Awaab’s Law gives social landlords in England fixed deadlines for hazards: 24 hours for an emergency, 10 working days to investigate anything significant. Phase 2 widens the list of hazards on 30 November 2026. Private renting is next, and the consultation is open now. The deadlines are short. What most teams miss is where they start: the moment you become aware, which is usually a resident’s call or message, and often at night.
Kreedl is our product. It appears in this guide where it changes the outcome, and we say so each time. The rules and dates were checked against GOV.UK on 12 October 2026.
TL;DR: who the deadlines apply to, and from when
| Who | From | What is covered | Deadlines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social landlords, Phase 1 | 27 Oct 2025 | All emergency hazards, plus damp and mould that present a significant risk of harm | 24 h emergency, 10 wd significant |
| Social landlords, Phase 2 | 30 Nov 2026 | Adds excess cold and heat, falls, structural collapse and explosions, fire, electrical hazards, domestic hygiene, pests and food safety | The same |
| Social landlords, Phase 3 | 2027 | All remaining HHSRS hazards except overcrowding | The same |
| Private landlords | Not set | Consultation open 9 Oct – 18 Dec 2026 under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 | 12, 24 or 48 h for emergencies is the open question |
Sources: Phase 1 guidance, Phase 2 guidance and the private renting consultation (GOV.UK).
What is Awaab’s Law?
Awaab’s Law is named after Awaab Ishak, a two-year-old who died in 2020 from a respiratory condition caused by prolonged exposure to mould in his family’s social housing flat in Rochdale. The Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025 came into force on 27 October 2025 (the regulations). They replace “fix it in a reasonable time” with fixed deadlines.
| Step | Deadline | Starts from |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency Investigate and make safe | 24 hours | Becoming aware of the hazard. If the home cannot be made safe in time, suitable alternative accommodation must be offered. |
| Significant Investigate | 10 working days | Becoming aware of the potential hazard |
| Significant Written summary to tenant | 3 working days | End of the investigation (not needed if all work is done within that time) |
| Significant Relevant safety work | 5 working days | End of the investigation |
| Preventative Start supplementary work | 5 working days | End of the investigation; if not possible, work must physically start within 12 weeks |
The guidance describes these as maximums. Act sooner when the situation requires it.
Is it the same for private landlords?
Not yet. If you run build-to-rent, co-living or a private portfolio, you are not bound by these deadlines today. The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 will apply Awaab’s Law to private tenancies, and the government opened a consultation on the details on 9 October 2026. It closes on 18 December 2026 (the consultation).
The consultation uses the social-sector deadlines as its starting point. It asks whether emergencies should be dealt with in 12, 24 or 48 hours. One question asks how hard it is to respond in evenings and at weekends. Read that as the direction of travel. Teams that already work to 24 hours and 10 days will not need to change much when the private-sector rules arrive.
What actually starts the clock?
Becoming aware. The guidance gives examples: a complaint from a tenant, something spotted during routine maintenance, a referral from a third party such as a medical professional. It does not say “during office hours”, and it does not name a channel.
Hazards rarely arrive between 9 and 5. Water comes through a ceiling at 2 AM. A boiler fails on a Saturday. A tenant sends a photo of spreading mould on a Sunday evening. If that message waits in a shared inbox or on voicemail until Monday, most of a 24-hour window is gone before anyone reads it.
The second problem is evidence. To show you met a deadline, you need to know when the report came in, what it said, who decided how serious it was, and what happened next. A call to a personal mobile and a voice note on WhatsApp do not give you that record.
How we compared the ways teams cover nights
We looked at the five ways UK property teams take reports out of hours today and asked four questions of each. Does it pick up at 2 AM? Does it record the time the report came in, by itself? Does it decide anything, or only pass the message on? And can you show, three months later, what was reported, what was decided and when. We left out prices: they depend on portfolio size and change often.
| Option | Picks up at night | Timestamps itself | Triages | Audit trail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voicemail | No | Partly | No | No |
| Shared inbox | No | Yes | No | Partly |
| On-call mobile | Yes, if answered | No | Yes | No |
| Answering service | Yes | Yes | By script | Partly |
| AI building manager (Kreedl) | Yes | Yes | By your rules | Yes |
1. Voicemail: the clock runs while nobody listens
The resident calls, hears a greeting, leaves a message. The report exists, so the clock has arguably started, and nobody knows until someone checks the box in the morning. A Friday night leak is read on Monday with most of the 24 hours gone. Voicemail also records nothing about what was decided, because nothing was.
Best for: nothing that could be an emergency. Keep it only as a last fallback behind a line that picks up.
Voicemail stores the message. Kreedl answers it, asks for the photo and starts the record.
2. Shared inbox: a timestamp, but no eyes on it
Email and WhatsApp Business give you the one thing voicemail does not: the time the report arrived. What they do not give you is anyone reading it at night. The inbox fills with a mould photo at 22:00 and a “still leaking” at 06:30, and the first human sees both at 09:00. The timestamp now works against you, because it proves when you became aware.
Best for: non-urgent requests in working hours, and as the written record behind a line that triages.
A shared inbox proves when the report came in. Kreedl proves what happened in the hour after.
3. On-call mobile: judgement at 2 AM, no record at 9 AM
A manager or a caretaker carries the phone. When they answer, you get the best triage on this list: a person who knows the building deciding what to do. The weaknesses are the other nights. Missed calls go to voicemail. The decision lives in one person’s memory and in their call log, which is not an audit trail. And the person on duty burns out, which is the usual reason this setup quietly stops working.
Best for: small portfolios where one person really does know every building, as the escalation step behind a first line.
The on-call phone decides when it is answered. Kreedl answers every time, applies the same rules, and wakes your on-call person with the photo and a recommendation.
4. Answering service: picked up, then passed on
A call centre answers in your name, follows a script and sends a message to the on-call contractor or manager. Every call is logged with a time, which is a real step up. The limit is the script. The operator does not know the building, cannot read a photo and will not ask the follow-up a plumber needs. Most reports arrive at your desk as a two-line note: “tenant says water, flat 4, please call back”.
Best for: portfolios that need a human voice on the line and have a contractor who can act on a short note.
An answering service logs the call and passes it on. Kreedl identifies the unit, reads the photo, dispatches within your limits and follows up until it is closed.
5. Where Kreedl fits
Kreedl is an AI building manager that answers residents around the clock.
It works through the steps the other options miss, so the clock never runs while nobody is looking.
- Calls
- SMS
- Picks up in 1.1 seconds on average, at 3 PM or 3 AM, in the resident’s language.
- Reads photos and voice notes, identifies the unit and logs the exact time of every report.
- Triages against your rules, dispatches your approved contractors within the limits you set, and follows up until the job is closed.
- Escalates anything unusual to your on-call person with the photo, the history and a recommended action. Every step is logged and auditable.
- Keeps the data in the EU. GDPR-compliant, no training on your residents’ messages.
It does not replace your judgement on what a hazard is. It makes sure nothing waits until Monday, and that you can show what happened and when.
Best for: portfolios of 50 units upward, social or private, that want every night report answered, triaged by their own rules and recorded, without adding a shift.
A triage table for night reports
Whoever answers out of hours, a person or an AI, needs simple rules for what to do with each report. The table below is a starting point. Whether something is an emergency depends on the home and the people in it: a vulnerable resident, a young child or a health condition can move a report up a level. Agree your own rules with your compliance lead.
| What the resident reports | Likely level | First action tonight |
|---|---|---|
| Water coming through the ceiling or near electrics | Emergency | Tell the resident how to isolate water or power safely, dispatch the on-call contractor, warn the flat below |
| No heating or hot water during cold weather, vulnerable resident | Emergency | Dispatch the heating engineer, consider temporary heaters, escalate to the on-call manager |
| Smell of gas | Emergency | Tell them to leave and call the national gas emergency line, then log it and follow up with the gas engineer |
| Exposed wires, sparking socket | Emergency | Stop use of the circuit if it is safe to do so, dispatch an electrician |
| Black mould spreading in a child’s bedroom | Significant (emergency if severe) | Ask for photos and room details, book an inspection, start the 10-working-day clock |
| Loose stair handrail in a communal area | Significant | Ask for photos, warn residents, book a repair |
| Dripping tap, sticking door, broken shelf | Routine | Log it and schedule it in working hours |
Example rules, not legal advice. If anyone is in immediate danger, the resident should call 999 first.
What to have in place before 30 November
- One way to report, on every channel. Phone, WhatsApp, SMS and email should all reach the same place, at any hour.
- A timestamp on every report. Write down when you became aware, automatically, not from memory.
- Photos at first contact. Ask for a photo straight away. It speeds up triage and becomes part of your evidence.
- Written triage rules covering what counts as an emergency, who decides, and what the resident is told to do in the meantime.
- An on-call contractor list with names and numbers for the night and weekend, and spending limits agreed in advance.
- Vulnerability flags on the units that need them, so the person on duty sees them at once.
- A written summary template you can send within 3 working days of an investigation.
- One audit trail per case showing the report, the decision, the dispatch, updates to the resident and when it was closed.
How do you know your night line works?
Do not take the vendor’s word for it, ours included. Test it the way a resident would. Call the line at 23:00 on a weekday with a made-up leak and a photo. Then pull the record the next morning and check four things: the time the report was logged against the time you called, whether the unit was identified without you spelling it out, what the line decided and who it woke, and whether the resident got a message saying what happens next.
Repeat it once a quarter and after every change to your contractor list. A line that passed in March and fails in September is the one that costs you a deadline.
When Kreedl is the wrong choice
If you manage a handful of flats and one person really does answer the phone at night, an on-call mobile and a written log will carry you, and Kreedl is more than you need. If your residents cannot use a phone or WhatsApp at all, you need a warden or a concierge on site, not a line. And if your problem is the daytime repairs backlog rather than nights, start with the contractor list and the triage rules above. The line only helps once there is someone to dispatch.
FAQs
Not yet. The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 will extend it to private tenancies, and the government is consulting on the details until 18 December 2026. No start date has been announced. The consultation uses the social-sector deadlines as its starting point, so plan for 24 hours and 10 working days.
Treat it as one. The guidance gives a complaint from a tenant as an example of how a landlord becomes aware of a hazard and does not limit this to particular channels. The safest reading: the clock starts when any report reaches your team or your contractors, whichever channel it came in on.
For social landlords, suitable alternative accommodation must be offered until the home is safe. The private-sector consultation asks how this should work for private landlords.
No. Emergency hazards run on a 24-hour clock, including nights and weekends. The significant-hazard deadlines use working days.
It can apply the rules you write, consistently, at any hour. It should not invent them. Agree the triage rules with your compliance lead first, then have the line follow them and escalate anything outside them. Kreedl offers a live test call at kreedl.com/try, so you can hear how it handles a night report before you change anything.
Sources
- Awaab’s Law Phase 1: guidance for social landlords (GOV.UK)
- Awaab’s Law Phase 2: guidance for social housing landlords (GOV.UK, applies from 30 November 2026)
- Extending Awaab’s Law to private rented tenancies and to licences (GOV.UK consultation, 9 Oct – 18 Dec 2026)
- Awaab’s Law: regulations (GOV.UK, the Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025)
This article is general information, not legal advice. Rules and dates are correct as of 12 October 2026. Check the latest GOV.UK guidance before you change your procedures.
Want to see it on your buildings?
Book a demo to see how Kreedl answers a night report, triages it against your rules and logs every step. Or call the agent yourself first.