Awaab's Law for private rentals and licences: what the consultation proposes, and how to respond by 18 December

On 9 October 2026 the government opened a consultation on extending Awaab's Law beyond social housing. It closes at 11.59pm on 18 December 2026. Two things are on the table: how the law should apply to private rented tenancies in England, and whether it should also apply to three kinds of accommodation occupied under licence.

This guide sets out what is proposed, what is still open, and which questions matter for landlords, letting agents and supported housing providers. It is based on the consultation document itself; question numbers are the consultation's.

What is Awaab's Law, and what does it do now?

Awaab's Law sets timescales, not new repair duties. For social housing tenancies, since 27 October 2025, a landlord that becomes aware of a potential significant hazard must:

Step	Social housing rule
Investigate	within 10 working days
Send the tenant a written summary	within 3 working days of the investigation ending
Make the home safe	within 5 working days of the investigation ending
Start further preventative works	within 5 working days (or take steps towards it), physically started within 12 weeks
Emergency hazards	investigate and make safe within 24 hours
If the home can't be made safe in time	arrange suitable alternative accommodation

Phase 1 covered damp and mould and all emergency hazards. Phase 2, subject to Parliament, adds excess cold and heat, domestic hygiene, falls, electrical hazards, fire and explosions, and structural collapse from 30 November 2026. Phase 3 follows in 2027.

What is proposed for private landlords?

The consultation uses the social housing rules as its starting point and asks, element by element, whether private renting needs something different. It says the aim is not to make the rules stronger or weaker, but to make them work in a sector where most landlords let one or two homes and very few have their own repairs teams.

• Hazards. Every HHSRS hazard except crowding and space: 20 of the 21 (Question 4).
• Threshold. A significant hazard (significant risk of harm) or an emergency hazard (imminent and significant risk), judged against the people living there, such as a young child or someone with a health condition (Questions 7 to 9).
• Timescales are options, not decisions:

Duty	Options asked about	Question
Investigate a potential significant hazard	5, 10 or 15 working days	11
Written summary to the tenant	1, 3 or 5 working days	15
Make a significant hazard safe	3, 5 or 10 working days	18
Start further preventative works	3, 5 or 10 working days	19
Emergency hazards	12, 24 or 48 hours	23

• Who inspects. Anyone the landlord judges competent, as in social housing, or a two-stage process where the landlord or agent looks first and calls in a specialist if needed (Question 12).
• Tenant-caused hazards and leasehold flats. Whether to exclude hazards caused by the tenant's breach of contract (with guidance that damp and mould can't be dismissed as "lifestyle"), and what happens when the freeholder, not the landlord, is responsible (Questions 5 and 6).
• Alternative accommodation. Whether private landlords should have to provide it when a home can't be made safe in time (Questions 25 to 27).

When would it start?

Not before 2027. The consultation says 2027 is the earliest feasible date, given the time needed to make regulations, and asks:

• whether to phase it, as in social housing, with damp and mould and emergency hazards first (Question 29);
• whether it should start in 2027, 2028 or 2029 (Question 30);
• whether it should wait for the Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman, expected in 2028 (Question 31).

Its impact assessment assumes the social housing rules apply unchanged and that implementation runs in three phases in 2028, 2029 and 2030. That is an assumption for costing, not a decision.

Who enforces it?

Not councils. The consultation is explicit that local authorities "will not have a direct role in enforcing compliance with Awaab's Law requirements, such as timescales for making repairs".

Instead, the requirements become an implied term of every private tenancy. A tenant whose landlord misses a timescale can:

• take the landlord to court for breach of contract, where the court can order the work, compensation and costs (the Pre-Action Protocol for Housing Conditions Claims applies first);
• or complain to the landlord and escalate to the Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman once it exists.

Councils keep their existing powers to act on hazards, alongside all of this.

For a landlord, the practical consequence is that the record decides the case: when you were told, when someone looked, what they found, what you sent the tenant and when the home was made safe. The landlord who can show those dates has a defence; the one who can't, doesn't. The consultation keeps the social housing defence of having taken "all reasonable steps" where a delay was genuinely beyond the landlord's control.

What does it mean for letting agents?

The consultation does not set duties for agents, and it does not say when a landlord counts as "aware" if the tenant reports a problem to the agent. It does say this:

"Some landlords use agents to manage repairs and maintenance of their properties. As a result, they may need to establish new contractual agreements with their agent in order to be confident that Awaab's Law obligations will be met."

For agents on full management, that means the management agreement, the repair-reporting route and the speed at which a report reaches the landlord all become part of the landlord's compliance. Question 58 asks agents directly how repairs and maintenance are arranged on the homes they manage, and Question 12 asks whether an agent's first look should count as the initial assessment. Both are worth answering from experience.

Which licences are covered?

Only three, and only when they are occupied under licence (the same homes let on tenancies are already covered, or will be):

• Supported housing (Questions 33 to 37). The consultation sees "a strong case" for it, with risks around access to residents with complex needs and keeping support in place if someone has to move.
• Temporary accommodation for homeless households (Questions 38 to 48). The hard question is nightly-paid and sublet accommodation, where the council is the licensor but a superior landlord does the repairs. Question 42 asks whether the council should instead have to take "all reasonable steps" to make the superior landlord meet the timescales, and Questions 43 to 46 ask about contracts and supply.
• Care leaver accommodation (Questions 49 to 53).

For each, the starting assumption is that the tenancy rules apply unchanged, and each has a set of questions (36A to G, 47A to G, 52A to G) asking which elements should differ. The consultation does not propose covering lodgers or other room lets on licence; Question 54 asks whether any other licence types should be added.

What will it cost?

The impact assessment monetises two costs for private landlords over ten years (present value): £87.3 million for reading and understanding the new rules, and £335.1 million for preparing and sending information to tenants about inspections and repairs. It does not count the repairs themselves, on the basis that landlords are already legally required to do them, and it could not put a figure on the cost of doing them faster. It could not estimate costs for licensed accommodation at all, for lack of data, which is why Questions 55 to 63 ask landlords, licensors and agents how they handle hazards today.

How do you respond?

• Online survey (the government's preferred route), linked from the consultation page.
• Email: awaabslawconsultation@communities.gov.uk.
• Deadline: 11.59pm on 18 December 2026.

You don't have to answer everything; the consultation asks people to answer the sections that apply to them. The questions where first-hand evidence counts most are the timescales (11, 15, 18, 19, 23), who inspects (12), the start date and phasing (29 to 31), and the questions about how you handle hazards now (55 to 60). If you answer the "how quickly do you act today" questions, answer from your records, not from memory.

What should you do before the rules arrive?

Nothing here is law yet, and none of it will be before 2027. But the duties it times are ones landlords already have, and the evidence it will turn on is evidence you can start keeping now:

1. One route for repair reports, so every report lands somewhere with a date and time.
2. A record of each step: who looked, when, what they found, what the tenant was told.
3. For managed lets, an agreement with your agent on how fast a report reaches you and who arranges the inspection.
4. For licensed supported or temporary accommodation, a clear map of who does the repairs, and what the contract says about how quickly.