HHSRS 2026: the 21 hazards and the High, Medium and Low bands, as a check for each let

Since 23 June 2026 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) in England has 21 hazards, down from 29, and every hazard score falls into one of three bands: High (1,000 or more), Medium (100 to under 1,000) or Low (under 100). A hazard in the High band is a Category 1 hazard, and the council must act on it. A hazard in the Medium or Low band is Category 2, and the council may act.

The change came in through the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/571), made on 1 June 2026. This guide starts with the list of 21 hazards, in the order the new operating guidance numbers them. It then works through how a score is reached using the guidance's own figures, and turns the government's new baseline indicators into a walk-round check for each let.

It covers England. Wales has its own HHSRS regulations, and the June 2026 changes were made to the English ones only.

The 21 hazards

The table follows the numbering in Part 1 of the operating guidance (June 2026). Schedule 1 to the 2005 Regulations, which is the law, describes each hazard under its own paragraph numbers, so damp and mould growth is hazard 11 in the guidance and paragraph 1 in the Schedule. Hazards 1 to 8 fall under protection against accidents, 9 to 15 under physiological requirements, 16 and 17 under protection against infection, and 18 to 21 under psychological requirements.

An assessor scores each hazard for the occupier that regulation 6(7) of the 2005 Regulations names for it, whoever really lives there. For most hazards that is the age group most at risk. A flat let to a couple in their thirties is still scored for stairs as if someone aged 60 or over lived in it. Crowding and space is the one exception: it is judged on the people who actually live in the home.

The third column follows the regulation, which in places sets the age group differently from Part 2 of the guidance. The last column is the score Part 2 gives an average home in England for that hazard.

Five hazards already score Medium in an average home: falls on the level, falling on stairs, excess cold, radon, and collisions, entrapment and ergonomics. A Medium score in an average home is normal. The line the council must act on is 1,000.

What changed on 23 June 2026

The line between the two categories is still a score of 1,000, and the council's duty is the same: it must act on a Category 1 hazard and may act on a Category 2 one. What moved is the scale behind the score. SI 2026/571 replaced the scale points for likelihood and for the spread of harm in regulation 6, and the new guidance updated the national averages, so the same home is not certain to score exactly what it did before.

Thirteen of the old hazards became five:

• Falls on the level joins falls on level surfaces with falls associated with baths and showers.
• Fire and explosions is the old fire hazard and the old explosions hazard in one.
• Collisions, entrapment and ergonomics joins collision and entrapment with the position and operability of amenities.
• Indoor air pollutants joins carbon monoxide and fuel combustion products, uncombusted fuel gas, biocides and volatile organic compounds.
• Domestic hygiene joins domestic hygiene, pests and refuse, food safety, and personal hygiene, sanitation and drainage.

The new rules apply to an inspection begun on or after 23 June 2026. Regulation 10 first said 22 June, and a correcting instrument (SI 2026/629) changed it to 23 June. An inspection begun before then was scored on the old system.

The guidance also brought in baseline indicators: a numbered checklist in Appendix 1 of Part 2, written for people with no HHSRS training. They are not minimum standards and they are not law. A home that misses one has a deficiency, which an assessor may go on to score. The check later in this guide is built from them.

How a score is worked out

An assessor scores two things for each hazard, both looking 12 months ahead:

1. 1Likelihood: the chance that someone from that age group comes to harm that needs medical attention, chosen from 16 scale points set in regulation 6. They run from 1 in 5,000, which covers anything rarer than 1 in 3,700, up to 1 in 1, which covers 1 in 1.5 or likelier.
2. 2Spread of harm: how those harms would split across four classes, as percentages that add up to 100.

Each class carries a fixed weight: Extreme 10,000, Severe 1,000, Serious 300, Moderate 10. The score is each weight times the likelihood times that class's percentage, added together. The likelihood goes in as a fraction (1 in 100 is 0.01) and the percentage as a whole number (10 for 10%).

One window latch, two scores

Part 1 of the guidance describes a large side-hung window with a low sill and a loose latch, which a young child could open and fall from. It gives a likelihood of 1 in 100 in both versions and changes only what lies below. Put through the formula:

Same latch, same chance of a fall. The drop below the window moves the hazard from Low to Category 1. The baseline indicator for it is a restrictor that keeps the opening under 100mm.

Cold crosses 1,000 long before damp does

The harm spreads differ so much between hazards that the 1,000 line sits in very different places. Part 2 gives excess cold a spread of 30% Extreme, 5% Severe, 20% Serious and 45% Moderate, and damp and mould growth 0%, 1%, 10% and 89%. With those spreads:

Cold is scored for someone aged 65 or over, and a home about three times likelier than average to harm them reaches Category 1. Damp and mould is scored for a child under 15, and reaches it only at around a 1 in 3 chance of harm that needs medical attention within the year. The guidance itself names excess cold and falls on the level as hazards that tend to score high across the country, so heating, insulation and draughts deserve the first look at every let.

These figures show how the formula behaves, not what a council will score. The assessor scores the actual home. For physiological hazards such as excess cold, Part 1 of the guidance says the spread of harm should rarely or never be moved; for accidents, like the window above, it is changed more often.

A damp problem under 1,000 is still a Category 2 hazard the council can act on. It may still be a repair you owe under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, and it counts when judging whether the home is fit for human habitation.

A check to run at each let

No law asks a landlord to score their own homes. Full scoring is for trained assessors, and GOV.UK's landlord and agent guide says there is no obligation to run a baseline self-assessment. The same guide says landlords need to keep their homes free of Category 1 hazards, and the baseline indicators are the government's own list of what to look at.

The table picks fourteen areas from the indicators, with each one's number in Part 2, Appendix 1.

To take the check on a visit, the inspection checklist builder makes a printable room-by-room checklist, with a line for the written notice the visit needs.

Some of this is also law in its own right, whatever any score says: a gas safety check every 12 months (gas safety guide), an electrical inspection at least every five years (EICR guide), a smoke alarm on each storey with living accommodation and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker (alarm rules). The baseline indicator for carbon monoxide asks for more than the alarm law does: hard-wired with battery back-up, and a gas cooker counts.

What the council can do

When a council finds a Category 1 hazard it must take one of the courses of action in section 5 of the Housing Act 2004: an improvement notice, a prohibition order, a hazard awareness notice, emergency remedial action, an emergency prohibition order, a demolition order or a clearance area. For a Category 2 hazard it may act, and it can still serve an improvement notice (section 12).

Three things raise the cost of a hazard left in place:

• A penalty when the council first acts. Since 22 June 2026, a council in England that must act on a Category 1 hazard in a privately rented home can also impose a penalty of up to £7,000 when it first takes that action, if it thinks it would have been reasonably practicable for the responsible person to remove the hazard (section 6A, brought into force for Category 1 hazards only by SI 2026/638). The responsible person is whoever an improvement notice would be served on, such as the licence holder or the landlord. The common parts of a block of flats are outside it.
• Ignoring an improvement notice. Failing to comply is an offence unless there was a reasonable excuse (section 30). For offences from 1 May 2026, the council can impose a civil penalty of up to £40,000 instead of prosecuting (section 249A), and a rent repayment order can reach two years' rent (section 44 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016).
• The tenant's own claim. A rented home must be fit for human habitation, and for a home in England any hazard prescribed under the HHSRS is one of the matters fitness is judged on (section 10 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985). That sits beside the repairing duty in section 11, and the same defects can lead to a disrepair claim.

Announcing the £7,000 penalty on 21 June 2026, the government estimated that around 10% of private rented homes have at least one Category 1 hazard (GOV.UK news).

Awaab's Law and the Decent Homes Standard

Both build on the HHSRS hazard list, and neither replaces it.

• Awaab's Law has bound social landlords since 27 October 2025 (SI 2025/1042). It does not yet apply to private landlords: the Renters' Rights Act 2025 provides for it, and a government consultation on how it should work for private tenancies runs from 9 October to 18 December 2026. The timescales and what to do now are in the Awaab's Law guide.
• The Decent Homes Standard is planned for private rentals from 2035 and is not in force for them yet. Its first test is a home free of Category 1 hazards. The other criteria are in the Decent Homes guide.

Damp and mould has its own guide too: who is responsible for damp and mould.

Keeping the record

A council assessor records the deficiencies, photographs and measurements behind every score. The landlord's own record of the same home is what shows when a hazard was found, reported and fixed.

For each let, keep:

1. 1The date of each check and the indicators looked at
2. 2Dated photos of anything that fell short
3. 3The repair raised, who did it, and the date it was finished
4. 4The written notice of each visit given to the tenant (access and notice rules)

Every rule and figure in this guide was read on legislation.gov.uk and GOV.UK on 25 October 2026. The sources are listed below.

Run the check inside the let. LetCompliance runs the let from one login: the tenancy, rent and arrears, repairs and inspections, notices and the landlord's tax. An inspection there is a dated visit with photos from your phone and a checklist that starts with alarms, electrics, heating and damp, finished as a report PDF. Add the indicators above as your own questions once and they appear on every future visit. The inspection day planner books several visits at once and sends each household written notice, and a problem you find can be logged as a repair, with a priority and a response clock. Plan the next inspection