Understanding the Inspection Programme
As Peterborough City Council's delivery partner for their Selective Licensing scheme, Home Safe will be conducting inspections of properties within the designated area. This page provides useful information to help licence holders prepare for the first inspection programme which will run for two years.
About the inspection schedule
The Selective licensing scheme is a five-year scheme.
Under Peterborough City Council's scheme, there are two inspection programmes. Each inspection programme will run for two years.
The two inspection programmes will be referred to as Inspection Programme 1 (IP1) & Inspection Programme 2 (IP2).
Inspection programme 1 will commence September 2024 and last until August 2026.
The inspection team
Home Safe's team of five Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) trained inspectors, all local to Peterborough, will deliver the inspection programme. They have the capacity to deliver the full inspection schedule within the scheme duration.
The inspectors are instructed to carry out a property inspection based on the criteria set in direct partnership with Peterborough City Council. The outcome of which is what creates your property report.
Booking inspections
Home Safe must follow an access procedure approved by Peterborough City Council.
Home Safe provide an online booking system where all of our inspectors calendars will be available to access online 24hrs a day, 7 days a week.
In the first instance, your nominated point of contact will be sent an email inviting them to book their inspection at a time and date that suits them, this is done by clicking on the link provided in the email.
- IMPORTANT - Your "Inspection point of contact" details must be current and kept updated where required. You can do this by logging in to your portal, selecting 'Edit property' and then updating your inspection point of contact.
- You do not need to request an inspection, your property inspector will contact your nominated point of contact when we are ready to schedule your property inspection.
Preparing for inspection
You can download a property checklist detailing the safe and legal standard your property should meet.
Download the property checklist
Communicating with your tenants
When selecting the date for your inspection, it's important that you have this date agreed with your tenant.
- Confirm the date and time slot booked. Consider sending a reminder nearer the inspection.
- Remind tenants to check the inspector ID prior to entry. All Home Safe inspectors carry ID that can be verified by phone.
- Provide access to all rooms and meters during inspection. Inspections cannot be marked as complete if full access had not been possible.
Understanding your report
Reports are sent via email to the licence holder and any associated agents within 24 hours of inspection, in most cases this is usually the same day as inspection.
The report itself is attached in the email along with a link that allows you to send photographic evidence of any remedial work required for issues graded as "Potentially enforceable".
Priority grading
Your report will highlight any issues identified during inspection.
Issues identified are graded as one of the following:
- ADVISORY: You "DO NOT" need to contact us but we strongly advise you to conduct remedial works in a timely manner to avoid the issue(s) becoming more serious.
- POTENTIALLY ENFORCEABLE: If there are no imminent danger issues "YOU NEED" to submit evidence of remediation within 21 days for any potentially enforceable issues.E.g. Photograph or invoice of completed works.All evidence must be submitted using the link provided in the email that accompanied your report.
- IMMINENT DANGER: You "DO NOT" need to contact us, PCC will be notified immediately and follow up on all reports containing "Imminent Danger" issues.We strongly advise you to conduct remedial works immediately. As your property contains "Imminent Danger" PCC will deal with this report along with any "Potentially Enforceable" issues identified.
Example Inspection Report
When you receive your report the cover page will contain all the information you require to respond to any issues highlighted in your report.
- This information will confirm what action is required should any "Advisory", "Potentially enforceable" or "Imminent danger" issues be documented within the report.
- Your report will contain all the questions answered during your property inspection.
- The responses will show in green for a positive response where "Yes" has been answered, and red for a negative response where "No" has been answered.
- Your report has a basic summary page, referred to as "flagged" items", this page details all issues identified during inspection.
- You will then need to read through your report in order to understand the priority grading assigned to the identified issue. PROPERTY INSPECTION REPORT