"With the Renters’ Rights Act commencing in May 2026, scrutiny will intensify, and property managers need to be ready."
- Sian Hemming-Metcalfe - Inventory Base
Inventory Base has launched a new HHSRS-compliant inspection template to help landlords and managing agents align property inspections with the statutory framework used by local authorities, ahead of the Renters’ Rights Act coming into force on 1 May 2026.
The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), introduced under the Housing Act 2004, is the legal standard councils use to assess housing safety. Where inspectors identify a Category 1 hazard, enforcement action is mandatory.
The scale of potential exposure is substantial. Data from the English Housing Survey 2022–23 shows that around 9% of homes in England contain at least one Category 1 hazard, equivalent to roughly 2.1 million dwellings. Private renters are more likely than owner occupiers to live in homes with serious hazards, and the private rented sector now accounts for about 4.6 million households in England.
For landlords and managing agents, this shifts enforcement risk from a theoretical concern to a structural one embedded in day-to-day operations.
Inventory Base said its new template integrates the full HHSRS framework directly into inspection workflows. The tool allows users to:
record hazards across all 29 statutory HHSRS categories
apply structured likelihood and harm scoring in line with official Operating Guidance
automatically identify Category 1 and Category 2 hazard bands
generate consistent and defensible inspection documentation
Poor housing conditions also carry wider public costs. Research by the Building Research Establishment estimates that serious housing hazards cost the NHS about £1.4bn each year in treatment across England, underlining the importance of early identification and remedial action.
The HHSRS template is now available within the Inventory Base platform and can be used alongside check-ins, mid-term inspections, and compliance audits.
As regulatory scrutiny increases, aligning inspections with statutory risk methodology is becoming standard practice rather than a discretionary improvement.
“HHSRS is the framework councils use to decide whether a home is genuinely safe,” said Sián Hemming-Metcalfe, operations director at Inventory Base. “If landlords and agents aren’t inspecting against that same risk model, serious hazards can be missed, and that puts tenant health at risk long before enforcement ever enters the picture."
“With the Renters’ Rights Act commencing in May 2026, scrutiny will intensify, and property managers need to be ready. Structured HHSRS assessments will become a core part of responsible portfolio management, not only identifying risks, but managing them proactively across the full property lifecycle.”
The company said the template is intended to support more consistent inspection standards across portfolios and to reduce the likelihood of hazards going undetected as enforcement activity expands.
