Professional Support for Landlords and Housing Providers
At the same time, the revised Housing Health and Safety Rating System guidance requires landlords and housing professionals to consider a risk-based framework covering 21 potential housing hazards. Local authorities must act where a Category 1 hazard is identified and may take enforcement action in relation to Category 2 hazards.
These changes do not make responsible property management impossible, but they do make informal, poorly recorded or inadequately informed decision-making increasingly difficult to defend.
Guidance is available. The more serious problem is that general guidance cannot, by itself, provide the specialist knowledge required to:
- distinguish condensation from leaks, penetrating damp, thermal bridging and more complex moisture failures;
- evaluate vulnerability, health concerns and the potential seriousness of exposure;
- identify contamination that may extend beyond visible mould;
- select proportionate risk-reduction and remediation measures;
- control cross-contamination during building work;
- assess contractor competence;
- verify whether remediation has actually succeeded; and
- maintain the records needed to demonstrate timely, reasonable and evidence-based action.
The Housing Ombudsman upheld 71% of the complaints it determined during 2024–25. Damp and mould now account for approximately half of the Ombudsman’s cases, demonstrating that these are not isolated maintenance problems but major operational, governance and tenant-safety concerns.
Insurance can create an additional difficulty. Damp, mould, gradual deterioration and failures of maintenance may fall outside conventional property cover, while delayed action, inadequate records, ineffective remediation and resulting injury or property-damage allegations may increase liability and litigation exposure. Insurance should therefore never be treated as a substitute for competent investigation, documented decision-making and verified corrective action.
Specialist Support Based on More Than a Title
I am not simply presenting myself as another “mould expert.”
I am Jeff Charlton, an experienced and professionally qualified building forensics and indoor environmental practitioner. My work combines building pathology, environmental hygiene, contamination assessment, remediation, risk reduction, post-remediation verification, professional training and operational management support.
Building Forensics can assist landlords, housing associations, managing agents, insurers and their professional advisers with:
- Awaab’s Law and HHSRS compliance-assistance systems;
- damp, mould and building-condition investigation;
- tenant vulnerability and case-severity assessment;
- management procedures and response escalation;
- contractor and operative competence assessment;
- scopes of work, technical advice and remediation protocols;
- COSHH, containment and cross-contamination controls;
- post-remediation verification and failure assessment;
- remote environmental monitoring;
- professional training, mentoring and technical case support; and
- auditable evidence records for management, complaints, insurance and legal review.
Our role is not to promise automatic legal compliance or to replace formal legal, medical or statutory decision-making. It is to provide the specialist technical knowledge, evidence alignment and management support needed to make better-informed, proportionate and defensible decisions.
Please use the contact form to discuss your organisation’s requirements, or visit our professional library, technical resources and online store at buildingforensics.co.uk.
