The first phase of Awaab’s Law looms large, transforming the obligations of housing providers, empowering tenants with new rights and demanding more accountability across the sector. It will also challenge housing providers to fundamentally rethink how they manage tenant relationships, how they handle data and how they deliver safe, healthy homes.
Enforcement will be strict, but keeping tenants safe and ensuring full compliance can be achieved with the right expertise, tools and technology.
A new era of responsibility
Awaab’s Law is clear in its requirements. Emergency hazards must be dealt with within 24 hours. Significant hazards, including damp and mould, must be investigated within 10 working days. Written updates are mandatory, and remedial work must be delivered in good time or tenants offered alternative safe accommodation.
This is not an advisory code; it is a statutory duty, written directly into tenancy agreements. Tenants will be able to escalate unresolved complaints to the Housing Ombudsman or the courts. Local authorities will have greater enforcement powers. Fines, compensation and even criminal prosecutions are possible for those who fail to comply.
The government has signalled that these consequences are deliberately robust. As ministers have put it, “Safety is non-negotiable. We have a moral duty to act.” For housing providers, the message is clear: this is no longer about discretionary good practice, it is about legal compliance and moral responsibility.
The compliance challenge
Meeting these requirements isn’t just a matter of sending more maintenance teams out on call. It’s about creating an integrated, auditable system that can prove compliance at every stage.
Housing providers will need to:
- Track tenants’ complaints with total traceability.
- Monitor progress against strict deadlines.
- Ensure every interaction is logged and summarised.
- Identify repeat problems and vulnerabilities across the tenant base.
The scale of the challenge shouldn’t be underestimated. Housing providers manage millions of homes across the UK and deal with thousands of daily interactions across phone, email, web and face-to-face channels. Without joined-up systems and proactive analytics, the risk of missed deadlines, missed hazards and overlooked opportunities to protect tenants is high.
Why digital transformation is essential
This is where digital transformation becomes mission critical. Compliance with Awaab’s Law isn’t just a housing problem; it’s a data, customer experience (CX) and accountability problem.
Interaction analytics, workflow automation and unified communications are no longer optional. They are the infrastructure that will enable housing providers to respond within hours rather than weeks, to see patterns before they become crises and to prove compliance when the Ombudsman or regulator comes calling.
Models such as HACT’s Housing Data Standards will be vital to underpin this work. These standards will enable housing providers to consistently track repairs, hazards and tenants’ vulnerabilities. But standards only go so far; they need to be brought to life by technology platforms capable of capturing, processing and analysing vast volumes of data in real time.
At FourNet, we see this transformation happening in other parts of the public sector, from local government to health. The lesson is clear: digital tools not only reduce risk, they also empower staff, improve communication and restore trust. The same shift must now take place in social housing.
For housing providers preparing for Awaab’s Law, that will mean:
- Interaction analytics that flag repeat complaints of damp or mould, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.
- Auto-summary and auto-wrap tools that generate the written updates now required under the law.
- Workflow automations to make sure repair requests are prioritised and resolved within statutory deadlines.
- Integrated case management that gives housing staff a single, auditable view of each tenant’s journey.
This isn’t about technology for its own sake. It is about enabling housing providers to meet their legal obligations, protect their reputations and safeguard the health and dignity of their tenants.
A cultural shift
But the law also asks for more than systems and processes. It demands a cultural shift. Awaab’s Law isn’t just about fixing homes. It is about listening to tenants, protecting their health and safety, acting transparently and building trust where it has been eroded.
Technology can support that transformation by making interactions clearer, faster and more accountable.
Digital transformation partners like FourNet can provide the tools and expertise to make compliance practical and sustainable. But the true measure of success will be through customer experience and whether tenants feel the difference in their daily lives – that when they raise a concern, they are heard, respected and protected.
Alan Linter is the group consulting director at FourNet.
