Section 8 — Damp, mould and hazards in your home

For support staff

This box is for support staff, relatives, advocates and social workers.

Please report damp and mould on the tenant's behalf. Many tenants will not recognise damp or mould, will not report it, or will not be able to act on any of the advice above. A report from support staff is a valid report and starts Harbour Light's statutory timescales in the same way as a report from the tenant.

When to clean, and when to report. Mould on sealant, grout or tiles inside a bath or shower enclosure is caused by direct splashing and is a routine cleaning matter. Mould anywhere else — on a wall, ceiling, room corner, window, window reveal, behind furniture or inside a cupboard or wardrobe — indicates condensation or another underlying cause, and must be reported through Fixflo. Clean it as an interim measure after reporting, not instead of reporting. Report any mould that returns after cleaning, including inside a shower enclosure. Full guidance is in Information Sheet HSC2.1.

What to look for: black or green patches on walls, ceilings, window reveals, behind furniture or in wardrobes; a musty smell; condensation running down windows; peeling paint or wallpaper; damp or mouldy clothing, bedding or soft furnishings.

Please include vulnerability information. Tell Harbour Light about any respiratory condition, any immune condition, and anything about the tenant's presentation that makes the situation more urgent. A hazard may be treated as an emergency because of the resident's vulnerability, not only because of the severity of the hazard itself.

Please record it. Note what was seen, where, when, and what was reported to Harbour Light. Records matter if the position is later reviewed.

Tenant involvement in cleaning. Tenants are encouraged to clean, with support staff assistance, or support staff can clean for them. Whether a tenant can safely use mould cleaning products is a question for their support plan, not a blanket rule. Many tenants can. The main risk is mixing products — hypochlorite mixed with an acidic or ammonia-based cleaner produces harmful fumes. Where staff carry out the cleaning as a work task, the COSHH assessment applies in full, including gloves, eye protection and restricting access to the room during application.

More detail

This box is for tenants who want the legal detail, and for support staff, relatives, advocates and social workers. You do not need to read it to understand the section above.

Awaab's Law. Section 42 of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 inserts implied terms into social housing tenancies requiring landlords to investigate and remedy prescribed hazards within set timescales. The requirements are set out in the Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025, in force since 27 October 2025.

Phase 1 (current). Applies to significant hazards arising from damp and mould, and to all emergency hazards other than overcrowding.

Phase 2. The Government has stated its intention to extend the requirements from 30 November 2026 to further hazard categories, including excess cold, excess heat, falls, electrical hazards, fire, structural collapse and domestic hygiene and pests. The amending regulations were in draft at the time of writing. This section will be reviewed before that date.

Statutory timescales.

When the clock starts. Timescales run from the point at which Harbour Light becomes aware of the hazard. A report made by support staff, a relative, an advocate or a social worker starts the clock in the same way as a report from the tenant. Harbour Light logs all reports centrally regardless of the route by which they are received.

Vulnerability. Whether a hazard is an emergency depends on the risk to the actual occupants, not on the defect alone. Harbour Light takes individual circumstances into account, and encourages tenants, support staff and advocates to provide that information.

Accessible written summaries. The written summary required by the Regulations will be provided in a form the tenant can understand, and Harbour Light will offer to explain it in person or through support staff. This reflects Harbour Light's approach to accessible information (see Section 13).

Other duties. Awaab's Law sits alongside, and does not replace, the repairing obligation under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and the requirement under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 that the property is fit for human habitation throughout the tenancy.

Scope of Awaab's Law. The Government's guidance for social landlords on Awaab's Law (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) states that hazards resulting from a breach of contract by the tenant — for example, blocking ventilation fans — are outside the scope of the requirements, although the landlord remains responsible for ensuring the home is safe. The same guidance states that landlords must not assume a hazard such as damp and mould results from a tenant's lifestyle, and that everyday activities such as cooking, bathing and drying laundry are unlikely to amount to a breach. Harbour Light will always investigate a report of damp or mould.

Government guidance. The approach in this section follows the Government guidance Understanding and addressing the health risks of damp and mould in the home (Department of Health and Social Care, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and UK Health Security Agency, September 2023), which states that damp and mould are not the result of tenants' "lifestyle" and that it is the landlord's responsibility to identify and address the underlying causes.

Record keeping. Harbour Light records all reports, inspections, findings, communications and works relating to damp, mould and hazards, in line with the Housing Ombudsman's expectations on knowledge and information management.