If you let property, there's a name you should know: Awaab Ishak. A two-year-old who died from prolonged exposure to mould in a home his family had reported again and again. The law that carries his name, Awaab's Law, is the government's answer, and it puts hard deadlines on landlords to deal with dangerous damp and mould.
It's already in force for social housing, from October last year. And under the Renters' Rights Act, the government has the power to extend it to the private rented sector. A consultation on how that works for private landlords is expected by the end of this year, with the rules themselves likely to follow. So this is not "if", it's "getting ready for when".
Here's what Awaab's Law does, in plain terms. It sets fixed timescales. Emergency hazards, the ones that put someone at serious risk, have to be made safe fast, within 24 hours. Serious damp and mould has to be investigated within a set window and then put right within another. The clock starts when the tenant reports it, not when it suits you. Miss the deadlines and the tenant has a clear route to hold you to account.
I want to be straight about why this one matters more than it looks. Most of us think we already deal with damp when it's flagged. But "I got round to it" is exactly what this law is designed to end. What protects you is not good intentions, it's a system: fast response, a clear record, and proof you acted.
So here's what I'm putting in place now, ahead of the rules landing, and what I'd suggest you do too:
Make it easy to report. One clear way for tenants to tell you about damp, mould or a hazard, and make sure they know it. A problem you never heard about becomes a problem you failed to act on.
Log every report with a date. The moment a tenant mentions damp, write it down with the date and what they said. When there's a deadline tied to the report date, that log is your defence.
Have a person you can call fast. Know today who you'd send to investigate damp within days, not who you'd start ringing round for. Line up your damp and your emergency trades before you need them.
Fix the cause, not just the patch. Wiping mould off and repainting is not dealing with it. Investigate why it's there, ventilation, a leak, cold spots, and treat that. A recurring problem is a recurring liability.
Keep the paper trail. Photos before and after, dates, what you did, receipts. If you are ever challenged, the file is what wins it.
From my own portfolio: The temptation with damp is to treat it as the tenant's lifestyle problem, condensation from drying washing, windows never opened. Sometimes there's truth in that. But the law is not going to care whose habit started it once a deadline is running. My rule now is simple: treat every damp report as a clock that has just started, respond as if it has, and keep the record either way. It costs an hour of admin and it takes the risk off the table.
One more thing worth knowing, because it's part of the same push. The government has already reformed the way home hazards are assessed, and the Decent Homes Standard, the minimum condition bar that social housing has lived under for years, is being extended to private rentals too. The direction is one way: private landlords held to the same condition standards as everyone else, with real deadlines attached.
The takeaway: damp and mould are about to come with a stopwatch. Get a clear reporting route, log every report with its date, line up trades you can call fast, fix causes not patches, and keep the file. Do that and the deadlines are just a formality. Ignore it and the first time you learn the rules will be when you've already broken them.
If you know a landlord who still treats mould as the tenant's problem, forward this. The clock won't care.