Awaab Ishak was two years old when he died from prolonged exposure to mould in a social housing flat in Rochdale. His landlord had been told about the mould repeatedly. Nothing was done. His death, in December 2020, eventually changed English housing law. The legislation named after him has applied to social housing since 27 October 2025. It does not yet cover the private rented sector.
That gap matters. If your privately rented flat has damp on the walls, mould in the bathroom, or a roof that leaks every time it rains, Awaab's Law does not currently give you a deadline you can enforce against your landlord. The government plans to extend it to private tenancies using powers in the Renters' Rights Act 2025. No start date has been set, and the government has still to consult on the timescales.
Private renters are not powerless while they wait. The repair rights they already have carry more teeth than many realise.
Does Awaab's Law apply to private renters in 2026?
Not yet. Awaab's Law was created by section 42 of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, which inserted a new section 10A into the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. That section applies to social housing tenancies only. The first phase came into force on 27 October 2025, covering emergency hazards and significant damp and mould. A second phase starts on 30 November 2026, adding excess cold and heat, falls, structural collapse, fire and explosions, electrical hazards and domestic hygiene. A third phase covering the remaining hazards, apart from overcrowding, has been announced for 2027 with no date set.
For private tenancies, the Renters' Rights Act 2025 gives the government the power to apply Awaab's Law to the private rented sector. The government's implementation roadmap lists this as a later phase with no year attached, and says it will consult on the details, including implementation timescales, in due course. As of September 2026 no regulations have been made and no commencement date has been announced.
So if you rent privately in England, your landlord is not yet bound by Awaab's Law timescales. You still have enforceable repair rights, covered below. If you are in Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland, different rules apply. This article covers England only.
For a broader picture of what the Renters' Rights Act 2025 changed for private tenants, see our article on what tenants can claim under the Renters Rights Act 2025.
What Awaab's Law requires social landlords to do
For social housing in England, the first phase sets legally binding timescales. The regulations apply only to social landlords in England, so a social tenant in Wales has none of these deadlines. Emergency hazards, which include gas leaks, broken boilers, total loss of water, dangerous electrics, significant leaks, insecure external doors or windows, and the most serious damp and mould, must be investigated and made safe within 24 hours.
For other significant damp and mould, the social landlord must investigate within 10 working days of being told. Both of the next two deadlines run from the day that investigation ends: a written summary of the findings within 3 working days, and the home made safe by completing the relevant safety work within 5 working days. Supplementary preventative work must begin within 5 working days of the same date, or the landlord must take steps to secure that it begins within 12 weeks, and complete it within a reasonable period. If the home cannot be made safe in time, the landlord must offer suitable alternative accommodation at its own expense.
You may have seen earlier articles saying landlords get 14 days to investigate. That figure came from the government's 2023 consultation and did not survive into the final regulations. The timescales above are the ones in force.
The mechanism matters too. Awaab's Law works by writing these timescales into the tenancy agreement as an implied term, so a social tenant can enforce them in court like any other term of the contract.
What private renters can use instead of Awaab's Law
Private renters already have three routes, and they work today.
Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 obliges your landlord to keep the structure and exterior of your home in repair and to keep the installations for water, gas, electricity, sanitation, and heating working. Once you have reported a problem, the landlord must fix it within a reasonable time. There is no fixed number of days, but what counts as reasonable shrinks fast with severity. A broken boiler in January should be a matter of days, not weeks.
The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 requires your home to be fit for human habitation at the start of the tenancy and throughout it. Serious damp and mould typically fails that test. You can sue your landlord for an order requiring the works and for compensation, and there is no cap on the amount.
Your local council's environmental health team can inspect the property, assess hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, and serve an improvement notice requiring the landlord to act. Since 1 May 2026, a landlord who fails to comply with an improvement notice faces a civil penalty of up to £40,000 or prosecution. Council enforcement costs you nothing.
See our article on how to claim compensation from your landlord in the UK for a wider view of disrepair claims.
How to report damp or mould to a private landlord
How you report the problem matters, because the written report is what starts the legal clock.
Your landlord's section 11 duty to repair applies once they have notice of the problem. A WhatsApp message saying "there's a bit of mould" does not create the same legal record as a formal written notice describing the hazard, its location, and the date you are reporting it. Use email if you can, and keep a copy.
Your notice should include the address and which room the hazard is in, a description of what you can see (black mould on the north wall, approximately 50cm x 30cm, present since October 2025), any photos attached, and a request that the landlord inspects and confirms a repair date within 14 days. No statute sets that 14 days for private landlords yet. It is a deadline you are choosing, and it gives the landlord a concrete date to meet and gives you a clean record of delay if they miss it.
If your tenancy agreement specifies a different reporting method, follow that method as well. Covering both keeps you protected.
Keep a log. Every message you send, every response you get, and every date matters if this ends up in front of a judge or a council enforcement officer.
Remedy Legal can help you draft the initial formal notice to your landlord, with the relevant legislation cited correctly. The platform generates letters with AI assistance and reviews them for legal accuracy, so you are not starting from a blank page.
What happens if your landlord ignores a damp or mould report
If a reasonable time has passed and nothing has happened, the breach is documented from that point forward.
Start with a letter of claim under the Pre-Action Protocol for Housing Conditions Claims. This tells your landlord you intend to bring a claim and gives them 20 working days to respond. A well-drafted letter resolves a significant number of disrepair disputes without going further. Landlords who have ignored texts often respond differently to a letter that cites specific legislation and names a claim value.
If the letter produces nothing, your next steps are reporting to the council's environmental health team and filing a claim in the county court. Both routes can run at the same time. Environmental health can inspect the property, serve an improvement notice, and pursue penalties if the landlord ignores it. That process costs you nothing and often moves faster than a civil claim.
For compensation, courts commonly award a percentage of the rent for the period the problem was ignored. Serious damp and mould often attracts 25% to 50%. On a £1,500 per month rent, even a 25% reduction for six months of ignored damp would be £2,250. Cases involving health effects attract higher awards.
One route that is not open yet: the Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman. Landlord membership is not expected to become mandatory until around 2028, so you cannot complain to it today. Our guide on Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman complaints explains what is planned.
Can a private landlord evict you for complaining about damp?
Complaining about disrepair is not a ground for possession. For private assured tenancies in England, new Section 21 notices ended on 1 May 2026, and a landlord now needs a legal ground under Section 8 for a new possession claim. An older Section 21 case can still proceed if the landlord applied before the notice's time limit expired and no later than 31 July 2026. That deadline has passed, but applications made in time can continue, so respond to any court papers.
See our piece on what Section 21 ending means for your tenancy for the detail on that protection.
Separately, if your landlord has failed to comply with other regulatory requirements, such as an unlicensed HMO or an illegal eviction, you may have grounds for a Rent Repayment Order regardless of the disrepair issue. For offences committed from 1 May 2026, those claims can be worth up to 2 years' rent. Our guide to how to apply for a Rent Repayment Order in the UK covers the qualifying conditions.
How to build a strong disrepair claim as a private renter
A claim lives or dies on evidence. The tenants who recover compensation are the ones who documented everything before they needed it.
From the moment you notice a hazard, photograph it. Date-stamp the photos by sending them to your own email. Note the size, location, and any visible damage to your belongings or the property structure. If the problem causes you health effects such as asthma flare-ups or skin irritation, keep a brief diary and mention it to your GP so there is a medical record.
Save every piece of correspondence. Screenshots of WhatsApp messages, forwarded emails, voicemail transcriptions if you have them. If your landlord promises verbally to fix something, follow up in writing: "Thanks for confirming on the phone today that you'll have someone look at the mould by Friday."
If you get a council environmental health inspection, keep the report. That report is independent professional evidence of the hazard's existence and severity, and it carries significant weight in court.
Remedy Legal helps you upload and annotate this evidence, track deadlines, and produce the final submission bundle, so if your claim reaches a hearing you are not assembling a folder the night before.
For broader guidance on spotting what your landlord may have violated beyond disrepair, the article on UK tenant rights and landlord violations is worth reading.
When Awaab's Law does reach the private rented sector, on a date the government has yet to set, fixed timescales will apply to private landlords too. Until then, the rights above are the ones that count, and they are enforceable now. Start by writing a formal report of the hazard to your landlord today, with the date, a description, and a requested response date. Keep a copy. Then start documenting everything that happens next.
If you want to know where your damp claim stands, Remedy Legal can assess your position, draft the formal hazard notice, and build your evidence bundle. The initial assessment is free.
