Awaab's Law Compliance Checklist for Housing Providers
A practical, team-level checklist covering the six areas where Awaab's Law compliance is won or lost: reporting and triage, investigation, communication, works, records, and people. Work through it honestly, the gaps you find now are cheaper than the ones the Ombudsman finds later.
Awaab's Law compliance is not one process, it's a chain. A report has to be recognised, triaged, investigated, communicated, fixed, and evidenced, each step on a statutory clock. The chain fails at its weakest link, which is why this checklist is organised around the journey of a single case rather than around departments.
Use it as a self-assessment with your repairs, surveying and housing management leads, and treat every unticked box as an action with an owner and a date.
Reporting & triage
The statutory clock starts when you become aware of a potential hazard, so the front door matters.
- Residents have clear, accessible ways to report hazards, including out of hours for emergencies
- Call handlers and housing officers can recognise which reports trigger statutory timescales at the point of report, not days later
- Household vulnerability (young children, pregnancy, age, health conditions) is captured at the point of report and used in triage
- Staff understand what makes a hazard an emergency, including how vulnerability can elevate severity
- Every report records when the organisation became aware. Emergency time runs from that moment; working-day deadlines are calculated from the day after the relevant trigger.
Investigation & diagnosis
Ten working days to investigate leaves no room for guesswork or repeat visits to re-establish basics.
- Potential significant damp and mould hazards are investigated within 10 working days of awareness; Phase 2 extends this to additional significant hazards from 30 November 2026
- Surveyors are trained to reliably distinguish condensation, rising damp, penetrating damp and plumbing or building defects
- Inspection follows a structured, shared methodology, so different surveyors reach consistent conclusions on similar cases
- Diagnosis is evidence-led: moisture sources are established through investigation, never assumed from "lifestyle factors"
- Moisture readings are interpreted correctly, with an understanding of what meters do and do not prove
- Potential emergency hazards are investigated as soon as reasonably practicable, with any confirmed emergency made safe within the same 24-hour period from awareness
Communication with residents
The written summary is now a statutory requirement, and the document most likely to be scrutinised later.
- Written summaries reach residents within 3 working days of the investigation concluding, every time
- Summaries state clearly what was found, what will be done, and when, in plain language
- Summaries are accurate and consistent with the inspection evidence, they are defensible documents, not box-ticking
- Residents are kept informed through longer or complex works, with agreed contact points
- Accessible formats and translations are available where residents need them
Works & follow-through
Diagnosis means nothing if the works side of the chain can't keep pace with the clock.
- Relevant safety work for a confirmed significant hazard is completed within 5 working days of the investigation concluding
- Supplementary preventative work begins, or steps to begin it are taken, within 5 working days of the investigation concluding. If it cannot start then, it starts as soon as reasonably practicable and within 12 weeks, and is completed within a reasonable period. This does not extend the safety-work deadline.
- Contractor agreements and SLAs are aligned to the statutory timescales, including emergency response
- A clear process exists for securing suitable alternative accommodation at the organisation's expense where a home cannot be made safe in time
- Completed works are checked, and recurring problems trigger re-investigation rather than repeat surface fixes
Records & evidence
If a case is challenged, your evidence trail is your defence, and it must be producible quickly.
- Every case has a complete audit trail: report, triage decision, investigation evidence, summary, works orders and completion
- All correspondence with residents and contractors is retained against the case
- Where a deadline cannot be met for reasons beyond your control, the reasons are recorded at the time
- Deadline tracking distinguishes the 24-hour emergency deadline from working-day deadlines and flags approaching deadlines
- You can produce the full evidence trail for any case quickly when the Ombudsman, a court or a manager asks
People & capability
Processes don't diagnose damp, people do. Capability is the foundation under every section above.
- Surveyors and technical officers have current, structured training in damp and mould diagnosis
- New starters are brought up to the same methodology, consistency survives staff turnover
- Front-line staff receive triage training so statutory triggers are recognised on first contact
- A named owner is accountable for Awaab's Law compliance and its reporting to leadership
- A Phase 2 readiness plan exists for the additional significant hazards covered from 30 November 2026
Where compliance most often breaks down
Across the sector, the same four weak links appear again and again. If you shore up anything first, make it these:
Misdiagnosis on the first visit
Condensation called rising damp, or vice versa. Wrong diagnosis means wrong works, repeat complaints and a failed statutory response, however fast it was.
Vague written summaries
Summaries that arrive late or say little. A weak document at the statutory communication step undermines an otherwise compliant case.
Evidence gaps
Decisions made but not recorded, correspondence scattered across inboxes. The work was done, but it can't be proven.
Contractor lag
Internal teams hit their deadlines, then works stall because contractor SLAs were never aligned to the statutory clocks.
Found gaps in sections 2, 3 or 6?
Diagnosis, documentation and capability are exactly what our tailored programmes build. We've delivered them for Manchester City Council, Thanet District Council and the London Borough of Hillingdon, shaped around each organisation's stock and pressures.
Or call 0808 501 4090 · info@federationofdamp.co.uk
Awaab's Law series: The complete guide · Phase 2: what changes in 2026 · Training programmes
