If a tenant reports your property to the Council, the Council is duly bound by law to inspect your property for all 29 Hazards in the HHSRS (Housing Health & Safety Rating System).

If the Council finds any Category 1 risks, they are duty bound, by law, to start enforcement action against the Landlord and any Agents.

If you do not fully comply with any Enforcement Notice, Probation Order or Penalty Order, etc. within the allotted time (or successfully challenge it) then the Council will either issue a Civil Penalty fine of up to £30,00 per breach or commence criminal proceedings against you in Court.

In many cases, the Council will then persuade your tenants to make a Rent Repayment Order against you for up to 12 months rent!

Protect Yourself

 It’s much simpler and safer to be ale to prove that your HMO or rental property is fully compliant with HHSRS.

Why do Councils do HHSRS inspections?

The Council can inspect at random whenever they want.

If one of your tenants report your property on any basis the Council will do a full HHSRS inspection without your knowledge. The first you’ll know is when you receive the Enforcement Notice or Council Penalty fine.

If your property should have been licensed but isn’t, you need to apply for a licence ASAP BUT

You’d better make sure even faster that it’s compliant with HHSRS or you’re looking at two fines One for unlicenced property and another for running a sub-standard property

How can you protect yourself?

Get a 3rd party professional HHSRS inspection and risk assessment audit done by a certified HHSRS practitioner who has had the same training as Council HHSRS inspectors.

A Landlord Licensing & Defence certified HHSRS practitioner will report on every item within your property that the Council could claim to be ‘non-compliant’ or a Category 1 / 2 hazard.

What’s more, we’ll tell you what you need to do to rectify the issue ASAP to avoid being exposed to potential fines and prosecution.

How can you protect yourself?

The cost of an HHSRS audit is a tiny, tiny percentage of the fines you face. 

The actual cost depends on the building size. It’s similar in cost to a buyer’s survey..

How does it work?

Book a HHSRS survey with Landlords Licencing and Defence and one of our certified HHSRS practitioners will attend your property.

They will survey every room plus the external elevations and gardens.  This is a very thorough inspection and takes usually 1 – 2 hours.

The surveyor will then produce two reports for you:

A full inspection report showing everything they inspected with condition report commentary, or the HHSRS ‘hazard’ relating to any defects seen and the severity of the hazard seen.

An ACTION report – detailing room-by-room exactly what action you must urgently take to avoid being at risk of prosecution.  We will also make suggestions for the other actions it would be wise for you to consider.

The report will include sections for you to annotate and sign off when the remedial actions have been taken.