Leading social housing law firm warns against extending Awaab’s Law beyond damp, mould and condensation issues

Law firm Anthony Collins has said ‘Awaab’s Law’ should not be extended to cover 28 hazards in the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) from its original focus on damp, mould and condensation (DMC).

Partner Suzanne Gregson said in a response to the Government’s consultation that Awaab’s Law, in the guise in which it was expected (covering DMC), had been welcomed by the social houisng sector and was, ”with some stretch (e.g. recruitment of additional resource)”, achievable.

However, she added that extending the proposed law’s coverage might be impractical and could have the unintended result of seeing damp, mould and condensation problems dealt with less rapidly.

Awaab’s Law is named after Awaab Ishak, from Rochdale, who died aged two from a respiratory condition caused by extensive mould in the housing association flat where he lived. 

The Government launched a consultation in January, which has now ended.

This would impose a new legal requirements for social landlords to investigate hazards within 14 days, begin fixing the issue within a further seven days, and make emergency repairs within 24 hours. Landlords who failed to do this could be fined.

Gregson said HHSRS enforcement options lay with local authorities, which can take action that includes an improvement notice, prohibition order or a demolition order. HHSRS hazards are split into category 1 ‘serious’ and category 2 ‘less serious or urgent’.

She said: “It is this widening of the scope of Awaab’s Law…which causes our concern as to whether the proposals are practically workable and are aligned with the Government’s stated objectives.”

This was because Awaab’s Law does not distinguish between category 1 or 2 hazards but defines a hazard as something that “poses a significant risk to the health or safety of the actual resident of the dwelling”.

The new definition takes account of the resident’s health, for example of a susceptibility to mould spores.

But applying this to the other 28 HHSRS hazards “means undertaking subjective tests on whether any of [them] could require a [social housing provider] to consider and process a complaint in accordance with Awaab’s Law and the associated short time deadlines.

“This could potentially require all reports of disrepair to be dealt with by landlords under Awaab’s Law timescales due to the potential health impact that the disrepair could have on that individual resident.”

Gregson said there was “already in place a robust and widely understood framework for the remaining HHSRS hazards which relies on their objective assessment, as opposed to subjective assessments based on medical self-reporting by residents”.

She noted that a category 1 hazard is an automatic breach of the Decent Homes Standard and so also of the Regulator of Social Housing’s consumer standards.

Finding of a breach of HHSRS would be a breach of ”relevant legislation in relation to the safety of residents” which would also breach the consumer standards and so could see providers having to decide if the ‘current serious detriment test’ is breached and potentially refer themselves to the regulator.

This could lead to a perverse outcome where DMC issues are dealt with more slowly as landlords handle a large volume of reports on other HHSRS cases, she said.

Gregson concluded: “Our view is that including non-damp, mould and condensation hazards under Awaab’s Law not only complicates the situation and increases uncertainty as to what circumstances give rise to a hazard under Awaab’s Law.

“It also creates a material additional burden where [providers] will need to react within very tight timescales for potential hazards that are already adequately addressed under HHSRS.”

The Local Government Association earlier this month told the Government multiple changes being introduced alongside Awaab’s Law would affect housing asset management services and delivery.

It called on the Government to ensure that such changes are “coordinated and introduced in a sensible manner so that landlords can appropriately review their asset management models and delivery and respond to them in the round.

“This includes working with the sector to set a realistic and achievable timescale for implementation of Awaab’s Law.”

Mark Smulian