Awaab's Law changed what "we inspected it" has to mean.
Awaab Ishak died in 2020 from prolonged exposure to mould in his family's social home. The law that carries his name — introduced through the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, with Scotland following — sets fixed timescales for social landlords to investigate and fix damp and mould hazards.
Built on the reformed HHSRS (2026) — the language your governance already speaks
From 23 June 2026 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was overhauled: 21 hazard profiles in four themes, three plain bands (High = Category 1 at a score of 1,000+, Medium, Low), renamed classes of harm and new baseline indicators. HousingSurvey Pro has the full 2026 assessment built into the field app — surveyors pick the hazard profile, record their likelihood and harm-outcome judgements, and the published formula scores and bands the hazard on the spot, sealed into the tamper-evident record.
And because Awaab's Law timescales attach to hazards in phases, the app tells the surveyor live whether the hazard they're assessing is inside statutory deadlines today, scheduled for a coming phase, or an emergency on the 24-hour track — with both statutory tracks (working-day and emergency) tracked stage by stage: investigate, written summary, works begin.
The compliance question is an evidence question
Deadlines are only half the requirement. When a tenant complaint reaches the Housing Ombudsman, the questions are:when did you know, when did you inspect, what did you find, what did you do — and can you prove any of that?Notes typed into a CMS weeks later, photos in a surveyor's camera roll, spreadsheets that anyone can edit — none of it is defensible.
What defensible looks like
- Contemporaneous — captured on site, at the time, geo-stamped to the property.
- Complete — readings, observations and fingerprinted photos in one structured record, per home, over time.
- Tamper-evident — locked on completion with a server-set timestamp; cryptographically chained so any alteration, by anyone, is detectable.
- Traceable — an append-only audit trail from tenant report (work order) to locked evidence, with the statutory clock attached.
- Portable — flows into your case-management system automatically, and exports as a signed evidence bundle when the ombudsman asks.
That is precisely — and only — what HousingSurvey Pro does.
This page is general information, not legal advice. Statutory timescales are counted in working days, differ between nations, and are being phased in — always confirm current requirements with your compliance team.