Landlords’ Responsibilities

From a Landlords prospective, HHSRS can be expensive where a situation arises that major capital investment is required.

The council inspectors criteria of assessment is solely about the risks to health and safety of tenant and visitors . The feasibility, cost or extent of any remedial action is irrelevant to the assessment.

Councils can make a charge for the cost of carrying out inspections that lead to enforcement action. They can also claim the costs of works if they are obliged to do the work themselves.

With regards, HHSRS the Landlords' responsibility is defined as:

Dwellings, as well as providing protection from the environment, should be capable of being occupied safely and healthily by a range of households with a spectrum of lifestyles. In addition, dwellings should meet the needs of a wide range of households whose members may include the elderly or the very young. In some cases, occupiers, through their activities and the furniture, furnishings, fixtures and fittings they may introduce, can increase or reduce the likelihood of a hazardous occurrence and the severity of harm from any such occurrence. It is not always possible to apportion the contribution deficiency makes to the likelihood of an occurrence and the contribution made by the behaviour of the occupants.

The Rating System is primarily concerned with those matters which can properly be considered the responsibility of the owner (or landlord) even where the dwelling is occupied by the owner. This means that it is necessary to distinguish between those elements of a dwelling for which responsibility lies with the dwelling owner (or landlord) and those for which responsibility lies with the user (the occupier)

The issue of the division of responsibility between landlord and occupier in unfurnished residential lettings has been subject to considerable Parliamentary and judicial scrutiny for well over a century. Guidance, which is not intended to be conclusive, based on the results of this scrutiny.