Awaab's Law Penalties & Enforcement

Who Enforces Awaab's Law?

Awaab's Law does not operate in isolation. Enforcement sits across two principal bodies: the Housing Ombudsman Service and the Regulator of Social Housing. Each has distinct but complementary powers, and landlords need to understand both to appreciate the full scope of risk they carry when they fail to meet the statutory timescales for investigating and remediating hazards such as damp and mould.

The Housing Ombudsman deals with individual complaints from tenants. It examines whether a landlord has acted fairly, followed its own policies, and met its legal obligations. The Regulator of Social Housing, by contrast, takes a systemic view. It monitors whether registered providers are meeting the consumer standards, including the new requirements introduced by the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, and can intervene where it identifies widespread or serious failures.

Housing Ombudsman: Powers and Orders

The Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) is an independent body established under the Housing Act 1996. Every registered provider of social housing in England must be a member of the HOS scheme, meaning tenants of housing associations and council housing can escalate unresolved complaints to the Ombudsman free of charge.

When the Ombudsman investigates a complaint, it can make one of four findings:

• No maladministration— the landlord acted reasonably and in line with its obligations. No further action is required.
• Service failure— the landlord fell short of what could reasonably be expected, typically with limited or short-duration impact on the resident.
• Maladministration— the landlord failed to act appropriately, causing measurable detriment to the resident.
• Severe maladministration— the most serious finding. It is reserved for cases where the landlord's failings had a profound and lasting impact on the resident's health, wellbeing, or housing situation.

Where the Ombudsman makes a finding of maladministration (which includes service failure and severe maladministration), it may also order compensation. The amount is set by reference to Appendix 3 of the Housing Ombudsman's Compensation Guidance, which sets out five bands. The band is determined primarily by the impact on the resident rather than by the finding label itself, although findings and impact bands are typically related:

• Apology and learning— minimal impact, typically a short-duration single incident with no wider effect. No monetary award. Most commonly associated with a service failure finding.
• Up to £100— low impact, typically short duration. Most commonly associated with a service failure finding.
• Up to £600— no permanent impact. Most commonly associated with a maladministration finding.
• £600 or more— significant impact, including physical and/or emotional effects. Most commonly associated with a maladministration or severe maladministration finding.
• £1,000 or more— severe long-term impact. There is no published ceiling, and caseworker discretion applies. Most commonly associated with a severe maladministration finding.

The Ombudsman also takes into account aggravating and mitigating factors when deciding the appropriate band. Aggravating factors include the resident having a mental health condition, young children in the household, a disability, or being responsible for a dependant with a disability. Mitigating factors include where the resident did not communicate clearly with the landlord, did not bring matters to the landlord's attention within a reasonable time, refused help, refused reasonable access, or pursued the complaint in an unreasonable or excessive way. These factors influence band selection; they are not multipliers.

What Makes a Finding "Severe"?

The Ombudsman has published its remedies guidance, which sets out the factors it considers when deciding the severity of a finding. A finding of severe maladministration is typically made where the evidence shows one or more of the following:

• A prolonged failure to act, often spanning months or years, despite repeated reports from the tenant.
• Clear evidence that the tenant's physical or mental health was adversely affected.
• A failure to carry out a risk assessment when children, elderly residents, or immunocompromised individuals were living in the property.
• Dishonesty, record falsification, or a deliberate attempt to downplay the severity of the hazard.
• A complete failure to follow the landlord's own published policies and procedures.
• Evidence that the landlord was previously warned about the issue by inspectors, legal representatives, or its own staff and took no meaningful action.

By contrast, a standard maladministration finding is more likely where the landlord attempted to act but did so too slowly, used the wrong approach, or failed to communicate effectively with the tenant. The distinction matters because severe findings are published on the Ombudsman's website with the landlord named, and they are reported to the Regulator, which can then consider whether wider regulatory action is warranted.

Types of Ombudsman Orders

Beyond determining the level of maladministration, the Ombudsman can issue binding orders. These are not mere recommendations — landlords are legally required to comply. The most common types of orders include:

• Compensation orders— a direction to pay a specified sum to the resident, calculated by reference to the bands described in the previous section, together with any specific compensation orders for loss of heating, hot water, power, or missed appointments under Appendix 1 of the Compensation Guidance, and any rent-charged calculation for loss of use of the property under Section 7 of that Guidance.
• Remediation orders— a direction to complete specific repair works within a stated timescale. The Ombudsman can require the landlord to carry out an independent survey, engage a specialist contractor, or implement a particular technical solution.
• Policy review orders— a direction to review and amend the landlord's internal policies, procedures, or staff training. This is frequently ordered alongside compensation in cases where the failure was systemic rather than a one-off error.
• Apology orders— a direction to issue a formal written apology to the tenant, often at a senior level (for example, from the chief executive or director of housing).
• Self-assessment orders— a direction to carry out a wider review of similar cases in the landlord's portfolio and report back to the Ombudsman with findings.

The Regulator of Social Housing

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) gained significantly expanded consumer regulation powers under the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023. Before this Act, the Regulator operated under a "serious detriment" test that limited its ability to intervene on individual property conditions. That restriction has been removed.

The RSH now actively monitors compliance with the consumer standards, which include requirements around property safety, decency, and responsiveness to repairs. In the context of Awaab's Law, the Regulator's powers include:

• Regulatory notices— formal notices requiring a landlord to take specified action within a set timescale to address non-compliance. These are published on the RSH website and can cause significant reputational damage.
• Compliance inspections— the RSH can inspect a landlord's properties, records, and procedures at any time. It has hired a substantial number of new inspectors specifically to carry out proactive inspections of property conditions.
• Performance improvement plans— the Regulator can require a landlord to develop and implement a performance improvement plan, with regular reporting to the RSH.
• Enforcement notices— in cases of serious or persistent non-compliance, the RSH can issue an enforcement notice that requires specific remedial action. Failure to comply can lead to further regulatory consequences.
• Management transfers and appointments— in extreme cases, the RSH can appoint a manager to take over the management of a landlord's properties, or transfer management to another provider. This is the most drastic intervention and is reserved for cases where there is evidence of systemic failure and an inability or unwillingness to put things right.

The Regulator has made clear that it expects landlords to have robust systems in place for recording, triaging, and resolving damp and mould complaints within the Awaab's Law timescales. Where inspections reveal that a landlord does not have adequate systems, or that its systems exist on paper but are not followed in practice, regulatory action will follow.

How Tenants Make Complaints

Understanding the complaints process is important for landlords because the way a complaint is handled can itself become the subject of an Ombudsman investigation. The process follows a defined path:

1. Report the issue to the landlord— the tenant reports the damp, mould, or other hazard to the landlord. This starts the Awaab's Law clock. The landlord must acknowledge the report and begin investigation within the statutory timescales.
2. Landlord's internal complaints procedure (Stage 1)— if the tenant is dissatisfied with the landlord's response, they can raise a formal complaint. The landlord must respond to a Stage 1 complaint within 10 working days (this is the Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code requirement, separate from the Awaab's Law repair timescales).
3. Landlord's internal complaints procedure (Stage 2)— if the tenant remains dissatisfied, they can escalate to Stage 2. The landlord must respond within 20 working days. A senior manager or panel must review the complaint at this stage.
4. Housing Ombudsman— once the internal process is exhausted, the tenant can refer the complaint to the Housing Ombudsman. Since October 2022, tenants no longer need to wait eight weeks after completing the internal process — they can refer immediately once Stage 2 is complete. The Ombudsman can also accept complaints where the landlord has failed to provide a Stage 2 response within the required timescale.

Critically, landlords should note that the Complaint Handling Code is now mandatory. The Ombudsman monitors compliance with the Code through self-assessments and can issue Complaint Handling Failure Orders where a landlord's process does not meet the required standard. Failing to handle complaints properly is itself a form of service failure that the Ombudsman will factor into its overall assessment of a case.

Maladministration Findings: Consequences Beyond Compensation

Financial compensation is only one element of the consequences landlords face. Maladministration findings carry significant additional impacts:

• Publication and reputational damage— all Ombudsman determinations are published online. Severe maladministration findings frequently attract media attention, particularly in cases involving damp and mould following the public interest generated by the Awaab Ishak inquest.
• Referral to the Regulator— the Ombudsman routinely refers cases involving severe maladministration or evidence of systemic failure to the RSH. This can trigger a wider regulatory investigation.
• Sector scorecard and league tables— the Ombudsman publishes data on complaint volumes and outcomes for each landlord. Landlords with high volumes of maladministration findings appear in published reports, creating pressure from boards, tenants, and the media.
• Board and governance scrutiny— the Ombudsman can order a landlord's board to discuss specific findings and report back on what governance changes have been made. For housing associations, this can have implications for credit ratings and investor confidence.
• Tenant disrepair claims— an Ombudsman finding of maladministration does not prevent a tenant from also pursuing a disrepair claim through the courts. In practice, the Ombudsman's finding is often used as supporting evidence in litigation, making it harder for the landlord to defend the claim.

How to Avoid Enforcement Action

The most effective way to avoid penalties is straightforward: comply with the statutory timescales and maintain robust systems for recording and resolving hazard reports. Specifically, landlords should:

• Ensure all damp and mould reports are logged on the same day they are received, with a clear audit trail showing when each statutory clock started.
• Have a defined triage process that identifies emergency hazards requiring a 24-hour response.
• Issue written summaries to tenants within the Regulation 9 timescales for every report.
• Track all cases against the 12-week backstop for supplementary preventative work, and escalate internally where deadlines are at risk.
• Train frontline staff, repairs operatives, and complaints handlers on the Awaab's Law requirements.
• Maintain detailed records of all inspections, communications, and works carried out — these are the evidence base that will be reviewed if a complaint reaches the Ombudsman.
• Handle complaints in strict accordance with the Complaint Handling Code to prevent procedural failures adding to the severity of any finding.

Get Your Organisation Compliant

The penalties for getting Awaab's Law wrong are significant and growing. Whether you are a housing association, an ALMO, or a local authority, the expectations are the same: act quickly, act effectively, and keep records that demonstrate compliance. Organisations that invest in proper systems, training, and templates now will be far better positioned to withstand scrutiny from the Ombudsman and the Regulator.