Decent Homes Standard for Landlords: 2026 Action Plan

Here is the short version. The Decent Homes Standard will apply to private landlords in England from 2035, the government confirmed in its policy statement on 28 January 2026. It sets five pass-or-fail tests: the property must be free of serious Category 1 hazards, in a reasonable state of repair, have reasonably modern facilities, provide reasonable thermal comfort, and be free of damp and mould. Fail one and you fail the lot. But 2035 is the wrong date to plan around. Two earlier deadlines bite first. Awaab's Law, live in social housing since 27 October 2025, will extend to private landlords at a date the government has yet to confirm, bringing fixed repair timescales for damp, mould and emergency hazards. And every private rented home in England must reach EPC C by 1 October 2030. Three deadlines, one direction of travel. The bar for a lettable property is rising, and the do-nothing landlord is being legislated out of the market.

So the question that actually matters is not "what do I do by 2035". It is "what do I build into my next refurb so I never touch the same wall twice". Get that right and one job clears all three deadlines. Get it wrong and you pay three times for the same property.

What is the Decent Homes Standard for private landlords?

The Decent Homes Standard already governs the condition of social housing in England. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 extends a revised version to the private rented sector. Five criteria decide whether a home passes.

Criterion A. The property must be free of serious Category 1 hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. In plain terms: no severe damp, no dangerous electrics, no serious fall or fire risk. Criterion B. It must be in a reasonable state of repair, judged on the age and condition of key building components like the roof, windows and boiler. Criterion C. It must have reasonably modern facilities and services, which catches tired kitchens and bathrooms past their useful life. Criterion D. It must provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort. The heating system has to be able to warm the whole home, not just two rooms, which is the current minimum. Criterion E. It must be free of damp and mould.

Notice how much overlap there is with EPC and with Awaab's Law. Thermal comfort, damp, mould and dangerous building components turn up in all three frameworks. That overlap is the whole game, and I will come back to it.

When does Awaab's Law hit private landlords?

Awaab's Law is named after Awaab Ishak, the two-year-old who died in 2020 from prolonged exposure to mould in a Rochdale social home. Phase 1 came into force in the social rented sector on 27 October 2025, covering damp, mould and emergency hazards. The timescales are strict. A social landlord must investigate an emergency hazard and carry out any safety work within 24 hours. For a significant hazard, the investigation must happen within 10 working days and the safety work within 5 working days of that. The tenant gets a written summary of findings within 3 working days. Miss the clock and the tenant can take the landlord to court.

In social housing, the law widens from October 2026 to cover excess cold and heat, falls, structural collapse, fire and electrical hazards, then to nearly all remaining hazards in 2027. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 will extend Awaab's Law to the private rented sector too. The commencement date is not yet confirmed. But the direction is set, and a fixed-clock duty to fix damp and mould is coming to private lets. If you currently take three weeks to send a contractor round to a mould complaint, that habit becomes a legal liability.

How the three deadlines stack up

Lay them on a timeline and the picture is obvious. EPC C for all new and existing private rented homes by 1 October 2030. Awaab's Law extension to the private sector, date unconfirmed but realistically inside that window. Decent Homes Standard from 2035. None of these is optional, and none of them is going away because a future government fancies an easier life. They have cross-party momentum and a dead child's name attached.

The cost of compliance is real, but so is the cost of the alternative. Average UK private rents hit £1,381 a month in the year to April 2026, up 3.5% according to the ONS. A property that cannot legally be let earns nothing. With the typical UK home at £299,313 on the Halifax index in April 2026, a chunk of dead capital sitting empty because it failed an EPC or a damp check is an expensive mistake. The maths favours getting ahead of the deadlines, not waiting for them.

The one-refurb strategy: future-proof, don't patch

This is the bit most landlords miss, so here is the golden nugget. The three deadlines target the same things. Insulation and heating drive both EPC C (Criterion: energy) and Decent Homes thermal comfort. Ventilation and surface treatment fix both Awaab's Law damp duties and Decent Homes Criterion E. A new boiler, decent loft and cavity insulation, double glazing and proper extraction in the kitchen and bathroom knock out EPC points, thermal comfort and damp risk in a single visit.

So spec your next refurb to clear 2030, the Awaab's Law extension and 2035 in one go, even though the deadlines are years apart. Doing a £4,000 cosmetic refresh today and ripping it out in 2029 to retrofit insulation is the worst of both worlds. You pay twice and you lose rent during the second void. A refurb planned around the full compliance stack costs more upfront and far less over the decade. A refurb budget planner that prices a future-proof spec against a cheap-now spec shows the real lifetime number, not just the headline quote. The first figure is bigger. The total is much smaller.

If you are buying, price this into the deal. A property that needs a full energy and damp retrofit to be lettable past 2030 is worth less than the asking price suggests, and that gap is your negotiation lever. Our guide to the new EPC rules for landlords goes deeper on the 2030 cliff edge specifically.

Audit your portfolio before the deadlines audit you

You cannot plan a refurb programme if you do not know which of your properties fail which test. Most landlords have a rough sense and a nasty surprise waiting. The fix is a proper audit: current EPC rating per unit, age and condition of each boiler and roof, any history of damp or mould complaints, and the kitchen and bathroom age. From there you can sequence the work, worst properties first, and spread the cost across several tax years rather than getting hit with everything in 2029.

An HMO compliance checker already tracks local authority and licensing requirements that shift council by council, and the same audit discipline applies to the Decent Homes criteria. Pair that with a portfolio growth planner that stress-tests your cash flow against the refurb bill, and you can see whether you can fund the programme from rent or whether one or two weaker units should be sold to fund the rest. Better to make that call now, calmly, than in a panic the month before a deadline. The same logic that applies to the longer eviction timelines we covered in our Section 8 evictions guide applies here: the cost of getting compliance wrong has gone up, so the planning has to start earlier.

What to do right now

Pull your EPC certificates and list every unit below a C. Those are your 2030 problem and your first priority. Then walk each property, or have your agent do it, and log any damp, mould, dangerous electrics or knackered heating, because that is your Awaab's Law and Decent Homes exposure. Rank the portfolio worst to best. Then, before you commission a single job, make sure the spec clears the whole compliance stack and not just the deadline in front of you. The landlords who come out of this decade ahead are not the ones who spent the least. They are the ones who spent once.