Stock condition survey, defined: a component-by-component inspection of a landlord's homes that produces the data behind the investment plan and Decent Homes compliance
A stock condition survey is a structured visual inspection of a social landlord's housing stock that records, for each home, the condition and estimated remaining life of the main building components: roof, external walls, windows, doors, kitchen, bathroom, heating, electrics and so on. It also captures the information needed to assess the home against the Decent Homes Standard and the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, and often an energy rating.
The definition matters because the survey is the evidence base for money. A thirty-year investment plan, the timing of kitchen and roof replacement programmes, and the landlord's statement to its regulator that it knows the condition of its homes all rest on this data.
How a stock condition survey works
Landlords run the survey as a rolling programme, with the sector norm being every home once in five years, and many landlords now aiming at a full 100 percent survey rather than a sample. A surveyor visits the home, usually for between twenty and forty-five minutes, and works through a fixed template:
- Each component is given a condition rating, a quantity and an estimated remaining life.
- Each room and elevation is photographed, and every photo is referenced to the component it shows.
- Decent Homes criteria are checked: free of serious hazards, in a reasonable state of repair, with reasonably modern facilities, and with reasonable thermal comfort.
- Hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System are noted, damp and mould among them.
- Energy data (insulation, heating type, glazing) is recorded for an energy performance estimate.
The data goes into the asset management system, where the remaining-life figures roll up into replacement programmes and cost forecasts. The RICS and the National Housing Federation publish guidance on a standard survey format so that data is comparable between landlords.
What the Decent Homes Standard has to do with it
The Decent Homes Standard is the minimum condition a social home in England must meet. The survey is the only practical way to know, across thousands of homes, how many fail it and why: a kitchen past its notional age, a bathroom past its age, a roof at the end of its life, or a hazard that needs removing. The percentage of non-decent homes is reported to the Regulator of Social Housing and is watched closely by boards and councillors, so the survey has to be defensible: dated, photographed and consistent between surveyors.
Stock condition survey example: the 1970s terrace
A housing association surveys a 1970s three-bedroom terraced house as part of its five-year cycle. The surveyor records the kitchen units as installed in 2009 with a remaining life of three years, the windows as double glazed from 2004 with ten years left, and the roof covering as original with two years left. The bathroom shows black mould around the window reveal; it is photographed with the extractor fan and the trickle vent in frame, and the mould is logged as a potential hazard for the damp and mould team.
The outcome is three separate actions. The roof moves into next year's programme, the kitchen into the year after, and the mould goes to repairs now rather than waiting for the tenant to complain. Without the survey the roof would have been found when it leaked.
What a stock condition survey does not do, and the mistakes landlords make
It does not test services. The surveyor notes that a boiler exists and how old it is; the gas engineer certifies it. Electrical condition comes from the periodic electrical report, not the survey.
It does not diagnose. A surveyor who sees staining records it and photographs it. Whether it is condensation, penetrating damp or a leak may need a separate damp survey.
It is not a repairs inspection. Urgent items get flagged and passed on, but the purpose is planning, not fixing.
The mistakes: surveying a sample and extrapolating to homes nobody has entered in a decade; letting the data age past five years so the investment plan is built on guesses; no-access homes quietly dropped from the programme instead of pursued; inconsistent condition ratings between surveyors; and photographs stored on a device rather than against the component record, so nobody can later check the rating against what the surveyor saw.
Where the survey record goes
The completed survey lives in the asset management system against the property's entry in the asset register: component data, ratings, photographs and the date and name of the surveyor. It feeds the investment plan, the Decent Homes return and the landlord's evidence to its regulator that it has an accurate and up-to-date understanding of its homes. The individual visit sits alongside the void inspection and the routine property inspection as one of the three main condition records a social landlord holds on a home.
Venta Capture, a product of VentaVid, is used to fill the gaps a five-year programme leaves, in particular no-access homes and quick condition updates between visits: the tenant is sent a secure, personal capture link, follows the guided steps in the mobile browser with no app (kitchen units, bathroom, windows, any damp, each as its own photo or video step), and the submission arrives timestamped and digitally sealed for the surveyor to review against the component record. Details at the Venta Capture pages.
In practice: see how field service teams use Venta Capture.