Rented Housing Standards

Housing, Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

The rating system was introduced by the Housing Act 2004 and it replaced the fitness standard.  It provides a system to enable risks to be assessed within a property.

Housing conditions within properties can result in hazards to the occupiers of those properties and also visitors to the premises. Some hazards can affect all ages of population and other hazards have more of a detrimental effect on a specific age group e.g. the young or the elderly.  There are 29 separate hazards listed.

HHSRS Operating Guidance

Tenant - Overcrowding

Living in overcrowded conditions can affect:

• families
• health
• educational achievement
• performance at work
• relationships within the home

If your accommodation is too small for your household you may, by law, be considered to be living in overcrowded conditions.

Your home may be legally overcrowded if there is not enough space or rooms for the number of people who live in the property.

There are currently two applicable standards in force:

1.     the statutory overcrowding standard under the Housing Act 1985
2.     the crowding and space standard, assessed under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System

1. Statutory Overcrowding - Housing Act 1985

Overcrowding can be caused by too many people living in a dwelling, and depends on the size of the habitable rooms.

If two people of the opposite sex have to sleep in the same room the accommodation will be overcrowded unless the two people are:

• a married or cohabiting couple, or
• at least one occupant is under ten years old.

The number of people of the same sex - unless they are a same sex couple - who can sleep in one room is restricted by the size of a room within the dwelling.

The amount of space in each room

Rooms that are counted as space for sleeping include living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms and the living area of an open-plan kitchen/living room. For the space and floor area calculations:

• children under one year old are discounted (0 persons)
• children aged from one to 10 count as a half a person
• anyone aged over 10 counts as 1 person

As a general rule:

1 room = 2 people
2 rooms = 3 people
3 rooms = 5 people
4 rooms = 7.5 people
5 or more rooms = 2 people for each room.

The floor area of a room also determines how many people can sleep in it:

· floor area 110 sq feet (10.2 sq metres approx) = 2 people
· floor area 90 - 109 sq ft (8.4 - 10 sq m approx) = 1.5 people
· floor area 70 - 89 sq ft (6.5 - 8.3 sq m approx) = 1 person
· floor area 50 - 69 sq ft (4.6 - 6.4 sq m approx) = 0.5 people.

2. Crowding and Space Hazard - HHSRS

Introduced in April 2006 under the Housing Act 2004 the HHSRS assesses the deficiencies of a home in terms of the impact on the occupiers. Local authorities use the system to assess properties for 29 health and safety hazards, one of which is crowding and space. The HHSRS Operating Guidance outlines the ideal where, depending on the gender mix:

“a dwelling with one bedroom is suitable for up to two people regardless of age; two bedrooms for up to four people; three for up to six people; and four for up to seven people. Living rooms and kitchens are also considered. Whether a dwelling is actually overcrowded depends on the age and circumstances of the family in it.”

A dwelling may not match the ideal, but unless the hazard is a high-scoring Category 1, the authority’s decision to act is discretionary.

If you think you or your family are living in overcrowded conditions, contact us and we will try to help you. We may be required to remedy 'statutory overcrowding' through the service of a legal notice on the property owner.

The Decent Home Standard

For a home to be categorised as a ‘decent home’ it must satisfy all of the following four criteria:

• It must be in a reasonable state of repair

• It must meet the current statutory minimum standard for housing
  i.e. it must be free of any Category 1 hazards, as set out In the Health and Safety Rating System (Category 1 hazards are those considered serious enough to trigger a duty on the Local Authority to take enforcement action)

• It must have reasonably modern facilities and services
  

• It must provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort

It should be noted that the Decent Homes Standard is a minimum and Landlords should strive to achieve a higher standard than this. For example, the condition of a kitchen may become unacceptable before the end of its expected lifetime, therefore would still need repairing or replacing.

A Decent Home: Definition and guidance for implementation