How are landlords preparing for Awaab’s Law?

Writing for Inside Housing on 17 July, housing ombudsman Richard Blakeway made the bold statement that “Awaab’s Law could be the catalyst required to modernise maintenance for the 21st century”.

Coming into force in October – almost five years on from the tragic death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak as a result of prolonged exposure to extensive mould in his family’s one-bed housing association flat in Rochdale – Awaab’s Law requires sweeping changes across the sector. It spans the entire remit of repairs, from timescales and quality to monitoring and record-keeping. 

While the new legislation impacts all landlords, some began making preparations earlier than others. Together Housing was one of those housing associations.

“Very early on, we introduced weekly reassurance meetings around our DMC [damp, mould and condensation] works that we [already] had in the system,” says Claire Webster, senior manager – mechanical and electrical at Together. 

These meetings involved analysing the data to understand the issues and to assess Together’s performance in addressing them, explains Ms Webster.

As well as self-assessing against the recommendations made by the Housing Ombudsman in its Spotlight report on damp and mould, Together commissioned an external review of its systems and processes, which was carried out by the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC). 

The takeaways from the review were that Together needed to:

• Ensure customers felt heard, with responsive services and clear communication from first the report to resolution
• Shift from reactive repairs to proactive prevention, with clear ownership of issues across the organisation
• Make better use of data to identify risks
• Foster stronger cross-team collaboration to deliver joined-up, effective support

Together used the feedback from the NHC and conclusions from its own assessment to inform its strategy for tackling damp, mould and repairs. 

Ms Webster says the Awaab’s Law legislation “gave [Together the] opportunity to step back, refocus and say, ‘Are we managing this proactively and in the best way possible?’” 

To improve reporting, the housing association opened up additional routes through which damp and mould could be reported by staff and residents, as well as friends and families of residents. 

It also established a tenant scrutiny panel consisting of 16 people with lived experience of damp and mould issues in their homes. “They reviewed all our information, our processes, how we monitored our data, and gave us some really good feedback,” Ms Webster says.

Together developed strategic and operational plans to improve the timescales and quality of repairs – as well as the monitoring of both. This includes requiring performance reports that are reviewed by the landlord’s audit committee. 

This strategy allowed the housing association to work towards achieving its draft targets under Awaab’s Law, which were published 18 months ago. 

“[Awaab’s Law gave us the] opportunity to step back, refocus and say, ‘Are we managing this proactively and in the best way possible’”

Together’s strategy included using data to identify its properties most at risk of developing damp and mould. Ms Webster says this was helpful, not just for the association to adapt its damp and mould strategy, but also to inform its asset management and carbon-reduction plans.

Throughout these processes, the team communicated with residents about how to report damp and mould, including through roadshows on their estates. 

A case-management system was developed to support better handling of cases and communication with residents, ensuring that other issues, as well as repairs, can be picked up at the same time by staff and then properly and sensitively addressed. The new system also allows for repeat issues to be more easily picked up, even if they emerge after a case has been closed. 

Ms Webster says the changes are all geared towards “building trust” with residents and trying to work with them through a “partnership”.

On the operational side, Together created a DMC team led by a DMC manager, which reduced the housing association’s reliance on external contractors and gave it greater control over the work and the resident experience. 

As well as hiring specific damp and mould inspectors, the landlord upskilled its building inspectors on damp and mould issues to enable them to identify DMC problems when looking at other repairs issues, including with a course run by the Property Care Association.

Matthew Lund, property manager – repairs and maintenance at Together, says a key part of the journey was shifting away from the “blame culture” that has been common in social housing. Instead, the landlord worked with residents to identify the root causes and support them through the solutions.

The DMC team has started using humidity monitors to gather data across Together’s housing portfolio and to help residents manage the conditions in their home. Mr Lund says this can involve anything from a referral for support with heating costs, to helping a resident who needs to dry their clothes but has no means to do it. 

Together’s plan now is to move to a more proactive approach by using the data it has collected and the relationships its team has built to help resolve issues early on. A key part of this will be speaking to people ahead of winter, when damp issues are more likely to emerge.

Clarion says it was also ahead of the curve in its preparations for Awaab’s Law. Chief property officer Rob Lane says the housing association already had a “damp and mould review and project, which started back in 2022”. 

But when the results of the inquest into Awaab’s death were announced in November 2022, the project team, with the backing of Clarion’s 12 board members, decided to accelerate the project and invest around £5m per year into damp and mould. 

The £5m was spent mostly on extra staff to form a specialist team for tackling damp and mould problems, supported by resident liaison officers who work with tenants and handle the case-management side.

Leaks were also incorporated into the repair works, says Mr Lane, who recalls that “at the time, quite a lot of damp and mould cases actually came about as a result of leaks”.

Resident liaison officers are key to the work. “For priority cases we identify that can’t be resolved at the first visit, we’ll assign a resident liaison officer to that case,” explains Mr Lane.

“That resident liaison officer will work with that resident right through to the conclusion of the case, until we’ve got to the root cause and until we’ve eliminated the mould, or until we’ve got a management plan in place.”

Resident liaison, ideally with a single point of contact at Clarion, is particularly important when the causes of damp and mould are complex, require significant work, or where residents have vulnerabilities that mean they need extra support, according to Mr Lane. 

“It’s not just about the lead resident. We want to understand the whole household”

When the draft legislation was published, Clarion made sure its systems worked to the deadlines set out for attending reports of mould and for starting works. The housing association is currently operating at 98% of the target for attendance and 95% for the commencement of works, according to Mr Lane. 

Clarion is now working to ensure that its written reports – required by Awaab’s Law – are produced on time. The housing association has semi-automated this process to help get information to residents within three working days of their initial appointment. 

One of the key challenges for Mr Lane and the Clarion team was identifying vulnerabilities. 

“It’s not just about the lead resident. We want to understand the whole household,” says Mr Lane, noting that “vulnerability can be a transient thing within a household”.

When a damp or mould case is reported to Clarion, the resident is asked a series of simple yes/no questions which help to identify if there are vulnerabilities in the household, in order to signal its level of urgency to the repairs team. 

Home visits also provide an opportunity for Clarion to identify issues, whether those are repairs or vulnerabilities that require referral to another team.

Another challenge for Clarion was adapting its technology and systems to be fit for the new legislation. “We had to adapt all of our repairs systems and customer relationship systems to be able to deliver the workflow that we need,” Mr Lane says. 

Residents can now provide instant feedback on the repair job via text, using a one to five star system, for example. 

“[The Awaab’s Law legislation has] really helped us to look at our operating model, particularly for around vulnerable customers, and how we build wider case management into our services,” says Mr Lane. 

He says the one piece of advice he would give to other housing associations is “to really focus on the resident experience. To really have a think about the resident experience and particularly the communication part of that”. Mr Lane adds that organisations are likely to need extra staff to support with resident engagement “in the initial stages, before you can build [the findings] into a system”.

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