9.1 Reasonable Endeavours

Social landlords have a defence for a failure to comply with Awaab’s Law requirements if they can prove that they have used all reasonable endeavours to avoid it, meaning they have taken all reasonable steps to comply with the requirements of the regulations, but it has not been possible for reasons genuinely beyond their control.

Examples could include:

• The landlord may not be able to complete work within the timeframes because the building is high-risk and building control approval from the Building Safety Regulator is required before starting works to make the property safe. In this case ‘reasonable efforts’ could be making an application to the Building Safety Regulator as soon as reasonably practicable. Likewise, other approvals and permissions might be needed from external bodies, and the landlord should show that they are taking the appropriate steps to obtain these.

• The landlord may not be able to gain access to the property to complete relevant safety works. For example, the landlord may have made multiple attempts to arrange a time to access the property in line with section 4.2 but been unable to do so within the given timeframes.

• The landlord may have been unable to source specialist contractors or materials within the required timeframes, but has made reasonable efforts to do so.

• The landlord may have made reasonable efforts to secure suitable alternative accommodation in line with section 8.1, but there may be no suitable properties which are within a reasonable distance of schools/places of work or in the local area. In this case the landlord could work with the tenant to identify the best option.

If a tenant brings a claim against them for breach of Awaab’s Law, landlords will need to be able to evidence why the failure to comply was unavoidable. They should therefore keep clear records of all attempts to comply with Awaab’s Law requirements, including records of all correspondence with tenants and any contractors, including those relating to the provision of suitable accommodation.

Ultimately, it will be for the courts to judge if a registered provider is in breach of Awaab’s Law.