Housing Act 2004
The Housing Act 2004 is a UK Act of Parliament which was introduced to replace the Housing Fitness Standard with the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS).
The HHSRS is a risk-based assessment system used by environmental health officers (EHOs) to assess the likelihood and severity of 29 categories of potential health and safety hazards in residential housing (including fire). It can be used in private or social rented housing as well as owner-occupied housing, and is intended to help local authorities identify and protect against potential risks to health and safety resulting from deficiencies in dwellings.
For more information, see Housing Health and Safety Rating System.
The Act also introduced a requirement for some houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) to be licensed by local authorities and provided the legal framework for tenancy deposit schemes which were intended to ensure good practice relating to tenants’ deposits held by landlords during the course of their tenancy.
The Act also created Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs) and made provision for home information packs (HIPs) in connection with the sale of residential properties (which were subsequently phased out in 2007).
For more information see: Home information packs and Empty Dwelling Management Orders.
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