Stock, building, and EPC surveys

A stock condition survey is an inspection of the inside and outside of your home. These help us to assess the age and condition of each building element, so we can plan possible future improvements. Doing the survey also helps us to make sure all homes are safe and maintained, meeting the Barnsley Homes Standard.

EPCs tell us how energy efficient your home is and helps to give it a rating of efficiency. Like the stock condition survey, this helps us understand and plan improvements in the future. Once a survey is complete, the certificate produced is valid for ten years.

Building condition surveys are inspections of the external condition of your building. If there is a communal area within your building, surveyors will also survey the communal area.

The surveyor may complete the Stock Condition Survey, the EPC, or sometimes both. This will take around 30-45 minutes depending on the size of your property. The surveyor will need access to all rooms in your property. Don’t worry you won’t need to move any furniture. The surveys will be mainly a visual inspection of features, fixtures, and fittings, with some photographs taken.

Surveyors may walk around the perimeter of your building to conduct their survey; and in buildings with communal areas, may access the communal area to complete their survey.

Surveys can help to provide up-to-date information about the condition of your home. This makes sure your home is maintained and helps us identify any repairs, maintenance, and planned investment required.  

The above is applicable to buildings too.

You don’t need to do anything. Pennington Choices will write to you about next steps. If you need to speak to them about your appointment once they have written to you then please phone them on 0800 883 0334.

Please be assured like our own staff, Pennington Choices surveyors will always carry ID. To keep you safe please make sure you check the surveyor’s ID before they enter your home.

The outcomes from surveys are used as part of our annual improvement plans. We review the information collected from your home and if work is needed it will be placed on a future improvement programme. This could be several years in the future, depending on the assessed need. Click here for more information on our improvement programmes.

The survey doesn’t automatically mean you’ll be getting anything new in your home. The purpose is to look at all council-owned properties and assess the condition of the home. We have a wide range of different properties, and some are newer than others. We’ll let you know if we’ve identified any future improvements to your home.

We’re unable to feedback on individual surveys, but if works are identified we’ll make you aware of any future improvements in your home in advance of a work schedule. This will usually be at least 12 months in advance of works commencing.

No – don’t wait for the survey before contacting us about anything you already know about. If you need immediate repairs, please contact the Repairs hotline on 01226 787878. Any health and safety risks identified by Pennington Choices surveyors are fed back to us immediately and our Repairs Team will act on any issue identified.

Accessing your home helps us identify any repairs, maintenance, and planned investment required in your home. We understand that not everybody wants their home surveying, and we accept some tenants may want to refuse surveying. Please contact us on 01226 787878 if you do not wish to have your home surveyed.

We may at a future date consider the options available for action to access homes for surveying purposes.