Excess heat

Excess heat covers threats from excessively high indoor temperatures, and a household’s inability to cool the property or seek relief because of a building defect. It is a Phase 2 Awaab’s Law hazard: capturable in full today, with its statutory clock not yet commenced.

What it is

The GOV.UK guidance is specific about scope: overheating caused solely by high outside temperatures is not an Awaab’s Law hazard on its own — climate-adaptation work sits outside it — but a building defect that exacerbates external heat (a broken window restrictor preventing safe ventilation, for example) does bring the case into scope.

The Excess Heat section reuses weather and psychrometrics, then adds its own record: window openability and restrictors, shading provision, purge and background ventilation adequacy, orientation and glazing ratio, indoor/outdoor temperature readings, mechanical cooling or MVHR presence, the tenant’s own ability to manage the heat, and any defects exacerbating it.

How to do it

1. Complete weather and psychrometrics as you would for any hazard type.
2. On the Excess Heat card, record window openability and restrictor condition, shading provision, and ventilation adequacy.
3. Record any temperature readings taken, with the time they were measured.
4. Use the defects exacerbating heat field specifically to record any building fault making the heat worse — this is what keeps a purely-weather-driven case correctly out of scope while a genuinely defect-linked one is correctly captured.
5. Complete Hazard Triage for your own significant-vs-emergency judgement.

How it integrates

Excess heat has its own AI preset (housing-excess-heat): image analysis restates only what is visible — shading present or absent, a window opening or restrictor, extensive glazing, mechanical cooling or MVHR, or that a temperature reading was recorded — never an achieved-temperature verdict. The executive-summary draft reflects the defects exacerbating heat field exactly as recorded, rather than assuming external-heat-only overheating is or isn’t in scope. Because Phase 2 has not commenced, the finalised record shows “capturable now, clock pending” unless the case is judged an emergency.

Common problems

• This case feels out of scope but the wizard still lets me record it. That’s expected — the wizard captures the evidence regardless; whether it’s actually an Awaab’s Law hazard depends on whether a building defect is exacerbating the heat, which is your own judgement, not a gate the app applies.
• There’s no due date on this job. Expected while Phase 2 remains unconfirmed, except for an emergency-severity case.
• Excess heat isn’t offered when raising a survey. Check Settings → App configuration → Hazards.