Decent Homes Standard

The government's Decent Homes Standard

The Decent Homes Standard (DHS) is a set of minimum standards, made by the UK government, that social housing landlords must adhere to. This is to make sure homes are safe and in good condition and meet a minimum standard of quality and safety.

For a home to be "decent," it must not have any serious hazards, as defined by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), must be fit for people to live in, be in good repair, have valid gas and electrical safety certificates, and meet energy efficiency standards.

The new standard aims to create a consistent minimum level of safety and quality in all rented homes. Tenants will have more rights to challenge poor conditions, and local councils will have more power to enforce the rules. The new rules include stricter requirements for dealing with damp and mould, ensuring heating and ventilation systems are energy efficient, and allowing councils to issue fines for serious breaches.

You can view the government's definition and guidance of a decent home on their website.

The key areas to meeting the standard are below.

To comply with the DHS, your home must meet the following criteria:

• Serious health and safety hazards: be free from serious health and safety hazards, such as damp, mould, fire, and electrical hazards.
• State of repair: be in a reasonable state of repair, with no key components deteriorating to the point of failure.
• Modern facilities: have modern facilities and services, including updated kitchens and bathrooms where needed.
• State of insulation: provide effective insulation and a reasonable level of thermal comfort.
• Adequate heating: provide adequate heating and insulation to keep you warm.

Your home must be in a reasonable state of repair.

The guidelines say that your home is not in a reasonable state of repair when:

• one or more ‘key building components’ (such as roofs, outside walls and heating systems) are old and because of their condition need replacing or major repair.
• two or more ‘other building components’ (such as individual kitchens and bathrooms) are old and because of their condition need replacing or major repair.

Your home must have reasonably modern facilities and services.

The guidelines say that your home does not meet this standard if it does not have three or more of the following:

• a kitchen that is 20 years old or less
• a kitchen with adequate space and layout
• a bathroom that is 30 years old or less
• an appropriately located bathroom and toilet (for example, these must both be indoors)
• adequate insulation from outside noise
• adequate size and layout of shared entrance areas for blocks of flats.

Your home must provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort.

This means your home should have efficient heating and effective insulation that protects you from excess cold.

Efficient heating can include gas, oil, LPG or solid fuel programmable central heating, electric storage heaters, warm air systems, or underfloor heating systems.

How we monitor the decency of your home

We follow the government Decent Homes guidelines when checking the condition of homes and deciding what work they might need to meet the necessary standards.

We carry out hundreds of condition surveys annually and use this information to plan any improvement works needed.

We also have our own set of service standards, which includes repairs and maintenance, which we follow. You can read our service standards here.

If you think your home doesn’t meet the Decent Homes Standard, and we haven’t already been in touch to confirm when works are being carried out, get in touch with us.