In October 2025 the Government introduced the Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations – more commonly known as Awaab’s law. The regulations are intended to ensure that social landlords adequately address hazardous conditions in their homes.
What are the Awaab’s regulations?
The regulations imply terms into tenancy agreements that require hazards to be investigated and made safe within required timeframes which can be as little as 24 hours. This will primarily affect how existing stock is managed and means that all social landlords should ensure they have adequate repairs and maintenance protocols in place to identify and deal with hazards within their properties.
However, it will also have implications for how development agreements and build contracts for new build homes are drafted. The requirements imposed by the regulations on social landlords to correct hazards cannot be delegated. It is therefore not enough to say that a developer should fix the problems and then take no further responsibility. The social landlord must take steps themselves to ensure that any defects are corrected within the statutory timeframes.
It is common for development agreements and build contracts to have a post-completion rectification period, during which the developer/contractor is obliged to correct any defects. However, this often only requires defects to be rectified at the end of a 12 or 24 month period. This will not be sufficient to allow social landlords to comply with the specified timescales under the regulations.
Going forward, it would be advisable for all development agreements and build contracts for new build social housing to include timescales for defect rectification that reflect the regulations. In light of the frequent reluctance on the part of developers or contractors to return and correct defects in a timely manner, some social landlords may even go further and include provision within their agreements that allows them to take control of correcting defects and recharge the cost to the developer. Developers are unlikely to be keen on this but social landlords not longer have the benefit of allowing developers to work to their own timescales.
If this is something you need advice on then please get in touch with our Construction team.