From 1st May, Tenants have more power than they've ever had - are landlords ready?

Two weeks from now, the Renters' Rights Act comes into force in England. Most of the coverage has focused on the abolition of Section 21, the end of no-fault evictions. That's the headline. But there's a quieter provision that will have just as much practical impact, and it's one that far fewer people are talking about: the strengthening of tenants' ability to challenge the physical condition of their home.

As a building surveyor, this feels like the right moment to set out what that actually means in practice.

What is a Category 1 hazard?

The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is the framework that local authorities use to assess risk in residential properties. It scores 29 different hazard types from damp and mould, to electrical safety, to structural collapse, based on the likelihood and severity of harm to the most vulnerable occupant.

A Category 1 hazard is a score above 1,000 points. It means the risk is serious enough that the local authority doesn't just have the power to act, it has a legal duty to do so.

The most commonly identified Category 1 hazards in the private rented sector are excess cold, damp and mould growth, falls on stairs, electrical hazards, and fire. These are not unusual findings. Across much of the older housing stock that forms the backbone of the PRS, they turn up repeatedly.

What does this mean for tenants from 1st May?

The Renters' Rights Act doesn't change the HHSRS framework itself, but it fundamentally changes the power balance under which it operates. With Section 21 abolished, tenants who raise complaints about property conditions no longer risk receiving a retaliatory eviction notice in response. The fear that reporting a damp wall or a broken boiler could result in being asked to leave has, for many tenants, been a powerful reason to stay quiet.

That changes on 1^st May.

Tenants in privately rented properties, whether with an individual landlord or an institutional BTR operator, who believe their home contains a Category 1 hazard can report it to their local authority's housing enforcement team. The council then has a duty to inspect, and if the hazard is confirmed, a duty to take enforcement action including issuing an improvement notice or, in serious cases, a prohibition order.

Beyond the enforcement route, tenants can also apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a Rent Repayment Order, a mechanism that allows up to 12 months of rent to be repaid where a landlord has failed to deal with a hazard they were aware of.

What does survey evidence show?

Conditions that would score as Category 1 hazards are not hard to find. Poor insulation and heating systems that can't adequately warm the space, ageing consumer units, damp penetration that has been painted over rather than addressed. In many cases, properties carrying these conditions have been tenanted continuously, meaning occupants have been living with them, often without knowing they had any recourse.

What's changing is not the condition of the stock. It's the environment in which tenants discover and act on problems and the consequences for landlords who haven't addressed them.

A word to landlords and investors

For landlords who have deferred maintenance, the risk calculation has shifted. A tenant who becomes aware of their rights and the mechanisms now available to them is in a very different situation to what existed six months ago. The combination of strengthened tenure security, Rent Repayment Orders, and growing tenant awareness is creating real financial risk for those who haven't kept pace with the condition of their stock.

The practical questions landlords and investors should be asking themselves now are straightforward. Do you have a current, HHSRS-aligned understanding of the condition of your stock? Something that scores against the hazard categories that local authorities will use. If a tenant raises a complaint tomorrow, do you know what an inspector would find?

Beyond the physical condition, there's an operational question. If complaints do increase, and the expectation across the sector is that they will, do you have the capacity and the process to respond to them properly? Slow or dismissive responses to legitimate disrepair complaints are exactly the kind of behaviour that escalates into enforcement action or Rent Repayment Orders. A clear, documented complaints process and a willingness to act on findings isn't just good practice, it's now a basic risk management measure.

The broader picture

This isn't about taking sides. Tenants deserve safe homes - that's not a political statement - it's a basic standard. And most landlords, in my experience, aren't deliberately negligent; many simply don't know what they don't know about the condition of their own asset.

What May 1^st does is remove the conditions under which that gap could quietly persist. Knowledge of building condition is about to become genuinely consequential for both parties.