Housing Health and Safety Rating System - HHSRS
The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties.
The assessment method focuses on the hazards that are most likely to be present in housing - tackling these hazards will make homes healthier and safer to live in.
How does it work?
A risk assessment looks at the likelihood of an incident arising from the condition of the property and the likely harmful outcome. For example, how likely is a fire to break out, what will happen if one does?
The assessment will show the presence of any serious (category 1) hazards and other less serious (category 2) hazards. We can then give a list of works to make the property safe, for example by installing fire alarms and escape windows to deal with a fire hazard, central heating and insulation to deal with cold, fixing a rail to steep stairs to deal with the risk of falls, or mending a leaking roof.
When are assessments carried out?
We carry out HHSRS assessments whenever we have cause to visit privately rented or owner occupied properties, such as when dealing with grant applications, regulating Houses in Multiple Occupation or general inspections. We may also carry out an assessment if a case is referred to us by Social Services, at the request of the occupant or even a suggestion from a concerned friend, neighbour or relative.
How is it enforced and what are the penalties?
We will try to deal with problems informally at first, but if this is unsuccessful we can serve a notice on an owner or landlord to make them carry out improvements to the property. We also have powers to prohibit the use of all or part of the property or restrict the number of people allowed to live there.
Where hazards are modest we may serve a hazard awareness notice to draw attention to a problem, but where an occupier is at immediate risk we can take emergency action.
If we discover serious category 1 hazards in a home, we must take the most appropriate action to make the property safe. With owner occupiers the most appropriate action may be to advise them of the danger, with landlords this would probably be to require work to be done.
Which action we choose depends on the circumstances and is guided by our Private Sector Housing Enforcement Policy, contact us for more details.
A property owner or landlord who feels that an assessment is wrong can discuss matters with the inspector and ultimately will be able to challenge an enforcement decision through the Residential Property Tribunal.
Failure to comply with a statutory notice could lead to a fine of up to £5,000 and result in the Council carrying out the work and recovering the cost from the owner.
Getting help with the cost of works
A range of grants are available that may be able to help with the cost of improvement works, see our Decent Homes Grants pages.
More information
Full information on HHSRS can be found on the Decent and Safe Homes (DASH) website and in the HHSRS Operating Guidance. The Government has also issued guidance on HHSRS for landlords and other property related professionals.
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