Phase 2 · Electrical contracting
Awaab's Law Phase 2 and electrical contractors: what changes on 30 November 2026
Electrical hazards come into scope on 30 November 2026. For electrical contractors working in social housing, the client's statutory clock becomes the contract's clock.
Published 31 July 2026 · Based on MHCLG guidance dated July 2026
Electrical hazards enter Awaab's Law on 30 November 2026. Until then the law has covered damp and mould, plus all emergency hazards. From that date the same fixed investigation and repair timescales apply to electrical hazards wherever they present a significant risk of harm to an occupier.
Awaab's Law does not place duties on electrical contractors. It places them on the landlord. But the landlord's ability to comply depends almost entirely on how fast their electrical contractor can attend, diagnose and make safe, so the statutory deadline becomes a contractual one. The practical change is that from 30 November a housing client is no longer negotiating a response time. They are managing a legal one.
What comes into scope on 30 November 2026
Phase 2 adds seven hazard groups to the two already covered. The groups most relevant here are Electrical hazards. The full Phase 2 list is: damp and mould, excess cold, excess heat, falls, structural collapse, fire and explosions, electrical hazards, and domestic hygiene, wherever they present a significant risk of harm to an occupier. All emergency hazards other than overcrowding remain in scope as they have been since Phase 1.
Awaab's Law applies to registered providers of social housing in England, both local authorities and housing associations, for almost all social housing occupied under a tenancy. It does not apply to housing occupied under a licence, to long leaseholds or to shared ownership.
The deadlines, which do not change
Phase 2 does not alter the timescales. It applies the existing ones to a much wider hazard list:
- 24 hours
- Investigate a potential emergency hazard and complete the relevant safety work, both within 24 hours of the landlord becoming aware of it.
- 10 working days
- Investigate a potential significant hazard within 10 working days of the landlord becoming aware of it.
- 3 working days
- Give the tenant a written summary of the investigation findings within 3 working days of the investigation concluding.
- 5 working days
- Complete relevant safety work within 5 working days of the investigation concluding, where a significant hazard is identified.
- 12 weeks
- Begin supplementary preventative work within 5 working days of the investigation concluding; where that is not possible, begin as soon as reasonably practicable and in any case within 12 weeks.
Timeframes usually start the day after the triggering event. The exception is the 24 hour emergency clock, which starts as soon as the landlord becomes aware of a potential emergency hazard.
Where the 24 hour clock bites
The government guidance gives examples of emergency hazards. These fall to this trade:
- Exposed wiring
Exposed wiring is one of the government's own examples of an emergency hazard: something a reasonable landlord would make safe within 24 hours of becoming aware of it. For emergency hazards the clock starts the moment the landlord becomes aware, rather than the following day, and it covers both investigating and completing the relevant safety work.
Electrical faults that do not reach the emergency threshold can still be significant hazards. The test the regulations use is objective: would a reasonable landlord, knowing what they know about the tenant and the home, make it safe within 15 working days? Budget and staff availability are explicitly not part of that assessment.
What it means commercially
The guidance expects landlords to have processes that ensure issues raised with contractors reach the landlord, and that works can begin within the deadlines. For electrical contractors that points at reporting as much as at response times. A landlord facing a challenge needs to show when they became aware, when they investigated, what they found, what they told the tenant and when the work was completed. Most of that evidence originates with the contractor on site.
Temporary measures also count. The guidance is clear that making something safe in the interim is the kind of first step a reasonable landlord takes, and that taking a temporary measure does not stop the clock on fixing the underlying problem. Contractors should expect landlords to want both recorded separately.
Why this is coming from a mould training provider
A fair question. UKAME is not an authority on fire, gas or electrical engineering, and this page does not pretend otherwise. You know your trade considerably better than we do.
What we have is a year of watching what these particular deadlines do to an organisation. Damp and mould went first: it has been under Awaab's Law since 27 October 2025, and mould remediation is the trade that has already had to learn what a statutory clock does to triage, reporting and contractor relationships. Phase 2 hands that same experience to seven more hazard groups at once, four days before winter. The transferable part is the compliance machinery, not the technical work, and that is the only part we teach.
Our Awaab's Law training is delivered by Tristan Hemsley, a Specialist Disrepair and Awaab's Law Consultant with 25+ years in housing property services across social housing, local authorities and main contractors.
Phase 2 in other sectors
Phase 2 pulls in several trades at once. The same deadlines, read from a different bench:
- Heating and gasExcess cold, Excess heat
- Fire safetyFire and explosions
- Environmental healthDomestic hygiene (including personal hygiene and food safety)
The full guidance and the hazards annex are on gov.uk. For the whole picture, see our Phase 2 explainer.
About UKAME: UKAME (UK Academy of Mould Experts) is a training and membership provider for damp, mould and housing-compliance professionals. UKAME training courses cover mould remediation and Awaab's Law compliance for contractors, surveyors and housing teams.
Contact: info@mouldexperts.org.uk · mouldexperts.org.uk