Who Counts as a "Competent Person" Under Scotland's Awaab's Law?

Scotland’s version of Awaab’s Law has been live since the 6th of October. Most of the noise so far has been about the clocks: 10 working days to investigate, 3 to issue the written summary, 5 to commence and, for social landlords, 20 to complete. I have already had my say on the timescales in my last Awaab’s Law post.

When it came into force, Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for housing said landlords now have “a clear, consistent standard to work to”. Clear on timescales, yes. On who does the investigating, less so.

This blog is more about the person holding the moisture meter. The regulations say the investigation has to be carried out by a competent person. So who actually counts?

The problem

The Investigation and Commencement of Repair (Scotland) Regulations 2026 define a competent person as someone who, in the reasonable opinion of the landlord, has the skills and experience to determine whether the house is substantially free from damp and mould and, if not, whether repair work is needed.

That is it. The Scottish Government guidance for landlords says no specific qualifications are required. It suggests landlords may wish to consider experience of inspecting or treating damp and mould, a background in building surveying, housing maintenance, construction or property inspection, and a sufficient understanding of Scotland’s housing standards framework. It then says this is not a prerequisite and landlords should consider the circumstances of the case.

So competence is left to the landlord. I can see why. Every association has a different mix of in-house officers, surveyors and contractors, and a rigid qualification rule on day one would have tripped a lot of them up and to be honest I have seen some of the qualifications out there and it doesn’t make you competent.

Not everyone is comfortable with it though. The Regulatory Review Group wrote to the Cabinet Secretary in September and said the definition relies on the judgement of the landlord. Their concern was that this may allow bad actors in the sector to judge incompetent contractors as competent, with a knock-on effect on the quality of remediation work. They recommended the quality of works be assessed as time goes on, and said a further look at standards or qualifications for contractors may be needed if it proves to be an issue.

Where it goes wrong

I am going to be honest about my own experience here. I have done the ASCP Level 4 Certificate in Managing Damp, Mould and Customer Care in Housing. It covered landlord and occupant rights and responsibilities, how the organisation manages damp and mould cases and keeps all operations safe, listing the methods used to resolve cases with the steps taken and suggested improvements, and quick, convenient ways to improve knowledge of stock condition.

All useful. But in my view it was lacking on the technical side of actually carrying out inspections. It was focussed on the customer side which is very important in housing but it’s not going into the detail of how buildings fail.

That is the gap. Housing professionals can get by with a standard qualification plus a few years of experience, and for the bulk of cases that will be fine. Black mould behind the wardrobe, no heating on, trickle vents shut, extract fan not working. You do not need a degree in building surveying to sort that.

But does a standard qualification plus experience make you competent for complex cases? No. When you have penetrating damp coming through a solid stone wall, a cold bridge at a concrete floor slab, bridged cavities, condensation behind internal wall insulation that was badly detailed, or a timber floor with no sub-floor ventilation, you need an understanding of how the property is constructed and of building pathology. Without it you end up treating the symptom, the case reopens, and the tenant is back where they started.

This is where “in the reasonable opinion of the landlord” can go wrong in both directions. A landlord under pressure to hit a 10-day investigation clock can deem anyone with a meter competent. Equally, an officer who is perfectly capable on routine condensation cases can be put on a complex case they are not equipped for, simply because they are on the patch and the clock is running.

A qualification does not fix that on its own. A certificate tells you someone sat a course. It does not tell you whether they can tell rising damp from a bridged DPC or condensation from a leaking waste pipe.

If you want to bolster your knowledge on the technical side, I would recommend Mike Parrett’s building pathology DVDs to anyone. They are quite old now, but most of it stands the test of time and the focus is on the inspection itself and understanding defects, which is exactly the bit I felt was missing. I also attended a Mike Parrett seminar that covered many of the core themes of the DVDs. I have written before about the kit and knowledge in-house staff need for damp surveys and I still stand by it: with the right training and equipment, maintenance staff can carry out good quality initial inspections.

Equally important though is knowing your limitations. Being competent includes recognising when a case is beyond you and getting specialist advice, whether that is a building surveyor, a ventilation specialist or a structural engineer. There is no shame in that. The shame is in signing off a written summary on a case you did not fully understand. There is value in having someone within the organisation who is more senior and is capable of advising on complex cases, if you just take the word from damp contractor you may find they are selling you a product rather than getting to the root cause of the issue.

Conclusion

I do not think Scotland got it wrong by leaving competence to landlords. A mandated qualification on day one would not have made anyone better at reading a building. But “reasonable opinion of the landlord” puts the onus squarely on us to be able to justify who we sent and why.

Ongoing CPD matters, and the technical side of inspection is where most of us could do with a top-up. Like reading The Maintenance Corner blog, for example.

Every day is a school day.

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