Investigation complete
Investigate the damp and mould hazard and determine the root cause.
Enter when your team first found out about the problem. The planner shows every legal deadline for the case, counting down live. It's for anyone who tracks case deadlines, such as operations leads, damp and mould case managers, and housing officers.
Investigate the damp and mould hazard and determine the root cause.
Send the resident a written summary of the investigation findings and planned next steps.
If the relevant safety work can't be finished within 5 working days, the landlord must provide suitable alternative accommodation at their own expense until it's done. The 12-week limit for starting supplementary preventative work doesn't extend this deadline.
Working-day arithmetic excludes Saturdays and Sundays. Verify around England and Wales bank holidays on the gov.uk calendar before relying on a computed deadline for a specific case.
Every number in this planner comes from the government's own rules - the 2025 Regulations and the official guidance for social landlords, both linked in our source library.
The clock starts when anyone in your organisation finds out about the problem, and a resident mentioning it on a call counts. The deadlines run in working days, so weekends and bank holidays don't count. The planner skips weekends but not bank holidays (see the caveats below).
For emergency hazards, it's 24 hours to investigate and make safe. If the home can't be made safe in that window, the landlord provides suitable alternative accommodation at their expense.
For significant hazards including damp and mould, it's 10 working days to investigate, 3 working days after the investigation for the written summary to the resident, and 5 working days for relevant safety works.
Awaab's Law is Section 42 of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, inserting Sections 10A and 10B into the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
The planner excludes weekends but not England and Wales bank holidays. For a case straddling a bank holiday, cross-check against the gov.uk bank holiday calendar.
The law gives a landlord a defence if they can prove they used all reasonable endeavours to avoid the breach (section 10A(5), Landlord and Tenant Act 1985). What counts is for the courts and the Ombudsman to decide - the planner only tracks the deadlines.
Fixing the underlying cause must start as soon as is reasonably practicable, and within 12 weeks at the latest. But this does not buy you extra time on the 5-working-day safety work. If you can't finish that in time, you must offer the resident somewhere else to stay, at your expense.
Use the planner to work out one case by hand. MouldWatch tracks the same deadlines automatically, starting the moment your team finds out.