Awaab's Law in Scotland: What Edinburgh Landlords Must Do From 6 October 2026
From 6 October 2026, private landlords in Scotland have a legal deadline to act on damp and mould. Once you become aware of a problem, you must investigate within 10 working days, give your tenant written findings within 3 working days of finishing that investigation, and begin any necessary repairs within 5 working days.
Those timescales are fixed. They replace the previous test of acting within a "reasonable" period, and they apply whether you manage one flat or forty.
What is Awaab's Law?
Awaab's Law is named after Awaab Ishak, a two-year-old who died in 2020 from a respiratory condition caused by prolonged exposure to mould in his family's home in Rochdale. England introduced its version for social landlords in October 2025.
Scotland is going further. The Investigation and Commencement of Repair (Scotland) Regulations 2026, approved by the Scottish Parliament in March 2026, apply to both the social and private rented sectors from 6 October 2026. If you let a property in Edinburgh, this applies to you.
The regulations also amend the Repairing Standard to state explicitly that a house must be substantially free from damp and mould.
What are the new timescales?
| Stage | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Investigate the reported damp or mould | Within 10 working days of becoming aware |
| Provide the tenant with a written summary of findings | Within 3 working days of completing the investigation |
| Commence any necessary repair work | Within 5 working days of identifying qualifying work |
Note that the third deadline is to commence work, not complete it. But the clock on commencement is short, and it starts from the point the work is identified.
What counts as "becoming aware"?
This is the part most landlords underestimate. The duty is triggered when you become aware of a potential damp or mould issue through any route, not only a formal complaint. That includes:
- A tenant reporting it, by any means — email, text, a message to your agent, a comment at a viewing
- A contractor noticing it while attending for something unrelated
- Your own routine inspection picking it up
There is no requirement for the tenant to use a particular reporting channel or particular words. A WhatsApp message saying the bathroom ceiling looks black starts your 10 working days.
This is precisely why an auditable reporting system matters. If you cannot evidence when you became aware, you cannot evidence that you responded in time.
Who can carry out the investigation?
The investigation must be carried out by a competent person. In practice that means a specialist contractor, or the landlord themselves where they hold the relevant experience and expertise.
For most private landlords, that means booking a specialist — and booking them inside a window that is already running. Edinburgh's damp specialists are not sitting idle in October.
What if you genuinely can't meet the deadline?
The regulations allow for circumstances outside your control. But you cannot simply miss the date. You must:
- Tell the tenant in writing why you cannot comply
- Confirm a revised timescale
- Take reasonable steps to mitigate the problem in the meantime
Silence is not an option the regulations contemplate.
What if the damp isn't a building defect?
Condensation caused by how a property is being occupied is not the same as a building defect, and the regulations recognise this. Where the investigation finds the cause is not a defect, landlords are expected to work with the tenant and signpost them to appropriate advice and guidance.
Expect this to be contested territory. In a cold Edinburgh tenement with single glazing and limited extraction, the line between "building performance" and "tenant behaviour" is rarely clean, and a landlord asserting the latter without a competent investigation to back it up is in a weak position at tribunal.
What happens if you don't comply?
Because the duties sit within the Repairing Standard, enforcement runs through the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber). A tenant can apply directly. The Tribunal's existing powers include Repairing Standard Enforcement Orders and Rent Relief Orders, which can reduce the rent payable by up to 90% until the work is done.
There is also a reputational dimension. Tribunal decisions are published.
The honest question for a self-managing landlord
Ten working days sounds generous until you map it against a real fortnight.
A tenant emails on a Friday afternoon about mould in the back bedroom. You see it Monday. You call two damp specialists on Tuesday; one doesn't call back, the other offers a slot in three weeks. You're now on day four with no inspection booked. You take annual leave. Day ten arrives.
You are now in breach, and your only route out is a written explanation to your tenant with a revised timescale — which itself needs to be defensible.
This is not a criticism of self-managing landlords. It is arithmetic. The regulations assume a landlord with a contractor network on call and a reporting system that timestamps everything. Most individual landlords have neither, because until now they haven't needed them.
Edinburgh makes this harder than most
The city's rental stock skews heavily towards pre-1919 tenements: solid stone walls, original sash windows, shared closes and roof structures where the cause of a damp patch may sit outside your title entirely.
Where the source is a common repair — a shared gutter, a roof, a neighbour's failed downpipe — you are still on the clock, but the fix depends on your co-proprietors. Start those conversations early. A factor's timescale and a statutory 5-working-day commencement deadline are not naturally aligned.
HMO landlords face an additional exposure. In a five-person flat, any of five tenants can trigger the duty, and shared bathrooms and kitchens generate far more moisture than a single-occupancy let. If you hold an HMO licence in Edinburgh, your realistic exposure is several times that of a standard tenancy.
What to do before 6 October
Inspect now, not in November. Damp and mould are seasonal. Problems that are invisible in September announce themselves with the first cold snap — by which point you're reacting under a statutory clock rather than acting on your own timetable. If you haven't inspected since spring, book it.
Line up a competent person in advance. Agree terms with a damp specialist now, before demand spikes across the whole Scottish PRS in the same fortnight.
Fix your reporting trail. You need a channel that timestamps tenant reports and a place those reports are logged. If a tenant currently texts your personal mobile, that is your evidence base.
Look at ventilation and extraction. Most Edinburgh condensation cases trace back to inadequate extraction in bathrooms and kitchens. An extractor fan is considerably cheaper than a Rent Relief Order.
Check your student changeover. Properties that sat empty and unheated over summer are the most likely to present problems in October, which is exactly when the regulations commence.
Common questions
Does Awaab's Law apply to private landlords in Scotland? Yes. Unlike the initial English rollout, which covered social landlords first, the Scottish regulations apply to both the social and private rented sectors from 6 October 2026.
Does it apply to existing tenancies? Yes. The duty is triggered by becoming aware of damp or mould, not by the start of a new tenancy.
Are working days the same as calendar days? No. Weekends and public holidays are excluded, which gives you slightly more calendar time than the numbers suggest — but not much, and Edinburgh's September and Christmas holidays fall either side of the busiest reporting period.
What if the tenant refuses access? You still need to document your attempts. Record every access request, keep the correspondence, and set out the position in writing to the tenant. An unevidenced claim that the tenant blocked access will not carry much weight.
How Cullen Property handles this
We've managed Edinburgh property since 1998, and compliance clocks like this are the core of what our property management service exists to absorb.
Our tenants report repairs through a system that timestamps every issue from the moment it's raised, which means the 10-working-day clock is documented rather than reconstructed. Our in-house maintenance team and established contractor network mean we're not cold-calling for a damp survey in the second week of October. And every property we manage is on a proactive inspection cycle, so problems surface before a tenant has to report them.
If you're currently self-managing and reading this thinking the timescales are tight, that's the right conclusion. Call us on 0131 221 1818 or email enquiries@cullenproperty.com and we'll carry out a free compliance health check on your property before the deadline.