Consistency is key – can social housing landlords adopt a unified approach to Awaab’s Law compliance?

Awaab’s Law has changed the way that social housing landlords operate across the country and will continue to do so during its phased implementation.

Having been established for a few months, data is starting to emerge showing the extent to which social housing landlords are coping with the changes. This article looks at the findings and considers whether more needs to be done to improve compliance.

Are social housing landlords complying with Awaab’s Law?

According to emerging research, it would appear that many social housing landlords are now compliant with Awaab’s Law. Of the 150 landlords assessed in a pulse survey, seven in ten were found to have a 90% compliance rate for recorded emergency hazards.

However, the real point of interest comes from the disparity with which social housing landlords are reporting emergency hazards. In December it was found that 59% of landlords reported fewer than 20 emergency hazards, while 16% reported more than 100. While possible to assume the 16% are incredibly unlucky, the truth behind the data seems to be a disagreement on what counts as an “emergency hazard” and thus what needs reporting and when.  While the expansion of Awaab’s Law may, in time, rectify this disparity, the current wording could suggest that some social housing landlords may be viewing compliance through very different lenses.

According to the official Government documentation, “emergency hazards” are defined as issues that “could cause immediate harm to the mental or physical health or safety of tenants if not addressed quickly.” While some examples are listed, the list is by no means exhaustive and is further problematised by the acknowledgement that the severity of a fault may be situational. For example, it is observed that a faulty boiler would be a severe issue in winter but less so in summer.

With no watertight definition of an “emergency hazard”, it is not surprising that social housing landlords currently have different interpretations of what must be done to stay compliant.

Can social housing landlords be unified in approaching Awaab’s Law?

For the time being, it seems like social housing landlords will not be able to unify in their approach.

There will be some that err on the side of caution and categorise more faults as emergencies than is strictly necessary. Others may seek to justify why a fault is not an emergency and could fall out of scope for the 24-hour repair deadline.

These discrepancies will change when Awaab’s Law encompasses more faults and imposes tighter deadlines, but we can expect to see different interpretations persist in the meantime.

What was also revealed by the data was the impact of capacity constraints, as compliance suffered in December when seasonal access to contractors became challenging. As we have cautioned before, social housing landlords need to ensure that their responses to emergencies are robust enough to adapt to regular contractors being unavailable. This means having a catalogue of different contractors ready to call on should an emergency arise while a preferred option is unavailable. Having access to contractors is not something that social housing landlords can afford to take a different view on, and all must ensure they have a team ready to go whenever the need arises.

Ultimately, the current engagement with Awaab’s Law shows that while some social housing landlords may be overzealous, there is a risk that some are leaving themselves vulnerable to non-compliance. Our expert team can help social housing landlords to understand Awaab’s Law and ensure that any interpretation is compliant with the legal perspective.

When assessing the severity of the incident, we can assist with the recordkeeping that will be vital should a tenant make a complaint with the Housing Ombudsman.

Speak to our team today to ensure that you remain compliant with Awaab’s Law.