For years, damp and mould in a rented home were treated as a maintenance job to get round to. That has changed. They are now a legal, financial and reputational issue, and the rules that started in social housing are heading towards the private rented sector.
If you let out property, it is worth understanding where the law is going and, more importantly, how to deal with damp and mould properly rather than papering over them season after season.
What Awaab’s Law is, and where it stands
Awaab’s Law is named after Awaab Ishak, a two-year-old who died following prolonged exposure to mould in a social home. Since 27 October 2025 it has required social landlords in England to investigate and fix emergency hazards, and damp and mould that present a significant risk of harm, within fixed timeframes rather than at their own pace. Those duties are being widened in phases: from 30 November 2026 they extend to further hazards such as excess cold and heat, falls, structural problems, and fire and electrical safety, with the remaining hazards following in 2027.
For now, these specific timeframes apply to social landlords. The direction of travel for private landlords is clear, though. Under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, which has passed into law, the government has said it will extend Awaab’s Law to the private rented sector and will consult on the detail, including when it starts. The same Act introduces a Decent Homes Standard to private rentals for the first time. In other words, the standard being set in social housing today is the standard private landlords should expect to be held to.
No start date for the private rented sector has been confirmed yet, so there is no need to panic. There is every reason to get ahead of it.
Why this matters for landlords now
Damp is more common in rented homes than owner-occupied ones. The government’s English Housing Survey for 2024-25 recorded damp in around 10 per cent of privately rented homes, compared with 4 per cent of owner-occupied homes. The English Private Landlord Survey found that just over a quarter of landlords, 26 per cent, had identified damp or mould in one of their properties in the past year.
Left alone, damp and mould do not just risk a future compliance problem. They shorten the life of a building, damage plaster, joinery and decoration, make a property harder to let, and put tenant health at risk. A home that develops a reputation for mould sits empty between tenancies, and empty months are expensive. Fixing the cause is cheaper than managing the consequences.
Why damp and mould keep coming back
The reason mould so often returns after a repaint is that painting over it treats the symptom, not the cause. Most black spotty mould in homes is fed by condensation, which forms when warm, moist air meets a cold surface and the moisture has nowhere to go. Modern homes are increasingly airtight, which is good for heat but bad for moisture if there is nowhere for that moisture to escape.
Three things usually sit behind a persistent problem. The home cannot breathe, because extract fans are missing, undersized or switched off and trickle vents are painted shut. Moisture is getting in from outside, through failed pointing, cracked render, a leaking gutter or a blocked air brick. Or insulation has been installed poorly and is trapping moisture in the wall rather than keeping it out. Often it is a combination. This is why wiping the walls and opening a window now and then rarely fixes anything for long.
Fixing it properly: survey first, ventilation always
Dealing with damp and mould well starts with diagnosis, not decoration. A proper survey should establish where the moisture is coming from, how the home is ventilated, and whether any past insulation work is helping or hurting. Only then can the right fix be chosen, whether that is improving extract ventilation, repairing the outside of the building so it sheds water as designed, correcting failed insulation, or a mix of all three.
Ventilation is the piece most often missed. A home sealed up for warmth without a way to move stale, moist air will grow condensation and mould even when everything else looks fine. Any credible plan considers how the whole house breathes, not just the wall or ceiling where the mould appears.
This is the standard we work to at Pyramid Eco. We are TrustMark-registered and certified to PAS 2030 and PAS 2035, the specifications that govern how retrofit work is assessed, designed and installed. Ventilation, damp and mould, and the remediation of failed insulation and retrofit work are core services for us across London and the South East. We survey first, fix causes rather than symptoms, and treat ventilation as part of the job. Where improvement works qualify for government funding, we will tell you honestly what may be covered, subject to eligibility and funding criteria.
Get ahead of it
Whether you let one property or many, the sensible move is to deal with damp and mould at the source now, before the rules tighten and while the problem is smaller. Book a free survey and we will assess the property, its ventilation and its options, and give you straight answers about what needs doing.
Prefer to talk it through first? Contact us and you will get a response within 2 working hours.
Michael Zohouri is the founder of Pyramid Eco, a TrustMark-registered, PAS 2030 and PAS 2035 certified retrofit contractor serving London and the South East.
