As part of our, and hopefully your, commitment to continuing improvement in student housing standards Unipol  are very keen to promote accreditation both to landlords and to students and we will be advising students strongly to give priority to accredited landlords and accredited landlords will come up first on the website listings.

Unipol will inspect a sample of your properties to ensure that your self-declaration is accurate and the following procedures will apply: 

• all new applicants for membership  of the Code will have at least one property inspected prior to the landlord being admitted, within 12 weeks of the application being made, on a ratio of 1 in 3 properties. If the inspection/s reveals any problems then a higher sample of properties is inspected and, in some cases, all proprieties are inspected.
  
• in the case of agents a ratio of 1 in 5 properties belonging to each managed landlord would be inspected, on the same timescales as above. If the sampled inspection revealed any problems then a higher sample of properties would be inspected and, in some cases, all proprieties are inspected.
  
• inspections are carried out in a set format by trained staff and an inspection report completed for each property that allows for recommendations to be made, including action plans that can be followed up. Membership may be recommended even if work is required on an inspected property, depending on the severity of the non-compliance and the timescales given for completion of the work
  
• in respect of existing properties covered by the Code,  Unipols will continue to re-inspect 1 in 3 properties (or at least 1 in the event that a portfolio was below 3) of existing Code owners.
  
• all matters relating to licensing will be referred to LCC for considerations, and if Unipol comes across any properties (accredited or not) that it thinks should be licensable it will refer details to LCC for action.
  
• in addition Unipol will mail shot tenants in 10% of accredited properties with a questionnaire each year and follow up any issues of non compliance or complaint with an inspection.
  
• Unipol aims to re-visit at least one property of each Code owner once every 3 years 

Inspection Timetables

The landlord is asked to provide a timetable for any work required in the first section of the report. This timetable should be provided within 14 days. This is not to say that the work itself is to be completed in 14 days, merely an appropriate timetable provided. Clearly issues relating to matters such as fire safety should be addressed with more urgency than less risky matters.

Once a timetable is agreed, and the work completed, then dependent on the nature of the findings, a re-inspection may be required. During this very short re-inspection, the Accreditation Officer will check to ensure that the required work has been completed to the expected standard.

If it is clear from the re-inspection visit that not all of the works have been completed, then a second re-inspection will be required and a fee of £75 will be charged to the landlord/agent for that.

Application Forms

If you wish to join the Unipol Code please complete the forms below and return them to the Unipol Offices.  You will need to complete both the Code Declaration form and the Declaration of Properties form.

Download the Code Declaration form 

To download the Declaration of Properties form click here