Renting in Scotland? Your landlord now has deadlines for damp and mould
Since 6 October 2026 councils, housing associations and private landlords in Scotland have 10 working days to investigate damp or mould, 3 to tell you what they found and 5 to start the repair. Here is how to use those rights.
If you rent your home in Scotland and you have damp or mould, the rules changed on 6 October 2026. From that day your landlord has fixed deadlines to investigate, to tell you in writing what they found, and to start putting it right. The deadlines apply whether you rent from a council, a housing association or a private landlord.
The new rules are usually called Awaab's Law, after Awaab Ishak, the two-year-old who died in Rochdale in December 2020 after prolonged exposure to mould in his family's housing association flat. England brought in its version for social landlords in October 2025. Scotland's version is different in several ways that matter if you are the tenant, so this guide sticks to what the Scottish rules say and what you can do with them.
What changed on 6 October 2026
The Investigation and Commencement of Repair (Scotland) Regulations 2026 do two things. For council and housing association tenants, they add damp and mould to the Right to Repair scheme, which already gives you set timescales and small automatic compensation payments for certain repairs. For private tenants, they change the Repairing Standard, the legal minimum every private rented home in Scotland has to meet, so that it now says the house must be "substantially free from damp and mould", and they set deadlines for what the landlord must do once you report a problem.
The deadlines are the same for both kinds of landlord, with one exception at the end.
- Investigate within 10 working days. Once you have told your landlord about damp or mould, or they have found out some other way, a competent person has to complete an investigation within 10 working days. The count starts on the day after they become aware.
- Written summary within 3 working days. After the investigation finishes, you must be given a written summary of what was found within 3 working days.
- Start the repair within 5 working days. If the investigation finds substantial damp or mould, the repair work has to start within 5 working days of the investigation finishing.
- Finish the repair. If you are a council or housing association tenant, the work must be completed within 20 working days of starting. If you rent privately, the law does not set a fixed number of days. The Scottish Government guidance says the work must be completed within a reasonable time after the investigation.
Working days are Monday to Friday, leaving out bank holidays in Scotland. So a report made on Monday 12 October 2026 means the 10 working days run from Tuesday 13 October and end on Monday 26 October.
Who the rules cover, and who they do not
You are covered if you have a Scottish secure tenancy or a short Scottish secure tenancy, which is what almost all council and housing association tenants have. You are also covered if you have a private tenancy that the Repairing Standard applies to, which includes the private residential tenancy that most private renters in Scotland have been given since 2017, and the older assured tenancies that came before it.
You are not covered if your arrangement is not a tenancy at all, for example if you are a lodger living with your landlord under an occupancy agreement. Mobile homes are not covered either, because the Repairing Standard does not treat them as houses. People living in temporary accommodation are dealt with in a separate annex of the government guidance, so if that is you, it is worth reading that part or asking an adviser.
The rules only cover damp and mould. Scotland has not, so far, extended them to other hazards in the way England is doing.
How to report it so the clock starts
Report it in writing. An email or a message through your landlord's repairs portal is fine. Keep a copy, note the date, and take dated photographs of every affected area. The deadlines start when the landlord becomes aware, and a written report with a date on it removes any argument about when that was.
Say who lives in the home. The guidance tells landlords to take into account how vulnerable the people living there are when deciding whether damp or mould is substantial. If someone in the household has asthma or another breathing condition, is a baby or a young child, is elderly or has a weakened immune system, say so in your report.
Describe where the damp or mould is, how large the patches are and how long it has been there. If it keeps coming back after cleaning, say that too. Persistence is one of the things the investigation is supposed to weigh.
What the investigation should look like
The investigation has to be done by someone your landlord reasonably believes has the skills and experience to judge whether the home is substantially free from damp and mould and what work is needed. The guidance expects it to be done in person unless there is a good reason not to, and it should look for the underlying cause, not just the visible mould.
You will need to let them in. The guidance says a landlord who has made reasonable attempts to get access will not be in breach if a tenant does not allow entry, so refusing a visit works against you.
One line in the guidance is worth knowing by heart. Landlords "must not make assumptions that reports of damp or mould are caused by the tenant's actions", and they must not refuse to investigate on the basis that the problem is condensation caused by how you live. The guidance says in terms that cooking, bathing, washing and drying laundry are everyday tasks that should not be blamed for substantial damp or mould. If your landlord's first response is that you need to open the windows more, you can point them to that.
What the written summary must tell you
Within 3 working days of the investigation finishing you should receive a written summary. The guidance says it must include:
- the name of the person or organisation that carried out the investigation;
- a short account of what was done and what was found, including a clear statement of whether the home is substantially free from damp and mould;
- any repair work done during the visit itself;
- if substantial damp or mould was found, the work that is needed and when it will start;
- if it was not, why not, and whether any other repairs will be done under the landlord's normal repairs policy.
If the summary does not arrive, or it says there is no substantial damp or mould and you disagree, keep your own record and consider the routes below.
What if the landlord says they cannot meet the deadline?
The law allows the deadlines to be paused when there are circumstances beyond the landlord's control, for example a specialist contractor who cannot attend in time. But the landlord has to do three things: tell you in writing that the deadline is paused, tell you why, and give you a reasonable new timescale. In the meantime they have to take reasonable steps to limit the damp or mould where they can, such as a mould wash or temporary ventilation. A landlord who simply goes quiet has not paused the clock.
If you rent from a council or housing association: compensation
Council and housing association tenants have the Right to Repair scheme behind them. If the landlord misses the investigation deadline or the deadline to start work, and the period has not been properly paused, you are entitled to compensation of £15, plus £3 for every working day until the duty is met, up to £100 for each missed deadline. The existing scheme pays the same if the repair itself is not completed within the 20 working days. The usual £350 limit on the cost of Right to Repair work does not apply to damp and mould.
These are small sums, and they are not meant to replace a proper complaint. If the repair drags on, use your landlord's formal complaints procedure. If you are not satisfied once that is exhausted, you can take the complaint to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, which deals with complaints about councils and housing associations.
If you rent privately: the tribunal
Private tenants enforce the Repairing Standard through the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber). Before you apply you need to have told your landlord in writing what the problem is and what needs doing, so your original report and any follow-up emails matter.
The new regulations tell the tribunal that, when it decides whether your landlord has met the Repairing Standard, it must consider whether the investigation, written summary and start-of-work deadlines were complied with. If the tribunal finds against the landlord it can issue a Repairing Standard Enforcement Order requiring the work to be done. Failing to carry out the work in that order without a reasonable excuse is a criminal offence. The tribunal can also make a Rent Relief Order, which restricts the rent you have to pay until the order is complied with, and it notifies the local council, which can do the work itself and recover the cost from the landlord.
Two points worth knowing. A rent relief order is not backdated, so it does not refund rent you have already paid. And the tribunal process takes time, so start it as soon as the deadlines have clearly been missed rather than waiting for the situation to get worse.
How Scotland's rules compare with England's
If you have read about Awaab's Law in the English press, be careful about what carries over. In England the law applies only to social landlords, and private renters are still waiting for regulations under the Renters' Rights Act 2025. England has a 24-hour emergency timescale that Scotland does not have, and from 30 November 2026 England's rules will cover other hazards such as excess cold and electrical faults, while Scotland's cover damp and mould only. On the other hand, England sets no fixed date by which the underlying repair has to be finished, whereas Scottish social landlords have 20 working days. The remedies are different too: in England the deadlines are a term of your tenancy agreement, enforced through the Housing Ombudsman and the courts, with no set compensation figures.
Our guide to Awaab's Law in England covers the English rules in detail. For landlords and professionals working on both sides of the border, the UK Academy of Mould Experts has published a side-by-side comparison of the two laws.
Common questions
I reported mould in September, before the rules started. Do the deadlines apply?
The regulations do not contain any transitional rule for earlier reports. If the problem is still there, the safest course is to report it again in writing now, so there is no doubt that your landlord is aware after 6 October 2026 and the new deadlines are running.
Does a small patch of mould count?
Any report that the home is or may be affected by damp or mould has to be investigated within 10 working days. Whether the repair deadlines then apply depends on whether the investigation finds the damp or mould to be substantial. The regulations do not define substantial; the guidance looks at how much there is, how long it has lasted, who lives there and whether there is a structural cause.
My landlord did a mould wash on the first visit and says that counts as starting the work. Is that right?
It can be. The guidance gives exactly that example: a mould wash and ventilation advice given within the 5 working days counts as commencing the repair, even if further work such as fitting a fan comes later. For social tenants the 20 working day completion period then runs from that start.
Can I stop paying rent until it is fixed?
No. Withholding rent puts your tenancy at risk. If you rent privately, the tribunal can restrict the rent through a Rent Relief Order, but that only happens after the tribunal has found against the landlord.
Where is the official guidance?
The Scottish Government has published guidance for tenants and guidance for landlords, and the regulations themselves are on legislation.gov.uk. Shelter Scotland and your local Citizens Advice Bureau can help with a complaint or a tribunal application.
This article describes the law in Scotland as it stood on 7 October 2026. It is general information, not legal advice.