Landlords whose properties have serious defects will be liable for civil penalties of up to £40,000 under revised health and safety standards which take effect later this month.

The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is the risk-based assessment tool that councils use to identify hazards in residential properties which is being updated for the first time since its introduction in 2006.

The revised framework aims to make enforcement more consistent, in a climate where many councils are already starting to skip warnings and move straight to penalties under the Renters’ Rights Act.

While the old HHSRS was notoriously complex, the overhaul should help environmental health officers, tenants, councillors, and tribunals better understand a property’s failings and potentially give landlords less room to argue technicalities.

Minimum

The new HHSRS system doesn’t alter the minimum property standard but will affect how hazards are described, scored, and categorised during inspections.

Any hazard will now be categorised as high, medium or low – replacing the more complex A-J rating system. High risk hazards - known as category one - will continue to trigger councils’ duty to act, although they can still use their discretion when it comes to dealing with medium or low risk issues known as category two.

The ‘risk of harm’ rating has also changed, from the existing one to four levels to new ‘extreme, severe, serious, and moderate’ categories.

List

The list of hazards has been condensed, with some categories combined to bring the total number down from 29 to 21. The fire hazard definition previously only covered fire and smoke but has been expanded to cover exposure to uncontrolled fire and associated smoke and fumes, an explosion, or the collapse of the whole or part of a building as a result of fire or an explosion.

The NRLA warns that this means a wider range of fire-related risks in a rental property could now trigger the requirement for a council to consult the fire and rescue authority before taking enforcement action.

The new system comes into force in England on 23rd June.

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