Private sector landlords and tenants

How can we help?

The Residential Environmental Health Team is responsible for investigating, maintaining, enforcing, and improving housing standards and conditions in the private housing sector. We can help people who are private tenants in Ashfield with things like getting repairs done and making sure that their landlords deal with housing defects (hazards) properly.

The Residential Environmental Health Team make sure that landlords and owners of properties in the Ashfield district meet their duties relating to housing standards.

These duties include:

• Making sure that houses and flats that are rented out are safe and free from hazards.
• Conducting housing repairs promptly, especially where these are urgent.
• Providing enough Smoke and Carbon Monoxide alarms and repairing or replacing these if necessary
• Providing an Energy Performance Certificate and only setting up new tenancies if the EPC rating is E or above (this will also apply to existing tenancies from April 2020) - this is called the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES)
• Providing Safe Gas and Electrical supplies
• Lettings and Management Agents joining an approved redress scheme.

The Environmental health residential team provides advice and support to landlords and agents so that they know what is expected of them.

We will in most circumstances try to help tenants and landlords sort out issues between themselves, where possible.

We are here to ensure there is a safe, accessible, and well managed private rented sector in Ashfield.

We do believe that the best way to do this is by working with landlord and tenants, however If it is not possible to sort issues out informally, the Environmental Health Residential Team may take enforcement action.