Key takeaways
Awaab's Law sets legal deadlines for social landlords in England to investigate and fix hazards in tenants' homes. Phase 1 started on 27 October 2025 and covers significant damp and mould and emergency hazards. Phase 2 starts on 30 November 2026 and adds seven more hazard types. The clock starts when a tenant reports a problem, which usually means it starts in your contact centre.
What is Awaab's Law?
Awaab's Law is a set of legally enforceable timescales that require registered providers of social housing in England to investigate hazards and carry out safety work within fixed deadlines. It is set out in the Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025 and takes its name from Awaab Ishak, who died after prolonged exposure to mould in his family's social home.
The regulations work through section 10A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which implies a term into every social housing tenancy that the landlord will comply with the prescribed requirements. A missed deadline is a breach of that term, and a tenant can seek damages and an order for specific performance in the County Court.
| Phase | Start date | Hazards in scope |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 | 27 October 2025 | Significant damp and mould, plus all emergency hazards |
| Phase 2 | 30 November 2026 | Seven additional hazards (see below) |
| Phase 3 | Expected in 2027 | Remaining Housing Health and Safety Rating System hazards, except overcrowding |
What changes on 30 November 2026?
From 30 November 2026, the same timescales that apply to damp and mould extend to seven further hazards. The government laid the Phase 2 regulations before Parliament on 13 July 2026 and published updated statutory guidance alongside them.
The seven hazards are:
- Excess cold
- Excess heat
- Falls
- Fire and explosions
- Electrical hazards
- Domestic hygiene and pests
- Structural collapse
This is a much wider range of reports than damp and mould. A loose stair handrail, a flat that overheats in summer, a faulty consumer unit and a pest infestation can all now trigger the statutory response when the hazard meets the "significant" or "emergency" threshold. According to legal commentary on the regulations, fire hazards in communal areas already covered by the Fire Safety Order sit outside Awaab's Law.
The updated guidance adds clearer definitions of significant and emergency hazards, an example template for the written summary, more detail on access to homes and on communicating with residents, and process diagrams for triage and decision-making. The government describes the approach as test and learn, so expect further refinement.
What are the Awaab's Law timescales?
Landlords must act within 24 hours on emergency hazards. For significant hazards, they have 10 working days to investigate, then three working days to give the tenant a written summary, and five working days after the investigation to make the home safe. In most non-emergency cases that gives 15 working days from notification to a safe home.
| Step | Emergency hazard | Significant hazard |
|---|---|---|
| Investigate | Within 24 hours of notification | Within 10 working days of notification |
| Make safe | Within 24 hours of notification | Within five working days of the investigation concluding |
| Written summary to tenant | Within three working days of the investigation concluding, if necessary | Within three working days of the investigation concluding |
| Supplementary work to stop recurrence | Not applicable | Start as soon as reasonably practicable, within 12 weeks of the investigation concluding |
| If the home can't be made safe in time | Offer suitable alternative accommodation at the landlord's expense | Offer suitable alternative accommodation at the landlord's expense |
An emergency hazard poses an imminent and significant risk of harm, where a reasonable landlord would act within 24 hours. A significant hazard poses a significant risk of harm but would not need action within 24 hours.
Why does Awaab's Law land on the contact centre?
The statutory clock runs from the date a landlord is notified of a hazard. For most providers, that notification arrives as a phone call, an email, a web chat or a text message to the customer service team. The contact centre is therefore where the clock starts, where the first triage decision is made, and where the first piece of evidence is created.
That has three practical consequences.
First, the time and channel of every report must be captured accurately. If a tenant mentions mould during a call about rent, the notification date is the date of that call. Providers need to be able to show when a report arrived, however it arrived.
Second, agents must recognise and classify hazards at first contact. Legal commentary on Phase 2 points to the need to demonstrate how hazards were triaged and whether they were categorised correctly. Agents who were trained on damp and mould now need the same confidence across seven more hazard types.
Third, the contact record becomes evidence. Claims are likely to focus not only on whether a defect existed but on whether the provider followed the procedure. Clyde & Co expect Phase 2 to increase claims activity and advise providers to be able to show what was reported, how it was triaged, what was investigated and whether deadlines were met.
What should your contact centre be able to do?
Your contact centre needs to capture every hazard report with a timestamp, triage it consistently, collect evidence, hand it to repairs with the clock attached, and keep a complete record. The table below sets out eight capabilities to test before 30 November.
| Capability | What good looks like | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Timestamped capture across every channel | Phone, email, chat, SMS and web form reports land in one record with the notification time | The statutory clock starts at notification |
| Guided hazard triage | Agents follow prompts that classify the hazard and flag emergencies immediately | Consistent classification across seven new hazard types |
| Emergency escalation, including out of hours | Emergency reports route to a named responder within minutes, at any hour | Emergency hazards carry a 24-hour deadline |
| Evidence capture | Tenants can send photos or share live video so assessors see the problem early | Supports investigation without waiting for a visit |
| Handover to repairs and housing management | Reports pass to your housing management system with the deadline visible | Prevents the report sitting in an inbox |
| Tenant communication | Written summaries, updates and appointment changes go out in the tenant's preferred channel | The summary is a legal step, and clear updates cut repeat contact |
| Vulnerability context | Agents see tenancy history and vulnerability flags before they respond | Empathy and the right priority for the right household |
| Audit trail and quality assurance | Recordings, transcripts and case history are searchable and retained | You can evidence compliance if a claim or regulator query arrives |
How can a contact centre platform help?
A contact centre platform does not replace your housing management system, your repairs system or your legal duties. Its job is to make the first contact accurate, fast and recorded, then pass the case on with its context intact.
Puzzel's cloud contact centre for UK housing associations brings telephony, web chat, email and SMS into one platform and integrates with housing management systems, so agents work from one view of the tenancy and repairs history. For hazard reports, that supports several of the capabilities above:
- Capture in one place — Every channel feeds a single record, so the first report is never lost between inboxes.
- Skill-based routing — Tenants reach an agent suited to the situation, and emergencies can be routed to the right team.
- Live video and photos — Assessors can see the issue before sending a field operative, which supports earlier investigation.
- Agent support in the moment — Co-Pilot surfaces tenancy history, vulnerability flags and suggested wording during the call.
- Proactive updates — Automated SMS and messaging keep tenants informed about confirmations, appointments and changes.
- Audit-ready records — Transcripts and recordings give you the evidence trail legal teams will ask for.
The Royal Borough of Kingston Council, a public sector customer, bought Puzzel through the G-Cloud framework and reduced weekly calls from 3,000–3,500 to 2,000–2,500 using IVR journeys. NRLA, the National Residential Landlords Association, cut email response times by 85% and call wait times by 35% after moving to Puzzel. Neither is a social housing provider, but both show what unified channels and routing deliver in regulated, high-volume service environments.
See how Puzzel supports housing providers
Your Phase 2 readiness checklist
You can use the following list to test your contact centre over the next few weeks. It is general guidance, not legal advice.
- Map every route a hazard report can take into your organisation, including calls about other topics, social media messages and contractor reports.
- Confirm each route records the notification date and time in a way you can retrieve later.
- Update triage scripts and knowledge articles for all seven new hazard types, with clear examples of significant and emergency thresholds from the government guidance.
- Train agents on the new categories, and test them with realistic call scenarios.
- Check your out-of-hours emergency process end to end, including who answers and how quickly.
- Test the handover from contact centre to repairs, and confirm the deadline travels with the case.
- Draft the written summary workflow using the government's example template.
- Decide how you will handle access problems, and make sure agents record each attempt to arrange access.
- Review how you identify and record vulnerability at first contact.
- Agree what management reporting you will use to track deadlines and breaches weekly.
Where do providers most often struggle?
Early evidence from Phase 1 shows uneven practice across landlords. A government test-and-learn review found the law is changing landlord behaviour but unevenly, with capacity pressures and limited tenant awareness. Four problems come up repeatedly:
- Reports that arrive sideways — A tenant mentions a hazard during a rent or benefits call, and it never reaches repairs.
- Misclassification — An agent treats an emergency as routine, or a routine issue as an emergency, because the guidance is unclear.
- Access — Deadlines run while the landlord tries to arrange entry, so every attempt needs recording.
- Evidence gaps — Notes are thin, calls are not retained, and the timeline cannot be reconstructed later.
Get ready for 30 November
Puzzel helps UK housing providers bring every channel into one place, give agents the context they need and keep a clear record of every conversation. If you want to test your first-contact process against Phase 2, we can walk you through it.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Check the government guidance and take legal advice on your own obligations.
Sources
- Second phase of Awaab's Law laid before Parliament, Chartered Institute of Housing, 13 July 2026
- Awaab's Law Phase 2: The Next Compliance Challenge for Social Housing Providers, Clyde & Co, 27 August 2026
- Awaab's Law Phase 2: guidance for social landlords, GOV.UK
- Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025, legislation.gov.uk
- Awaab's Law Phase 1 test and learn research report, GOV.UK
- Puzzel: Royal Borough of Kingston Council case study
- Puzzel: NRLA case study
Related reading
- Best contact centre software for UK housing associations (2026)
- G-Cloud 14: how Puzzel supports public sector with cloud CX solutions
- Puzzel for UK housing associations
