I read in the excellent Legal Action magazine that the government is late in publishing guidance to Local Authorities on the new Housing Health and Safety Rating System (“HHSRS”), which comes into force on 6 April. The Governments own published program provided for it to be distributed in January. Legal Action say it is not published but looking on the ODPM web-site, I see that guidance went online on 27 and 28 February, presumably after Legal Action went to press.
Still, not really good enough is it? The Local Authority officers have to go live with this stuff on 6 April, which is not long off. I wish them the best of luck!
My landlords employed a young lady recently qualified in HHSRS. Having struggled to get more than one small wheelie bin for our HMO of eight bedsits, I presented the problem to this young lady in hope that she would sort it out (I saw her regularly when I was paying my rent). After several months, the most she had come forth with was ‘it’s the council’s fault’, ‘we may issue a warning letter to all tenants about misuse of the dustbin’, and ‘I am going to ask the council to provide recycling bins for all your rooms’ (rooms already contained showers and kitchens and are not overly large). Finally, after months of trying I had the impudence to tell this young lady she was wrong about only needing one bin. That day I received (from her) a two-week notice. This was successfully challenged, to be followed by three invalid s21 notices, and two possession proceedings so far. The council ordered ‘more bins’ (in a letter, not an order) the month following the first notice. The council ordered ‘more bins’ in a letter some seven months later, and finally it was done, after fifteen months of tenancy and several lost months (diarised) of my time.
On a more positive note, I brought about an enforcement order for a bathroom radiator (there was previously none, and landlords refused to rectify) via the HHSRS rule against ‘excessive cold’. that helped the man of 59 next door who has emphysema.