Damp-and-mould triage, end to end.
Eight steps from the moment of awareness to a verified-safe home. For repairs directors, damp-and-mould leads, and operations teams running their first heating season under Awaab's Law.
The clock you're running.
Emergency hazards: investigate and make safe.
Significant hazards (incl. damp and mould): investigate.
Written summary to the resident, after investigation.
Relevant safety work complete, after investigation.
From awareness to verified-safe.
- Step 01
Decide: emergency or significant?
You have become aware of a damp, mould, or related hazard in a home. What type of case is this?
ActionApply the 24-hour clock (emergency) or the 10 / 3 / 5 working-day clocks (significant) to the case. The clock starts at the moment of awareness, not the moment of case creation in your system.
What to weigh up before you act Close the detail
- Emergency: a reasonable landlord would act within 24 hours. Examples include electrical hazards exposed by damp, severe structural issues, a flooded home with active water ingress, or a property that cannot be safely occupied tonight.
- Significant: not emergency-level, but a hazard that poses a significant risk to the occupants. Damp and mould itself sits here under Phase 1 of Awaab's Law.
- If you're not sure, treat it as an emergency. The test in the law is what a reasonable landlord would have done, and the guidance expects landlords to err on the side of caution when there is real doubt.
- Step 02
Assess vulnerability at face value.
Who lives in the home? Has anyone mentioned a vulnerability, even in passing?
ActionPromote the case in the queue if any vulnerability is present. Brief the investigator before the visit. Consider alternative accommodation earlier in the window, not later.
What to weigh up before you act Close the detail
- Vulnerability is taken at face value. MHCLG guidance is explicit: landlords should generally take reports at face value, should not wait for medical evidence, and should recognise that a tenant does not need a formally documented vulnerability to be at risk.
- Common vulnerability markers: young children, elderly residents, respiratory conditions (asthma, COPD), pregnancy, mobility limitations, mental-health conditions, people on low income, and residents who have moved to the UK within the past 10 years.
- Record the vulnerability on the case the moment it is mentioned. Do not park it behind a screening form.
- Step 03
Open the case, attach the clock.
A new case is created. What has to be on it?
ActionCase has property ID, awareness timestamp, hazard type, vulnerability flag, and the four deadlines attached. All four of those should be set automatically by the system; if your workflow requires someone to type them in, that is a failure point.
What to weigh up before you act Close the detail
- The moment of awareness is the timestamp. Not "when we assigned this to a team" or "when the ticket was triaged". The MHCLG guidance treats this bar as low - a resident mention, a staff observation, or a third-party report all count.
- The statutory deadlines follow immediately: 24 hours for emergency, 10/3/5 working days for significant.
- Record who found out, when, and how. If a case is ever questioned, this record is the starting point.
- Step 04
Dispatch the investigation.
Who is going to the home, and when?
ActionInvestigator attends with full context. They do not arrive cold. Their notes append to the same case record the alert opened.
What to weigh up before you act Close the detail
- Investigation must complete within 10 working days for a significant hazard, 24 hours for an emergency.
- If in-house capacity is tight, escalate to a national field network rather than let the clock run. A case that goes past the investigation window with no recorded dispatch attempt is the hardest kind of case to defend.
- Brief the investigator with what you know: sensor trend, vulnerability flag, any prior cases in the same property, any construction notes.
- Step 05
Capture what you found - root cause, not symptoms.
The investigation has concluded. What does the record say?
ActionFindings logged to the case. Photos attached. Sensor trend referenced. Root cause categorised (ventilation, insulation, leak, design, other).
What to weigh up before you act Close the detail
- 'Mould on the wall' is not a finding. 'Under-specified extraction in the bathroom driving persistent moisture, compounded by a thermal bridge in the north-facing bedroom' is a finding.
- The landlord is responsible for root causes within their control: insulation, ventilation, openings, damp-proofing, design. New-build warranty cover does not remove that responsibility.
- The record should say what the investigator saw, what the sensor data confirmed, and what the root cause is. Not: what the resident is doing differently.
- Step 06
Send the written summary within 3 working days.
The investigation concluded on day X. When does the resident get the written summary?
ActionWritten summary sent. Copy in the case record. Resident has a concrete picture of what happens next.
What to weigh up before you act Close the detail
- Within 3 working days of the investigation concluding. This is a statutory deadline, not a best-practice target.
- The summary should be plain English, no-blame, and concrete about what happens next and when. See the no-blame templates resource for a starting point.
- Do not wait for a full remediation plan before sending. The summary can say "we are arranging X, with a target of Y date, and will confirm the booking by Z" - that is compliant.
- Step 07
Remediate inside the 5-working-day window.
Relevant safety work must complete within 5 working days of the investigation. What does that actually look like?
ActionWorks scheduled and commenced inside the 5-working-day window, or alternative accommodation offered. The case record shows both paths if both were considered.
What to weigh up before you act Close the detail
- Root-cause remediation, not symptomatic treatment. A wipe-down without fixing the ventilation will fail under a Phase 2 assessment and will fail in the sensor data within weeks.
- Relevant safety work must be completed within 5 working days - if it can't be, the alternative accommodation duty applies. Supplementary preventative work (fixing the root cause) must start as soon as reasonably practicable, and within 12 weeks at the latest.
- If the home cannot be made safe in the period at all, the landlord provides suitable alternative accommodation at their expense until the safety work is complete. This is not a gotcha - it is built into the statute.
- Step 08
Verify the fix - on data, not on a signature.
The remediation is complete. Is the case closed?
ActionVerification window defined (typically 4-6 weeks through the next heating cycle). Case remains open, monitored, and closes only on stable sensor readings.
What to weigh up before you act Close the detail
- Not yet. A case closes when the sensor data confirms the home has stabilised through at least one heating cycle, not when the works are signed off.
- If the risk score re-elevates after the fix, the case re-opens automatically. That protects you from the worst kind of disrepair claim: 'we reported it again and nothing happened'.
- The post-fix data is the durable piece of evidence. It says: the problem ended, not just that the repair happened.
MouldWatch runs steps 01 to 08 automatically. You keep the judgement calls.
Awareness timestamp, clock attachment, vulnerability promotion, dispatch, written summary, remediation verification - all wired. Your team handles the conversations and the calls that should always be human.