Damp and mould ARC indicators: a thematic review - 15 September 2026

Introduction

During 2024/25 we reviewed the information we collect from landlords in their Annual Return on the Charter (ARC), which is used to measure their performance against the Scottish Social Housing Charter. As part of the review, we consulted with tenants, landlords and other stakeholders.

In January 2025, we published the outcome of our review. This included the introduction of new ARC indicators to measure the effectiveness of how landlords were dealing with cases of damp and/or mould from 1 April 2025. These were:

• Average length of time taken to resolve cases of damp and/or mould by cause;
• Percentage of cases of damp and/or mould resolved during the reporting year that were reopened by cause; and
• Number of open cases of damp and/or mould at the year end.

We published an updated ARC Technical Guidance to include these new indicators, as well as to reflect the other changes that we made. In August 2026, we published the National Report on the Charter for 2025/26, which sets out our analysis of social landlords’ performance against the Charter, and a suite of performance information including all of the statistical information landlords provided under the Charter.

Stakeholders told us during our consultation on the ARC during 2024/25 that it was important to acknowledge the complexity of damp and mould issues. As these indicators were new and we wanted to reflect on their effectiveness, we decided to report on them separately from the main National Report.

This is also the first year of data collection ahead of the implementation of the Investigation and Commencement of Repair (Scotland) Regulations 2026, commonly known as Awaab’s Law. From 6 October 2026, social landlords must investigate reports of damp and mould and commence any required repairs within set timescales. The Scottish Government published guidance for landlords and for tenants on Awaab’s Law.

Volume of cases

• Social landlords resolved 40,140 cases of damp and/or mould during 2025/26
• Over half of damp and/or mould cases (59%) were caused by condensation
• Social landlords had 7,169 open cases at 31 March 2026

During 2025/26, social landlords resolved 40,140 reported cases of damp and/or mould. Each case can include multiple repairs, and there can be more than one report for a property in the year. For context, landlords completed a total of 1,401,091 for all types of non-emergency repair during the year. RSLs resolved 20,260 damp and/or mould cases and LAs resolved 19,880. The causes of the resolved cases showed that condensation was the major factor (59%), followed by structural issues (12%) and other reasons (29%).

Some landlords told us they had reviewed their policies and procedures to better respond to reports of damp and mould and that they had provided their staff with extensive training. Some landlords told us they have installed new technological sensors to their tenants’ homes to introduce a more proactive approach, while others have recruited specialist surveyors and contractors to help them to tackle damp and mould.

At 31 March 2026, there were 7,169 open cases of damp and mould; 3,953 for LAs and 3,216 for RSLs. This means that there just over 1% of homes provided by social landlords had an open case of damp and/or mould at that time.

Time taken to resolve damp and/or mould cases

• Social landlords took on average 26 days to resolve damp and/or mould cases
• Cases caused by condensation were the quickest to resolve, taking on average 24 days
• Cases caused by structural issues took the longest to resolve, taking on average 36 days
• Half of social landlords reported an average resolution time of 17 days or less

As set out above during 2025/26, it took social landlords on average 26 days, from the earliest date a report was received, to resolve damp and/or mould cases.

This average compares favourably to the overall target timescale of 35 days landlords will be required to achieve from 6 October 2026 under Awaab’s Law. However, this will pose a challenge for some social landlords where performance ranges from 3 days to 122 days to resolve all causes of damp and/or mould.

In our Technical Guidance, we have said that advice-only cases should be excluded from the count of resolved damp and/or mould cases. This means that the cases reported will be those which required repair work to be carried out rather than cases resolved through advice alone.

The median average time taken by social landlords to resolve damp and/or mould cases was 17 days; i.e. half of landlords reported an average resolution time of 17 days or less.

RSLs took significantly less time to resolve all categories of damp and mould cases than LAs. As described above, a higher proportion of LAs’ cases were caused by structural issues compared to RSLs. Damp and/or mould cases caused by structural issues took longer to resolve than those caused by condensation or other reasons.

Some landlords told us that the average time to resolve cases in multi tenure blocks was increased due to the difficulty in reaching agreement with other owners in the block. This is often required where the cause of the damp and/or mould is structural. Some blocks require every owner to agree to the work before it can be carried out. This can be particularly difficult for a social landlord where they are neither the majority owner nor the factor of the block. The capacity of and access to specialist contractors also caused delays in resolving some cases.

Other landlords told us of the impact of tenants not allowing access for surveys or remedial works. Landlords have told us this is also a challenge when addressing other tenant and resident safety issues, including gas safety and electrical safety checks.

Landlords will often monitor damp and mould cases for a period of time after completing the necessary repairs, to make sure that there is no reoccurrence. This aligns to the briefing note which we jointly published with SFHA (Scottish Federation of Housing Associations), CIH Scotland and ALACHO (Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers) in 2023, which highlighted the importance of a follow up check to ensure the steps taken have resolved the issue. In the Technical Guidance, we said that this monitoring period should be excluded from the calculation of time taken to resolve cases. This was because different landlords have different monitoring periods.

Some landlords, most of which are local authorities, specifically highlighted that damp and mould recording, reporting and case management arrangements are still being developed following the introduction of the new indicators and the Scottish Government’s announcement to introduce Awaab’s Law in Scotland. We know from our engagement with landlords and landlord representative bodies that because of the complexity of damp and mould management, many landlords are investing in housing management systems and software to help them monitor and report on cases.

Cases reopened during the year

• Of the damp and/or mould cases that were resolved during 2025/26, there was no recurrence of the issues in 91.7% of cases
• Over half of cases (52%) that were reopened were caused by condensation

It is important that social landlords deal with any cases of damp and mould effectively. To this end, we introduced an indicator to understand the number of resolved cases of damp and/or mould that were reopened. Within the Technical Guidance, we defined this as when a resolution has been carried out to a case of damp and/or mould, but then further unplanned work is required because the damp and/or mould has reoccurred.

For the vast majority of resolved damp and/or mould cases, there was no recurrence of the issues. In 2025/26, 8.3% of resolved damp and/or mould cases were reopened; 7.9% of LA cases were reopened, which was lower than the 8.7% of RSL cases that were reopened.

A higher proportion of cases caused by ‘other reasons’ were reopened than cases caused by condensation and structural issues. This was the case for both RSLs and LAs.

Amongst RSLs, a higher proportion of condensation-related cases were reopened than structural cases (8.8% compared with 7.2%). The opposite was true for LAs, where a higher proportion of structural cases were reopened than condensation-related cases (6.9% compared with 5.4%).

Of the cases that were reopened, just over half (52%) were caused by condensation. In comparison, 10% of reopened cases were caused by structural issues, and 38% were caused by other reasons.

Few landlords commented specifically on reopened damp and/or mould cases. One landlord that did, for example, told us that it only became apparent that the problem had not been fully resolved during a period of adverse weather.

Next steps