Stock Condition surveys
Our Housing Building Surveyors team carry out a survey at least every five years to assess the condition of our homes. This is called a stock condition survey. If your home is due to be inspected, we will contact you in advance, usually by letter, to advise you of your appointment date.
If you've got an appointment booked, information below has details of what you can expect.
During the survey we'll update our records for your home to help us to plan future work.
It is a regulatory requirement that we complete these surveys, and it is a term of your Tenancy Agreement that you allow us access. If you fail to do so we could take enforcement action against you.
About the survey
Your home is regularly surveyed by our Housing Building Surveyors team to make sure it’s in a good condition. They will take a look at the condition of fixtures and fittings in your home and make a note of where work may be needed to improve them.
We’ll complete a survey on your home at least every five years.
It’s important for us to inspect your home so that we can help keep you safe and so we know what condition our stock is in.
Our stock condition survey looks at the age and condition of your home. This helps us work out when certain areas, like windows, roofs, bathrooms and kitchens, might need to be replaced.
We also carry out a health and safety risk assessment. This helps us check your home for any risks to you, your family, or people who might visit you. If our inspectors find anything that needs to be fixed, we’ll book in a time to get the work carried out.
The full survey will take around one and a half hours. If your time is limited, the inspector can inspect the inside of the house first, and then the exterior afterwards.
Inspectors will bring their Darlington Borough Council photo ID, ladder, and data recording devices. They’ll also wear shoe covers if you request this.
The appointment is solely to review the condition of your home – it is not about checking up on you or your family. It’s important that we review the main elements of your home, so that we can schedule in any work needed in the years to come.
We’ll need to view all internal and external areas of your home, including any loft space.
We’ll be looking in your rooms to collect information relating to major home elements, such as your kitchen and bathroom.
The survey also covers the home’s structure (roof, windows and doors), so we’ll need access to all of these areas as well.
As part of the survey the inspector will be required to take various photos of both internal and external areas of your property.
No, the technical inspector visiting you will talk you through the process and some of the findings of the survey.
They cannot confirm any major replacement work until funding becomes available, so we won’t give a definitive replacement date for anything during the survey.
The information we gather will be entered into a database and used to plan a future programme of works. When your home is due for renewal work, we’ll write to you about what happens next.
No, it is a term of your Tenancy Agreement that you will allow us access to carry out inspections, surveys and repairs.
If you have any questions or concerns, or you have special access requirements for your home we can discuss these with you and come to an arrangement prior to the survey. We will be as flexible and adaptable as possible.
Yes, if your property is due for major works we will carry out another survey but this will only invl9ved the rooms affected and not the whole house, if you are due a new kitchen and bathroom we will need to inspect those rooms specifically.
You can find out more information on improvements that we carry out to your home by visiting the Investing in your Home page [internal link].