Housing health and safety rating

The government have been extremely busy recently upgrading regulations to improve the living conditions of those in the private rented sector. What with the new property licence regulations and the tenancy deposit scheme there is now a housing health and safety rating system (HHSRS) which has come into force to monitor the standards of let properties.

The new scheme allows for the local authority to check a let property for obvious signs of poor standards, a total check of 29 different potential hazards. These checks range from the danger of explosion or structual collapse to a glass panel at the bottom of the stairs.





The following are the four main areas which the scheme hope to address:

Physiological - For example, dampness

Psychological - For example, noise

Protection against infection - For example, drainage

Protection against accidents - For example, fire

If a property fails to meet the expected property conditions then the local authority will have the power to enforce improvement notices and even prohibition orders if needed.

With all these updates in regulation landlords will find this year to be extremely costly on updating all their properties but ultimately the tenants should see significant improvements in their living conditions.