Inventory Base Launches New HHSRS Risk Template

Inventory Base has spent years supporting agents and landlords with the inspection and reporting processes that underpin safe, compliant lettings.

With the Renters’ Rights Act due to land on 1 May 2026, one thing is becoming clear: the era of the informal “property walk-through” is ending.

Let’s be honest. Most inspections in the private rented sector still aren’t being carried out in the way local authorities actually assess housing safety. They’re often well-intentioned, but they’re rarely structured around the statutory hazard framework councils use when enforcement comes into play.

That framework is the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS).

And with the Renters’ Rights Act coming into force, it’s going to matter a lot more whether your risk assessment and inspection processes stand up to that model — or merely sit alongside it.

Because HHSRS isn’t guidance. It’s the legal test.

If a Category 1 hazard is identified, councils don’t get to shrug it off. Enforcement is mandatory.

Why This Matters Now

The latest English Housing Survey estimates around 2.1 million homes in England contain at least one Category 1 hazard. Private renters are more likely than owner occupiers to be living with serious risks.

That’s not a niche issue. It’s a sector-wide exposure problem.

As scrutiny tightens, the old approach — generic inspection notes, inconsistent reporting, hazards spotted too late — simply won’t hold up.

That’s why Inventory Base has launched a new HHSRS-compliant risk assessment template inside the platform. It’s designed to help agents and landlords inspect using the same risk logic local authorities apply.

Not as an add-on.
Not as a nice-to-have.
As the baseline for compliant property management.

What the Template Actually Does

The new template embeds the full HHSRS structure into day-to-day workflows, enabling agents and landlords to:

• Record hazards across all 29 statutory categories

• Apply likelihood and harm scoring aligned with official Operating Guidance

• Automatically determine Category 1 and Category 2 hazard bands

• Produce documentation that is consistent, defensible, and audit-ready

The aim is simple: move HHSRS from theory into operational reality.

Built Around Statutory Risk Logic

Siân Hemming-Metcalfe, Operations Director at Inventory Base, explains:

“HHSRS isn’t something you tack onto the end of an inventory as a tick-box. It’s the statutory risk assessment model that should sit at the heart of how a property is managed. It determines how hazards are identified, how they’re scored, how serious they are, and what happens next.

That means it should be feeding directly into work orders, remedial programmes, interim visits and ongoing compliance — not sitting in an inventory report or PDF that no one revisits.

If a property carries a serious hazard, that risk exists whether or not you’ve formally recognised it. So the assessment has to happen before a property ever enters an agent’s pipeline or is let to a tenant. Waiting until enforcement highlights the issue is too late.

We’ve built this template to make applying HHSRS simpler, structured and defensible for agents and landlords — but more importantly, to ensure the risk logic actually drives the management decisions that follow.”

The Direction of Travel Is Clear

The Building Research Establishment estimates serious housing hazards cost the NHS around £1.4 billion a year.

Poor housing carries a measurable financial and social cost — and tolerance for vague, inconsistent compliance is shrinking fast.

With May 2026 approaching, agents need to stop thinking in terms of one-off inspections and start building risk-led processes that hold up across the full property lifecycle.

Aligning inspections with statutory risk methodology is quickly becoming the baseline.

Agents who adjust early will be in a far stronger position than those still relying on generic templates — and a lot of hope.

Want to Know More?

Book a demo to see the HHSRS template in action and understand how statutory risk assessment works in practice inside Inventory Base.