New legal timescales now apply to damp and mould in rented homes in England. Here's what they actually require, and why a can of mould spray won't cut it.
Awaab's Law is named after Awaab Ishak, a two-year-old who died in 2020 as a result of prolonged exposure to mould in a rented flat in Rochdale. His death led to a coroner's report and a change in the law that now places specific, timed obligations on landlords in England when damp and mould are reported.
In broad terms, once a landlord is made aware of a potential damp or mould hazard in a social or private rented home, the law sets out fixed timescales for investigating and then fixing it, rather than leaving it to the landlord's discretion. The detail varies by hazard severity and property type, and the requirements are being phased in across different classes of rented housing, but the direction is consistent: reported damp and mould has to be treated as urgent, not something that can sit on a maintenance list indefinitely.
A common landlord response to a mould complaint has historically been to send someone round to wipe the walls down with a mould-and-mildew spray and repaint over the marks. That treats what's visible, for a few weeks. It does nothing about the actual cause, which in the vast majority of cases is excess humidity that the room's ventilation simply isn't removing fast enough. The mould comes back, the tenant reports it again, and the cycle repeats, which is exactly the pattern the new obligations are designed to stop landlords getting away with.
To actually resolve a mould problem rather than repeatedly paper over it, you need to deal with the humidity itself. That means either improving ventilation so moist air is properly removed, or actively dehumidifying the property, ideally both, sized correctly for the number of occupants and the property's construction. A whole-house system does this automatically and continuously, which also gives a landlord a documented, ongoing solution to point to if a complaint or inspection ever comes up again, rather than a one-off repaint with no lasting effect.
If you're renting and dealing with recurring black mould, keep a written record of when you reported it and what was done. Persistent condensation on windows, a musty smell that won't shift, or mould regrowing within weeks of being cleaned are all signs the underlying humidity problem hasn't actually been addressed, only masked.
Awaab's Law puts a clock on how quickly landlords must act on reported damp and mould, and a wipe-and-repaint won't hold up as a lasting fix. A properly sized ventilation or dehumidification system, installed once and maintained, is what actually stops the problem coming back.