Knowing what makes a good home can be a difficult assessment to make, and proving the quality of a property to a prospective tenant can sometimes be very subjective. The RLA has introduced useful tools such as our Safe & Secure tool to help landlords, however RCT have launched an voluntary accreditation scheme which will show the very best properties in the area.

Each property will be assessed to an agreed standard of quality, and an award attributed to the property. There will be 4 levels of award to reflect the quality of the property and its compliance with legislative requirements, with each standard of property having a number of stars (i.e. one star, two star…)

Landlords are able to self-assess their properties and match them to 1 of the 4 set standards. Where a property is assessed as meeting the basic and intermediate levels of the PAS the landlord will be required to return the completed assessment to the councils Public Health and Protection or Housing Strategy departments for administration.

Where a property has been assessed as complying with the highest standard (4 and 5 star) there will be a requirement to support the assessment by means of an inspection by the Public Health and Protection team before full registration is completed. Further, a proportion of one and two star properties will also be inspected.

The main benefit to landlords will be the recognition of the quality of their property and the housing management they provide, which may help both attracting tenants and competing in a highly competitive rental market.

If you would like to find out more about the RCT property accreditation scheme, you can visit the webpage here to download all of the information and conduct your own assessment.