What Counts as an Emergency Repair? (England & Wales)

Short answer: An emergency repair is anything that puts the household's safety, security or health at immediate risk. In social housing in England, Awaab's Law (in force 27 October 2025) sets fixed legal deadlines for listed hazards. The most serious category demands a response inside 24 hours. Most landlord repair policies, social and private, sort repairs into three tiers: emergency (24 hours), urgent (3 to 7 working days), and routine (28 days).

Knowing which tier your problem sits in is the difference between action tomorrow and action next month.

The three standard categories

Every landlord publishes its own repair policy with its own timescales. Read yours. It is usually on the landlord's website. Independent rulings regularly go against landlords who miss their own published timescales.

Awaab's Law, the 24-hour category in social housing

Awaab's Law followed the 2020 death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak, in a Rochdale flat left mouldy for years. It came into force on 27 October 2025 for social landlords in England. Where a listed hazard exists and the landlord has been told, the landlord must:

1. Investigate inside the legal deadline: 24 hours for emergency hazards, 10 working days for significant hazards (from notice, under Section 10A LTA 1985)
2. Report the findings to the tenant in writing within 3 working days of the investigation
3. Complete emergency repairs within 24 hours where the hazard poses a significant and immediate risk
4. Finish the works within the set timescale for significant hazards: 5 working days after the investigation ends
5. Provide somewhere else to stay if the home cannot be made safe in time

The listed hazards include damp and mould, excess cold, excess heat, risk of structural collapse, fire, electrics, gas, asbestos, and carbon monoxide, all drawn from the HHSRS.

Awaab's Law currently covers social landlords in England only: councils and housing associations. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 contains powers to extend similar duties to private renting, but the government has not announced the start date. See Awaab's Law: private sector extension.

The legal floor for all tenants

Even outside Awaab's Law and the landlord's own policy, repair duties apply under separate English and Welsh systems:

• Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (England): the landlord must keep the water, gas, electricity, sanitation, heating and hot water working, and keep the structure and outside in repair
• Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 (England): the home must stay fit to live in for the whole tenancy
• Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016: the fitness for human habitation term in every Welsh occupation contract

These laws do not fix deadlines the way Awaab's Law does. But they all carry a duty to act "within a reasonable time" once the landlord knows. Courts have said again and again: for an emergency, a reasonable time is hours, not weeks.

What is and is not an emergency, common examples

Problems to report as emergencies:

• Gas leak (call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 first)
• A burning smell from the electrics
• Total loss of heating in winter with vulnerable residents
• Total loss of hot water in winter
• Burst pipe, uncontained leak
• Sewage backing up into the home
• Roof damage actively letting water in
• A broken external door or ground-floor window leaving the home unsecured
• A carbon monoxide alarm sounding
• A blocked toilet, where it is the only one in the home
• A broken lift in a high-rise, with disabled or older residents upstairs

Urgent (3 to 7 working days):

• Partial loss of heating: one room or one radiator
• Hot water working but unreliable
• A contained leak that is not actively damaging the home
• A faulty extractor fan (matters more where damp or mould is present)
• A single broken window, not on the ground floor
• A faulty intercom

Routine (up to 28 days):

• Cracked plaster
• Minor decoration defects
• Faulty cupboard hinges
• A slow-draining sink

What you must do to trigger the timescale

The clock does not start until the landlord knows. To make sure it starts:

1. Report it in writing. Ring the out-of-hours emergency number for real emergencies, then follow up by email or portal.
2. Spell out the impact. "No hot water at all. Two children under 5 in the home."
3. Flag vulnerability. Children, older residents, disabled residents, anyone with a medical condition.
4. Note the date and time of every contact.

Use our letter builder for routine and urgent repairs that have gone unanswered past the policy timescale. It produces a clean, dated formal complaint.

What to do if the timescale is missed

1. Escalate inside the organisation: formal complaint, Stage 1 then Stage 2.
2. Document the impact: receipts for everything, doctor's letters for any health effects.
3. Consider a housing disrepair claim, especially where the missed deadline is an Awaab's Law legal deadline. You may have a claim. Call us free on 0800 030 4669.

Get help

If your landlord has not dealt with an emergency or urgent repair inside the timescale, call Support for Tenants on 0800 030 4669 for a free assessment. We are a regulated company, not a law firm. We work with solicitors who run housing disrepair cases on a no-win-no-fee basis.

Sources: Section 11, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (legislation.gov.uk); Awaab's Law: guidance for social landlords, GOV.UK.

Support For Tenants is a trading name of Cyntex Group Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as a Claims Management Company. FRN 1020217. Registered in England and Wales.