Your property inspection may be missing the hazards

You inspect your property every six months.

You test the smoke alarms. You look under the sink for leaks. You check for damage, ask the tenant whether anything needs repairing and make sure the garden hasn’t got completely out of hand. Perhaps you take some photographs and make a few notes.

Everything looks reasonably well maintained, so you leave satisfied.

But have you looked for the things a Council Officer might notice?

The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) was substantially revised on 23^rd June 2026. There are now 21 hazards rather than 29, with several of the previous hazards combined.

That does not mean landlords should try to become HHSRS assessors. The government’s own guide says there is no requirement for landlords to become trained assessors, although they do need to keep their homes free of Category 1 hazards. A routine landlord inspection is not a formal HHSRS assessment, and completing a checklist doesn’t make it one.

But HHSRS does give us a useful way of thinking differently about our properties.

Stop looking only for things that are broken

Most of us naturally look for defects when we inspect. Is the tap leaking? Is the window broken? Does anything need repairing?

Those are sensible questions, but they aren’t quite the same as asking: could anything here cause someone harm?

That small change of question can make you notice things you’ve probably walked past many times before. Here are five examples.

1. The staircase

You walk up and down the stairs every time you inspect. The carpet is not torn. None of the treads are broken. The staircase feels solid, so you probably don’t give it another thought.

Look again. Is the handrail secure and easy to use? Is the staircase adequately lit? Are the steps even? Are there any trip points? Is there anything about the stairs or the area around them that could make a fall more likely, or its consequences more serious?

The problem doesn’t have to be a broken stair. It could be something that makes a fall more likely.

2. The bathroom

Damp and mould is probably already on your inspection list. You see a few black spots around the bathroom window. Do you clean them off, tell the tenant to ventilate better and move on?

Or do you ask why the mould is there? Is the extractor fan working properly? Is there adequate ventilation? Is there staining elsewhere? Could there be a leak? Has the tenant seen it before, or cleaned it off and watched it return?

The visible mould may be the symptom rather than the underlying problem.

While you’re in the bathroom, look beyond damp and mould. Is the floor slippery? Could somebody get in and out of the bath or shower safely? If they slipped, what would they instinctively grab? Try that question in your own bathroom. Something that looks like a convenient handhold may never have been designed to take someone’s weight.

Under the revised HHSRS, the former hazards for falls associated with baths and falls on level surfaces have been combined as Falls on the Level. One room can contain several quite different things worth noticing.

3. The upstairs window

The bedroom window opens and closes properly. There’s no rot, the glazing is sound and the locks work. On a conventional inspection sheet it probably gets a tick.

But how low is the sill? How far does the window open? Could a young child reach it? What is immediately outside? What would happen if somebody fell through it?

Nothing necessarily needs to be broken. The relevant HHSRS hazard is Falling Between Levels, and the risk comes from the design and arrangement of the property. That’s why an inspection based only on condition can miss things.

4. The perfectly good bedroom

Imagine a basement bedroom. It’s freshly decorated and the heating works. There are no signs of damp, and nothing needs repairing. But its only window faces a wall a short distance away and very little natural light gets in.

Would your inspection record anything? Possibly not, if you’re concentrating on repairs and condition. But Lighting and Obstructed Views is one of the 21 HHSRS hazards. The question isn’t simply whether the window works. You need to look at the room as the person living in it experiences it.

5. The things you can’t see

Some risks don’t announce themselves with a crack, stain or broken fitting. The revised HHSRS includes Indoor Air Pollutants, which brings together areas previously treated separately, such as combustion fumes, gases and chemical pollutants.

That does not mean a landlord should try to become a gas engineer, a ventilation specialist or an environmental health officer. Part of a good inspection is recognising when something needs investigating by somebody competent to do it. If something doesn’t look right, smells unusual, isn’t operating as expected or the tenant reports a recurring problem, record it and investigate.

Knowing that something needs further investigation is very different from trying to diagnose it yourself.

A simple way to think about your next inspection

I’m not suggesting landlords calculate HHSRS scores during routine inspections. But there’s a thought process worth borrowing. For anything you notice, ask:

1. What is the deficiency?
2. What hazard could it create?
3. Who could be harmed?
4. What could happen to them?
5. Does this need further investigation or action?

Take a loose handrail. Instead of recording “Loose handrail. Repair required.”, try “Loose handrail. Somebody using it for support could lose their balance and fall down the stairs. Repair required.” It’s a small difference, but you’re now recording why the repair matters rather than just noting a defect.

Record what you decided

Notes that say “Bathroom – OK” or “Slight mould – tenant advised” tell you very little six months later. A more useful note says: “Minor mould staining around bathroom window. Extractor operating. Tenant says staining has returned twice after cleaning. Further investigation arranged.”

That records what you saw, what the tenant told you, what you decided and what happens next. Photographs help too, particularly if you need to show later whether a condition has deteriorated or whether remedial work has fixed it. The purpose isn’t paperwork for its own sake. It’s a useful record of the property’s condition and of what you did when you spotted a potential problem.

Look at the property differently

The purpose of a routine inspection hasn’t changed. You still need to identify repairs, check the condition of the property and talk to your tenant. What may need to change is the way you look at and consider the property.

Do not just walk into each room asking yourself, “Is anything broken?” Ask one more question: “Is there anything here that could cause someone harm?”

You may be surprised by what you start noticing.

This article is intended as general information and isn’t a substitute for a formal HHSRS assessment or professional advice where required.

Peter Littlewood is a director of B-Informed, which provides training and practical guidance for landlords and letting agents.

Sources: GOV.UK, Landlord and agent guide to the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS); HHSRS Operating Guidance Part 2 (MHCLG, June 2026).