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The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHRS) is the method used for assessing health and safety risks within residential properties.

Any residential premises, including its structure, access areas, yard, gardens and outbuildings can be assessed for its safety to any potential occupier or visitor. When a property is inspected by us, we'll identify any hazards within the property that are likely to lead to harm whilst the property is in use.

If any hazards are identified, we'll assess the seriousness of harm that they may cause and decide what type of action should be taken, such as:

  • serving an improvement notice requiring essential repairs or improvements to reduce or remove the hazard
  • making a prohibition order, to close all or part of a building or restricting the number of occupiers to reduce or remove a hazard
  • taking emergency action to deal with any imminent risk to the occupiers from a severe hazard
  • serving a Hazard Awareness Notice that informs that a hazard is present.

We charge £401.78 (including VAT) when we serve any of these notices. This charge covers our costs for:

  • time spent visiting the premises
  • time spent drafting the notice or order
  • our administration costs in serving the notice or order and payments.

Notices or orders can be appealed at the Residential Property Tribunal.