How it works

You do the looking. The software does the heavy lifting.

HSE is explicit that most landlords can assess the risk themselves, without being professionally trained or accredited — or have somebody competent do it for them. DwellFlow is what makes that assessment a competent one, whoever holds the phone.

The same five steps are written out below. And the training video for anyone about to do their first survey is free to watch here. Both are on YouTube too.

Step one

Somebody who is already going

No assessor visit to schedule and no contractor diary to wait on. The person already attending — a maintenance operative, an inspector, the landlord — opens the survey on a phone.

Eight sectionsThe building, the people, the incoming main, cold water storage, water heaters, floors and rooms, equipment, records.

One decision per screenEach question is its own screen with its own guidance. Simple choices advance on tap.

It works with no signalEverything is written to the phone the instant it changes; the network catches up later. Lofts and cellars are where this work happens.

Step two

They record what they can see

This is the part that makes the whole thing possible. Nobody is asked to judge anything — only to look, measure and photograph.

Never askedWhether something is a risk. How serious it is. What should be done. Any score, rating or priority.

Always askedWhat a thing is and where. A temperature from a thermometer. Whether a lid fits. Measurements in centimetres. A photograph.

"I could not establish this"Every question can be answered honestly. A form that will not let you past teaches people to type rubbish, and rubbish is worse than a recorded gap.

Step three

The rules read it

Forty-nine rules, each with its own trigger conditions and the guidance clause it derives from. Same survey in, same findings out, every time — a finding that changes between runs is not defensible.

Where the rules come fromHSE ACoP L8, HSG274 Part 2, BS 8580-1:2019, the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 and HSE guidance for landlords. Every rule cites the clause it derives from.

Scored, not guessedFive factors to BS 8580-1 §8.2 — contamination, amplification, transmission, exposure, susceptibility.

Run on our serversThe findings are derived from the stored answers, not sent up from the phone. A tampered device can lie about a temperature; it cannot hand us a clean assessment for a bad property.

Step four

A check while they are still in the house

The one place AI genuinely earns its keep: reading the whole survey at once and noticing what no single field can.

ContradictionsA vented cylinder recorded with no tank has no water source — the system cannot be drawn as described. A combi recorded alongside a storage tank is usually a heating boiler with a cylinder hiding in a cupboard.

At most three questions, usually noneAn empty list is the normal, correct outcome for a competent survey. It may not chase a field somebody simply left blank.

It suggests, it never blocksThe surveyor can always submit. Finding out three days later is what costs a second visit.

Step five

Three documents, straight away

The assessment issues on completion. There is no queue and nobody to wait for.

The assessmentEvery reading, the photographed evidence beside each finding, the clause behind each recommendation, a risk score and a reassessment date.

The tenant sheetPlain English for the person living there — and only the habits that actually apply to their home.

The scheme of controlThe routine ACoP L8 also asks for, built around visits that already happen, plus what to do when the property stands empty.

Then the follow-throughEach recommendation carries a date. Record it as done — or not done, and why — against the property, with photographs if you like. A reminder email goes a week before each date and the day after it passes.

Where competence comes from

HSE’s words, not ours

HSE’s guidance for landlords says it plainly: “Most landlords can assess the risk themselves and do not need to be professionally trained or accredited.” DwellFlow builds the rest in: every question carries its own guidance, “I could not establish this” is always an honest answer, and the completeness check queries contradictions before the surveyor leaves.

The finished assessment records who surveyed the property and when, and every answer they gave — so you can show how the work was done, rather than assert that it was.

Being straight with you

What DwellFlow does not do

It does not sign your assessment. You are the assessor. DwellFlow is the tool that makes your assessment a competent one, and the documents say so plainly rather than implying otherwise.
It does not write the findings with AI. All forty-nine rules are fixed, and can be inspected. The AI check reads the survey for contradictions; it decides nothing.
It does not replace judgement on a genuinely unusual property. Rules cover what rules cover. Where something falls outside them, the assessment says so rather than guessing.
It cannot survey the property for you. Somebody still has to open the loft hatch. The software’s job is to ask them the right things, and to query anything that does not hang together while they are still there.
It does not move the duty. Whoever is responsible for the property — the landlord, or the agent where the management contract puts safety with them — stays responsible. What changes is the quality of the evidence they hold.
It does not assess communal plant. DwellFlow assesses the water system serving a dwelling. Where a flat is fed from landlord’s plant — a communal tank, a plant room — the survey records that boundary explicitly, and the communal system needs its own assessment. The report says where its scope ends rather than leaving it to be assumed.

The honest test is the document.

Two complete assessments of two fictional properties, produced by the same software every customer uses. Read one cover to cover before you talk to us.

Read a full report