Navigating Awaab's Law: Preparing for Change in Social Housing
The housing industry is abuzz with the implications of Awaab's Law, legislation designed to protect tenants from unsafe living conditions. At the Housing industry’s biggest event, Housing 2024, there were four talks on this topic to packed audiences.
This law, passed in response to the tragic death of Awaab Ishak, a toddler whose life was tragically cut short due to mould exposure in his home, will significantly impact how housing providers address compliance issues.
In this blog I’m going to attempt to clear some of the fog surrounding Awaab’s Law.
What is Awaab’s Law?
Awaab's Law mandates stricter response times and processes for addressing health and safety hazards in social housing. Non-compliance is expected to lead to increased fines, reputational damage, and even potential jail time.
When will Awaab’s Law come into force?
As usual the government is being coy. But there is a lot of chatter about it becoming secondary legislation by the end of 2024.
What do housing providers need to do to comply?
The impact on the housing sector will be overwhelming with strict and swift responses required on already overwhelmed teams. This includes:
- Initial investigations: landlords will have 14 calendar days to investigate any hazards (as defined by the Housing Health and Safety Rating Standards in the Housing Act 2004*) once they are made aware of them (including by telephone, email or by their own investigations).
- Report following initial investigations: after the 14 day period, a landlord will have 2 days (48 Hours) to produce a report to the tenant upon the results of the investigation. This should include: when and how the investigation took place, who conducted the investigation, if a hazard was found, how the hazard should be rectified, whether the hazard poses a risk to the tenant’s health and safety and the estimated timescales for repairs.
- Timescales to begin repairs: landlords will then have 7 days to begin the relevant works or repairs.
- Completing repairs: repairs must then be completed within a ‘reasonable’ period. A ‘reasonable’ period is dependent both on tenant need and the nature and scale of the hazard.
- Emergencies: action must be taken within 24 hours after the 14 day inspection period, and there will be no requirement to wait for a written report. It is likely that emergencies will include gas leaks, lack of water supply, exposed wiring, broken external frameworks and prevalent damp and mould impacting a tenant’s respiratory process.
- Delays and decants: where a landlord is unable to meet the required timelines (for example if there is a shortage of labour or materials) they must provide alternative temporary accommodation until the works or repairs are completed.
What advice is being given to the industry to tackle this change?
The Social Housing industry is taking this change very seriously, the penalties being talked about are severe and the timelines being rolled out are near impossible with their current complaints/maintenance management processes.
Interestingly, current guidance seems to be shifting away from the term "physical inspection" and replacing it with "assessment." In conversations with industry experts, including RICS and the Housing Ombudsman, I've been reassured that this means a desk-based assessment, followed directly by a report and maintenance plan, is now a viable option. Additionally, providing guidance for residents to manage minor issues with your support could negate the need for a physical welfare visit.
This shift may be a strategic move by policymakers to help the industry allocate resources more effectively, especially with the anticipated increase in reported mould issues. Especially prudent if reporting of mould issues are expected to rise in volume and therefore complaints.
According to RICS complaints of damp and mould have doubled in the last two years alone. With the Housing Ombudsman latest report estimating that residents’ complaints to increase 50 - 80% over the next 12 months.
Advice to Social Housing Landlord’s is to get ahead of maintenance issues including damp and mould wherever possible. This means massive outreach to understand their stock better and identifying high risk properties.
At the 2024 Switchee Summit a mid sized social housing landlord from Liverpool said they have been door knocking their stock (2,000 homes) in an attempt to gain access and survey their properties, this was expected to take 12 months, has already taken 13 months and they’re roughly 60% of the way through.
During the workshop on damp and mould, Housing Providers were recommended to consider new tech solutions to help improve handling of issues being raised, improving the logging of their efforts and record keeping to prepare for investigations by the Housing Ombudsman if complaints are raised with them.
How can housing providers get ready?
As seen, getting started as soon as possible will be critical to not being at risk. Door knocking has a place, but it’s not the most effective way to get a response, multiple touch points with residents is required, and effectively capturing issues is needed to ensure the right next steps are taken.
To assist housing providers in navigating these challenges, askporter has developed a Welfare & Compliance Manager that:
- Automates resident outreach focussed on proactively educating the resident
- Helping residents notify of a problem & diagnoses gathering
- Provides your team with the ability to do a desk based assessment & highlights time critical cases
- Creates a workflow process to deal with issues & generate report findings with residents
The video below gives a good walkthrough of how it works:
This solution benefits both property managers and residents in 3 crucial ways:
- Proactive identification and management of risks
- Improved communication and transparency
- Efficient issue resolution and monitoring
Pro-active communication every step of the journey
All guidance and recommendations to the sector regarding this legislation change comes down to one core fundamental.
Better and more proactive communication in the instance of damp and mould being reported, start to resolution. Including checking that the fix put in place has truly resolved the issue and isn’t a returning problem.
If you really pull apart the changes in the legislation, the request is to make sure that we as an industry are taking Condensation Damp & Mould (and the other health and safety subjects) seriously, that we reassure the resident regarding the steps we’re taking and that they’re informed of any changes in the timelines appropriately and proactively.
We at askporter believe that this is an opportunity to embrace technology like our own that will enhance efficiencies and help housing organisations ‘do the right thing’.
An added plus is that automated communication based on tasks and works completed can be used to break the cycle of these problems returning or proactively checking in with residents to help educate the resident and provide avenues of informing the landlord that the issue has returned or the fix hasn’t solved the problem.
Take the Next Step
To help housing providers adapt to these changes, askporter is offering a free proof-of-concept program. Contact me at ben.yexley@askporter.com to discuss how we can help you prepare for Awaab's Law and ensure the well-being of your residents.
