Ten Working Days: What Awaab’s Law Now Asks of Scotland’s Landlords
With Dave Dyer
The moment a landlord becomes aware of damp or mould in a let property, a competent person must investigate within ten working days, the tenant must receive a written summary of the findings within three working days of that investigation concluding, and where substantial damp or mould is found, repair work must begin within five working days.
It would be easy to read this as one more regulation landing on a sector that has absorbed more than its share in recent years, but that reading misses the point. For the landlord who already responds promptly, instructs the right people and keeps their tenants informed, very little has changed. What has changed is that “promptly” now has a legal definition, and it requires a paper trail.
“What the law really rewards is organisation.”
“What the law really rewards is organisation.”
The timing is not incidental either. The law arrives just as the windows close and condensation season begins in earnest, which makes the weeks before the first proper cold snap the natural moment for a considered look at every let property. A problem found in October is a maintenance item. The same problem reported in January is a statutory deadline.
The practical advice is straightforward. Inspect before winter rather than waiting for the first report, have a competent contractor lined up now rather than in December, and keep a dated record of every report, investigation and repair, because if a tenant ever complains, that record is what will demonstrate compliance. And resist the old instinct to attribute mould to how a tenant lives in the property, the guidance is clear that this is no longer a defensible first response.
“The landlords who will find Awaab’s Law straightforward are the ones who were already treating a report of damp as something to deal with that week, not that season,” says Dave Dyer, Managing Director of Domus. “What the law really rewards is organisation: knowing who you would call, keeping a proper record, and keeping the tenant informed at every stage. None of that is complicated, and all of it can be in place before the first cold snap.”
For the landlords whose properties we manage, this is already how we work. For those managing their own lets, or simply wondering whether their current arrangements are equal to the new standard, we would be glad to talk it through, with no obligation and no pressure.
Ten working days is not long. For a well-managed property, it is more than enough.