In this guide 8 sections
- 1 Who Is Responsible for Damp and Mould?
- 2 What Does the Law Require Now?
- 3 Is Awaab’s Law in Force for Private Landlords?
- 4 What Causes It, and How Do You Tell?
- 5 How Should You Respond to a Report?
- 6 What Happens If You Do Not Act?
- 7 What Do Damp Failures Look Like?
- 8 What Does It Mean for Your Cover?
Government guidance is explicit that blaming damp and mould on a tenant’s lifestyle is not acceptable, and that the underlying causes are building deficiencies, ventilation, heating and energy efficiency.
That is the starting point, and it is not a close question any more.
What is less well known is that Awaab’s Law, the fixed timetable for responding to hazards, does not yet apply to private landlords at all. A good deal of published advice says otherwise.
Who Is Responsible for Damp and Mould?
In almost every case, the landlord, because the causes the guidance identifies are all things the landlord controls.
What the guidance says
The government’s guidance for rented housing providers puts it directly: it is totally unreasonable to blame damp and mould in the home on lifestyle choices.
It goes on to say that everyday tasks such as cooking, bathing, washing and drying laundry unavoidably produce indoor moisture, and that the fundamental cause of damp and mould will be building deficiencies, inadequate ventilation, inadequate heating, or poor energy efficiency.
Why that framing matters
Every one of those four is the landlord’s to fix. The tenant controls how much moisture is produced; the building determines whether that moisture becomes a problem.
So the practical question is never whether the tenant dries washing indoors. It is whether the property can handle a household living in it normally.
Where a tenant does carry responsibility
A tenant is expected to use the property in a tenant-like manner, and section 9A does not require you to fix damage the tenant caused or to rebuild after an inevitable accident.
That is a much narrower point than it is often made to carry. Blocking a vent deliberately is different from breathing, cooking and washing.
Why the guidance is worded so firmly
The guidance opens by noting that damp and mould primarily affect the airways and lungs, can also affect the eyes and skin, and in the most severe cases can cause death.
It names the death of Awaab Ishak, which it attributes to a severe respiratory condition caused by prolonged exposure to mould in a home with inadequate ventilation. That is the case the coming legislation is named after.
Who is most at risk
The guidance says everyone is vulnerable to the health impacts, but that people with certain health conditions, children and older adults face a greater risk of severe effects.
It also records the effect on mental health, from worry about the health impact, from the living conditions themselves, and from damage to belongings.
It is a compliance risk as well as a health one
The same guidance notes plainly that a lack of compliance can put a landlord at risk of prosecution or financial penalties.
So the incentive to act quickly is not only the tenant’s health and not only the eventual timetable. It is the regime that already exists.
What Does the Law Require Now?
Two implied covenants and a council enforcement regime, all of which already apply.
The three that bite
| Source | What it requires |
|---|---|
| Section 11, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 | Keep the structure and exterior in repair, and keep the installations for water, gas, electricity, sanitation, space heating and water heating in repair and proper working order |
| Section 9A, same Act | An implied covenant that the home is fit for human habitation at the start of the term and remains so throughout it |
| Housing Health and Safety Rating System | Councils assess hazards, including damp and mould growth, and can require works |
Section 11 is about repair
It bites where something is broken: a failed roof covering, a defective gutter, a damp proof course that has been bridged, a heating system that does not work.
Condensation with no underlying defect can fall outside it, which is exactly why section 9A matters.
Section 9A is about fitness
Fitness is a broader test than repair and it runs for the whole term, not just at the start. A home can be in repair and still be unfit.
Section 9A also gives the tenant a direct route to court without going through the council, which is the practical change it made.
Related: What the Renters’ Rights Act means for landlords
Is Awaab’s Law in Force for Private Landlords?
No. It applies to social housing, and the provision that would extend it to private lets has not been commenced.
Where it currently applies
Section 10A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 was inserted in 2023 and applies to a relevant social housing lease, meaning one where the landlord is a registered provider of social housing.
It requires the landlord to comply with prescribed requirements about remedying hazards within set periods, enforced through the implied covenant.
What would extend it
Section 60 of the Renters’ Rights Act would rewrite section 10A so that it applies to a lease of a dwelling-house in England for a term of less than seven years, which covers ordinary tenancies.
On legislation.gov.uk that section is marked prospective, and its commencement note records that it was not in force at Royal Assent. Unlike the provisions that took effect on 1 May 2026, no commencement order is listed against it.
Two steps, not one
Even when section 60 is commenced, section 10A(3) requires the Secretary of State to make regulations specifying the hazards and the periods for action. Those timescales are what people mean by Awaab’s Law.
So there are two outstanding steps, not one, and any specific date you see quoted for private landlords is a forecast rather than law.
What to do about that
Treat the timetable as coming and the duty as already here. Sections 11 and 9A apply today, and a landlord who responds promptly is compliant under the current law and ready for the next.
There is also a defence written into section 10A for when it does arrive: that the landlord used all reasonable endeavours to avoid the breach. Records of prompt action are what that defence is made of.
What Causes It, and How Do You Tell?
Penetrating damp, rising damp and condensation have different causes and different fixes, and the guidance lists what to look for.
The checks the guidance sets out
| Where | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Outside | Damaged or blocked pipes, gutters and downpipes; broken seals or ill-fitting windows; cracks in render or foundations; missing or broken roof finishes; a bridged damp proof course |
| Inside | Peeling wallpaper, staining, visible mould growth, and the condition of ventilation and heating |
Tell the three apart before you spend
Penetrating damp comes through the fabric from outside and usually shows a defect you can find, from a blocked gutter to cracking caused by structural movement. Rising damp comes up from the ground and is associated with a failed or bridged damp proof course.
Condensation forms where warm moist air meets cold surfaces, and is the one most often blamed on the tenant and most often caused by insufficient ventilation, heating or insulation.
Fix the cause, not the surface
Painting over mould without addressing the moisture is the most expensive cheap option available. It returns, usually worse, and the second report is much harder to defend than the first.
Related: Compare landlord buildings insurance
How Should You Respond to a Report?
Quickly, in writing, and without waiting for proof of harm.
Do not wait for medical evidence
The guidance is specific: landlords should not delay action to await medical evidence or opinion, and medical evidence is not a requirement for action.
That single line disposes of a common instinct, which is to ask the tenant to prove the problem is affecting them before doing anything.
Inspect and record
Attend, photograph, note readings and dates, and identify the likely cause. The inspection record is both how you fix the right thing and how you show you acted.
Tell the tenant what happens next
Inform them of the steps you will take and the timeframes for the work. An unanswered report is what turns a repair into a claim.
Keep the thread going
Where works take time, update in writing at intervals rather than going quiet. Silence reads as neglect to a council officer and to a judge.
Build the file as though it will be read
Dated photographs at each visit, the readings taken, the contractor reports, and every message to and from the tenant in one place.
A disrepair claim is decided on that file. Assembling it after the claim arrives always produces something thinner than assembling it as you go, and the gap between the two is visible.
Related: Gas safety certificates
What Happens If You Do Not Act?
Council enforcement, a direct claim by the tenant, or a counterclaim inside your own possession case.
The council route
Councils assess hazards under the rating system and can serve improvement notices requiring works by a date. Failure to comply carries its own penalties and a record with the authority.
In a licensed HMO the same inspection tends to look at the licence conditions at the same time.
Related: HMO licensing
The tenant route
Section 9A lets the tenant bring proceedings directly, seeking works and damages, without needing the council to act first.
The counterclaim route
This is the one landlords least expect. Where you bring a possession claim for arrears, disrepair damages can be set against the arrears.
On a mandatory arrears ground that set-off can take the debt below the threshold at the hearing, which loses you the mandatory ground and leaves only the discretionary ones, argued immediately after evidence about the state of the property.
Related: Section 8 grounds for possession
What Do Damp Failures Look Like?
Both of these start as small problems and become expensive because of how they were answered.
The lifestyle reply
A tenant reports mould in a bedroom corner in November. The landlord replies that the property was fine for the previous tenant and suggests opening windows and using the heating more.
Nothing further is done. In February the tenant reports it again, with photographs, and copies the council.
An inspection finds a bridged damp proof course and an extractor fan that has never worked. The landlord now faces works, an improvement notice and a tenant who has a documented four month history of being told it was their fault.
The arrears claim that reversed
A landlord serves notice on serious arrears with a clean rent schedule and a strong case on the numbers.
The tenant files a defence and a counterclaim for disrepair, citing two years of unanswered damp reports. Damages are set against the arrears and the balance falls below the mandatory threshold on the day of the hearing.
The mandatory ground goes, and the discretionary grounds are argued in front of a judge who has just read the repair history.
What Does It Mean for Your Cover?
Damp is largely uninsurable, which makes maintenance the only real control you have.
Gradual damage is excluded
Buildings policies respond to sudden and unforeseen events. An escape of water from a burst pipe is usually covered; condensation, rising damp and the mould that follows are usually excluded as gradual deterioration.
So the cost of ignoring damp lands on you directly, not on the policy.
What insurance does cover here
The consequences, mainly. Legal expenses cover funds the defence of a disrepair claim or counterclaim.
Loss of rent cover can respond where an insured event makes the property unlettable.
Neither pays for the fan you did not fit.
Related: Loss of rent insurance
Related: Landlord legal expenses insurance
Where to start
Fix ventilation and heating, answer reports in writing, and keep the inspection record. That combination is what the current law asks for and what the coming timetable will ask for.
Then make sure the cover matches the property.
Comparing landlord insurance for a UK rental is the easy half of this. Explaining a two year repair history to a judge is the other.