencing compliance and identifying recurring issues before they escalate.
Fully integrated within Microsoft’s ecosystem, our module works seamlessly alongside your existing workflows, eliminating duplication, reducing manual input, and providing an auditable line of sight from first report to resolution.
With Esuasive, you’re not just managing damp and mould; you’re building safer, smarter, and more transparent housing for the future.
Turning Damp and Mould Compliance into Confidence
Awaab’s Law sets a new standard for transparency and care across social housing, but with the right systems in place, compliance doesn’t have to be complicated. Here at Esuasive, we help housing providers move from reactive to proactive, turning regulation into an opportunity to improve lives and strengthen trust.
As new legislation continues to emerge, from safety and sustainability to data and governance, Esuasive’s modular, cloud-based platform evolves with you. Futureproof, scalable, and fully integrated, it’s designed to help housing providers not only meet compliance standards today, but stay ready for the changes of tomorrow.
Book a demo to see how our Damp and Mould module supports compliance from day one, or click below to explore our wider offering.