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📞 Call Now: 0125 624 2410Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 is the foundation. On any tenancy granted for under seven years, the landlord must keep in repair the structure and exterior of the dwelling — and the Act names the roof, gutters and external pipes explicitly. It is not a matter of what the tenancy agreement says. Section 12 makes any covenant purporting to transfer that obligation to the tenant void as to that provision.
The practical test is disrepair, not perfection. A roof that is watertight and structurally sound satisfies Section 11 even if it is old and unattractive. A roof letting water into the property does not, regardless of what it looked like when the tenancy started.
Two points catch landlords out. The first is that the obligation is triggered by notice: you are liable once you know or ought reasonably to have known about the defect, which is why logging tenant reports with a date matters so much. The second is that it extends to common parts and installations you retain control of, which is relevant on the maisonette blocks around Roman Road and Saxon Way in Buckskin.
The 2018 Act took the position considerably further. It implies into tenancies a term that the property is fit for human habitation at the start and throughout, and crucially it gives tenants a direct route to court without needing the local authority to act first.
Fitness is assessed against the twenty-nine hazards in the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. Damp and mould growth is one of them, and it is by some distance the most litigated. Where damp originates from a roof defect — a slipped tile letting water into a bedroom ceiling, a blocked valley saturating a wall head, a failed chimney flashing tracking down a chimney breast — the roof defect and the fitness breach are the same problem viewed from two directions.
Remedies include an order for works and damages. Damages in disrepair claims are typically assessed as a proportion of rent for the period the property was unfit, which on a multi-year failure can be substantial.
This is where most landlord guidance currently goes wrong, so it is worth being precise.
Awaab's Law derives from section 10A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, inserted by the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, and is given effect by the Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025. It came into force on 27 October 2025. It applies to registered providers of social housing. It does not currently apply to private landlords.
What it does in social housing is impose fixed timescales: investigate a reported significant hazard within a set period, provide a written summary of findings, and carry out safety work within defined windows, with a backstop for complex works. The first phase covers damp and mould plus all emergency hazards; further phases widen the hazard categories through 2026 and 2027.
The Renters' Rights Act 2025, which received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025, contains the power to extend an equivalent regime to the private rented sector. The Government's published implementation roadmap places that extension in Phase 3, expressly subject to consultation, and no commencement date has been confirmed. Phase 1 of the Act commenced on 1 May 2026 and dealt with tenancy reform — the abolition of section 21, periodic tenancies, rent increase procedure — not hazard timescales.
So: you are not currently bound by Awaab's Law timescales. You are bound by Section 11 and the 2018 Act, both of which already require prompt action on roof-sourced damp. Anyone telling you the Awaab's Law clock is running on your private rental is wrong about the law as it stands.
The direction of travel is unambiguous and the social-housing framework is the obvious template. More immediately, the documentation practices that Awaab's Law compels are the same practices that win a Section 11 or 2018 Act dispute: a dated log of the tenant's report, evidence of when you inspected, a written record of what was found, and proof of when remedial work was done.
Landlords who keep that record are protected under the law as it stands and ready for the law as it is heading. Landlords who do not are exposed on both counts.
Basingstoke's private rented sector concentrates in the 1960s–70s overspill estates — Popley, South Ham, Oakridge, Black Dam and parts of Buckskin. Purchase prices are lowest there and yields highest, which is exactly why investors buy. It is also the stock with the oldest roofs in the town.
Concrete tiles laid between 1961 and 1979 on iron nail fixings are now at or past their service life. Nail sickness does not fail gradually and politely — it fails across a whole slope at once, because every fixing is the same age. On an owner-occupied house that is a budgeting problem. On a tenanted one it is a Section 11 exposure that arrives without warning.
The sharpest version is the system-built stock on South Ham and Popley Phase 1, where flat roof sections are integral to the building and sit directly above bedrooms. When the original felt fails there, water enters habitable rooms rather than a garage, and a fitness-for-habitation issue exists from the moment the tenant reports it.
Roof spending falls into two categories for tax. Repairs that restore the property to its previous condition are generally revenue expenses, deductible against rental income in the year incurred. Improvements that enhance the property beyond its original state are generally capital, relieved against capital gains on eventual disposal instead.
Replacing a failed tiled roof with an equivalent modern tiled roof is commonly treated as a repair even though the materials are better, on the basis that you are restoring function using the modern equivalent. Converting a tiled roof to something materially superior, or adding insulation that did not previously exist, moves toward capital.
The boundary is genuinely contested in places and depends on the facts. This is general guidance to help you ask the right question — confirm the treatment for your specific works with your accountant before assuming it.
Whatever the legislative position, the record is what decides disputes. For every tenant-reported roof issue, keep: the date and time of the report and how it was made; the date you instructed an inspection; the inspection report with dated photographs; the quotation; the date works were instructed; the date works completed with completion photographs; and the invoice.
We provide all of that as standard on landlord jobs, in a format suitable for a property file, an HMO licensing officer, or disclosure in a disrepair claim. It costs nothing extra and it is the single most useful thing a landlord can hold.
Key Fact: Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 places the structure and exterior — expressly including the roof, gutters and external pipes — on the landlord for any tenancy under seven years, and section 12 renders void any covenant purporting to transfer that obligation to the tenant. Source: Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, ss.11–12 · Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018
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Last reviewed: August 2026
No. Awaab's Law applies to registered social housing providers only, in force since 27 October 2025. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 contains the power to extend it to the private rented sector, and the Government's roadmap places that in Phase 3 subject to consultation, with no commencement date confirmed.
Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires you to keep the structure and exterior in repair, including the roof, gutters and external pipes, on any tenancy under seven years. The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 additionally requires the property to be fit for habitation throughout, with damp and mould explicitly in scope.
No. Section 12 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 makes any covenant purporting to transfer the Section 11 repairing obligation to the tenant void as to that provision. The clause is unenforceable regardless of what was signed.
On notice. You become liable once you know, or ought reasonably to have known, about the defect. That is why logging the date and time of every tenant report matters — it establishes when the clock started and what a reasonable response period was.
Repairs restoring the property to its previous condition are generally revenue expenses and deductible in year. Improvements enhancing beyond the original are generally capital. Like-for-like roof replacement is commonly treated as a repair. Confirm the treatment for your specific works with your accountant.
Typically an order for works plus damages assessed as a proportion of rent for the period the property was in disrepair or unfit. On a failure running across multiple years the cumulative figure can be significant, which is why prompt documented action is the cheaper route.
Popley Phase 1, South Ham, Oakridge and Black Dam — 1960s–70s estates with the highest rental concentration and the oldest roofs. The system-built properties with integral flat roof sections above bedrooms are the sharpest exposure because failure puts water directly into habitable rooms.
Documented, compliant roof maintenance across Basingstoke rental property.
0125 624 2410Last updated: August 2026