Awaab’s Law: Evidential Assessment Points to Health and Liability Risks

Awaab’s Law: Evidential Review Highlights Potential Health and Liability Impacts

LONDON, KENT, UNITED KINGDOM, December 15, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Building-related illness specialist Jeff Charlton has warned that the operational requirements of Awaab’s Law may unintentionally increase health risks and liability exposure for landlords and housing providers by forcing rapid environmental risk decisions without sufficient scientific or medical oversight.

Awaab’s Law was introduced to improve responses to serious mould and damp conditions in housing. However, Charlton cautions that the law’s requirement for a 24-hour hazard assessment may create unsafe risk-assessment conditions in which complex environmental and health judgements are made by individuals who are not medically or scientifically qualified. These actions will create unsafe risk-assessment conditions in which complex environmental and health judgements are made by individuals who are not medically or scientifically qualified.”

“Environmental illness is not a visual diagnosis,” Charlton said. “Mould-related illness, exposure pathways, and health-risk severity cannot be reliably determined through rapid inspection alone. Speed without science creates unsafe outcomes.”

Charlton explained that effective environmental health risk assessment typically requires forensic evaluation, verification of contamination, consideration of exposure pathways, and a clear separation between housing management decisions and medical judgement.

Compressing these processes into rigid response timeframes increases the likelihood of misclassification, inappropriate intervention, and false reassurance to occupants, not least with time as the only standards and in the absence of objectives or risk reduction targets.

According to Charlton, rushed assessments can lead to misidentification of hazards, incorrect or unsafe remediation, disturbance of contaminants, and increased airborne exposure — particularly affecting children, the elderly, and immunocompromised tenants.

He further warned that the current framework may increase landlord liability, as compliance with time-based requirements does not protect housing providers where actions taken are scientifically unsound or medically unsafe.
“The intention of the law is tenant protection,” Charlton added. “But without mandatory forensic assessment standards and clear boundaries between medical and housing responsibilities, the result may be greater risk rather than reduced harm.”

Charlton has published a series of evidence-based volumes examining Awaab’s Law and the risks arising from unfounded housing response strategies. These resources are intended to support housing providers, policymakers, clinicians, and insurers in improving environmental health decision-making and in the public interest. He has published a free major overview listing the issues available from his Legacy library.
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Further Information
More information on Awaab’s Law analysis and related evidence is available via the Building Forensics Library.
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About Jeff Charlton
Jeff Charlton is an internationally recognised expert in mould, biocontamination, and building-related illness, with more than 35 years’ experience investigating environmental health risks in residential and public buildings. He is the Principal Consultant at Building Forensics.
• Jeff Charlton →
https://www.buildingforensics.co.uk/jeff-charlton-uks-leading-mould-and-bio-remediation-expert/
• Awaab’s Law →
https://www.buildingforensics.co.uk/awaabs-law/
• Building Forensics Library →
https://www.buildingforensics.co.uk/library

Jeff Charlton
BuildingForensics
+44 7990 500999
email us here

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