Awaab's Law: The 24-Hour Emergency Rule

The 24-hour rule in one line

Awaab's Law sets several deadlines for social landlords, but only one of them is measured in hours. Where a hazard in a social home is an emergency hazard, the landlord must make the home safe within 24 hours(regulation 5 of SI 2025/1042). It is the shortest and sharpest duty in the regime — and the detail of when those 24 hours begin matters just as much as the deadline itself.

When the 24-hour clock actually starts

This is the single most important point on this page, and it is the one most often stated incorrectly. Under regulation 5 the landlord must act “as soon as reasonably practicable, and in any event within 24 hours of the relevant safety work being identified by an investigation”. In plain terms: the 24 hours run from the point at which the required safety work is identified by an investigation, not from the moment the tenant first reports the problem.

So it is wrong to say “the landlord has 24 hours from the report.” A report triggers the landlord's duty to investigate. Once that investigation identifies the safety work needed to remove the imminent risk, the 24-hour countdown to making the home safe begins. The landlord must, in any event, act as soon as reasonably practicable throughout.

24 hours means calendar time, not working days

Awaab's Law's other deadlines are counted in working days — and a working day is “Any day that is not a Saturday, a Sunday, or a public bank holiday in England.” The 24-hour emergency deadline is different: it is measured in calendar time. It is not paused by weekends or bank holidays. A risk identified on a Friday evening does not get until Monday; the clock keeps running.

What counts as an “emergency hazard”?

The 24-hour rule is not triggered by every hazard — only by an emergency hazard. Regulation 3 defines this as “A hazard which presents an imminent and significant risk of harm to the health or safety of a resident — risk that a reasonable lessor with the relevant knowledge would take steps to make safe within 24 hours.”

The test therefore turns on an imminent and significant risk of harm— the kind of risk a reasonable landlord with the relevant knowledge would take steps to make safe within 24 hours. That is a higher bar than the general “significant risk of harm” standard, which regulation 3 describes as “A risk of harm to the resident's health or safety that a reasonable lessor with the relevant knowledge would take steps to make safe as a matter of urgency.” An emergency hazard is the urgent subset of that — where making safe cannot wait beyond a day.

The honest exception: the rehousing backstop

There is one important qualification, and it is fair to landlords without weakening the protection for residents. The landlord does not breach the 24-hour duty if making the home safe in time is not feasible but it instead complies with Part 6 (temporary rehousing) and completes the safety work as soon as reasonably practicable.

In other words, 24 hours is the rule for making the home safe. Where that genuinely cannot be done in the time available, the regulations require the landlord to move the household to suitable temporary accommodation rather than leave them in an unsafe home — and then finish the work without further delay.

Where this sits in the wider framework

The 24-hour emergency rule is one of several Awaab's Law deadlines, and it is the only one with this short an interval. For the full set — the 10-working-day investigation, the 3-working-day written summary, the 5-working-day make-safe for non-emergency significant hazards, and the 5-working-day default to begin preventative work (with a 12-week backstop where that is not reasonably practicable) — see the timescales guide. For the background to the regime as a whole — what Awaab's Law is, who it applies to, and the case behind it — see What is Awaab's Law?