This one day course brings together the core legal duties around health and safety in residential property, the practicalities of diagnosing repairs and the essential skills front-facing professionals need to recognise and respond to tenant needs. It also incorporates the new requirements introduced by Awaab’s Law, ensuring participants understand how to meet timescales, manage damp and mould effectively, and communicate clearly with residents.
The session blends legal clarity, practical inspection skills, and human centred communication — ideal for housing officers, repairs staff, and contact centre teams.
What will I learn?
- Identify key health and safety legislation relevant to residential property, including repairing obligations under s11 Landlord and Tenant Act – know the common defects which tenants report
- Understand the principles of the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) and recognise common hazards, using pictures and case studies
- Explain the requirements and phased implementation of Awaab’s Law, including timescales, emergency hazards, and reporting expectations – know the importance of response times and reporting techniques
- Recognise landlord and tenant responsibilities, including what constitutes “tenant like manner”.
- Apply best practice for diagnosing, investigating and managing damp, mould and condensation
- Understand when defects constitute emergency or significant hazards and the implications for temporary accommodation
- Know how non-technical staff can feed in to the production of the written report without realising it.
- Demonstrate active listening techniques to gather accurate repair information and build rapport with tenants
- Use clear, plain language to ensure tenants understand next steps, responsibilities and timescales
- Identify verbal cues that may indicate vulnerability, risk, or safeguarding concerns.
- Use structured questioning (open, probing, funnel, and confirmation questions) to diagnose repair issues effectively
- Apply a consistent triage approach to distinguish between routine, urgent and emergency repairs
- Recognise when symptoms described by tenants may indicate underlying hazards such as damp, mould, leaks, electrical faults or structural issues
- Verify key details (location, severity, access, safety concerns) to ensure accurate job logging and compliance with Awaab’s Law timescales.
- Recognise indicators of vulnerability and complex needs across physical, emotional and practical domains
- Apply the three Rs: Recognise, Report and Record
- Know how vulnerabilities impact on the triaging of repair reports.
Who should attend?
This course is ideal for housing officers, repairs and maintenance staff, contact centre and customer service teams, and other frontline colleagues responsible for receiving, assessing, recording or responding to repair reports from residents. It will also benefit non-technical staff who play a role in identifying potential hazards, vulnerabilities or urgent repair needs and ensuring these are accurately recorded and escalated.
Benefits of attending
Participants will gain the confidence and practical skills to triage repair reports more effectively, ask the right questions and identify when an issue may require an urgent or emergency response. They will also strengthen their understanding of key legal and regulatory responsibilities, while developing the communication and listening skills needed to provide residents with a clear, consistent and responsive service.
Carrie Kus
This course is delivered by Carrie Kus. Carrie has 20 years’ experience in the housing sector and is a seasoned trainer and public speaker. She began her housing career as a case worker for Shelter whilst at the same time building her own property portfolio. She then progressed to owning her own letting agency alongside a successful training and consultancy company. She held a board position as non-executive director for the Residential Landlords Association for five years. This gives her the insight of working for, and on behalf of, both tenants and landlords throughout her career which brings interesting stories and anecdotes to her training from both sides of the fence.
How to book
Individuals
You can book your place in a few simple steps:
- Select ‘Pay now’ to start your booking.
- Sign in or create a My CIH account (see instructions below)
- Have your payment details ready:
- Credit or debit card if paying yourself
- If your organisation is paying, have a purchase order number ready
- Complete the online form and submit your booking.
To pay, you’ll need a My CIH account.
- New to My CIH? Visit My CIH page and click Sign up now to follow the steps. You can also follow our step-by-step guide
- Already have an account? Just sign in with your email and password as usual.
Having trouble logging in or creating your account? Read our guide or contact our customer services team:
Multiple delegate bookings
We welcome organisations who want to work with the CIH Housing Academy to provide training to their workforce. If you'd like to know more about possible discounts for multiple bookings of training courses or qualifications please contact us on 024 7685 1700 or email partnerships@cih.org.
Get in touch
If you have any questions about our training courses or want to speak with a member of our team, we’re here to help. We can guide you through the next steps and provide any additional information you need.
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