Per property. Not per visit.

Straight answers

• My letting agent has written to me about Legionella. What do I actually have to do? Assess the risk in each property and keep it under control — the duty usually sits with you, not the agent, unless your management contract places safety with them. HSE is explicit that most landlords can do the assessment themselves. DwellFlow is the tool that makes yours a competent one, and you can send the agent the finished assessment the same day you survey.
• What equipment do I need? One thing without fail: a digital thermometer with a probe, about £20 from any DIY shop. After that it depends on the property — a tape measure if it stores water in a tank or cylinder, a torch if there is a loft. And the phone in your pocket.
• Can I have a VAT invoice? Yes — and here is the honest position today. Our VAT registration is with HMRC and the number has not been issued yet. The prices above include VAT at 20%, but until the number arrives your receipt has to show a single total, because a VAT invoice must carry the registration number. The moment it comes through we will send a full VAT invoice for everything bought in the meantime, so you can reclaim it. What you pay does not change either way.
• I have a flat in a block — does that count as one property? Yes. The survey asks about the building’s shared tanks or pumps and records what you can see; it does not expect you to assess plant that serves the whole block, and the assessment says plainly where the building’s owner should be asked.
• Can we be invoiced against a purchase order? Yes. Give your purchase order number at checkout and it prints on the invoice, which is raised automatically with every payment. Housing providers, councils and larger agencies can be set up on an invoiced account instead, payable within 30 days.
• I’m a contractor — can I do this for the landlords I already visit, and charge for it? Yes. You buy assessments at the ladder price, survey while you are at the property, and charge the landlord whatever you choose. The assessment is issued in your name as the surveyor, with the landlord named as the duty holder.
• Is there a subscription? You pay per property assessed. Holding properties in the system costs nothing, and neither does adding staff.
• I run a holiday let. Does this apply to me? Yes. A holiday let is a domestic property let in the course of a business, so the duty to assess and control the risk applies just as it does to a tenancy — and the gaps between guests, when every outlet stands unused, are exactly what an assessment looks for. The survey and the documents are the same.
• Do I need a particular phone? Any phone or tablet with a camera and a web browser — nothing to install. Set the account up on a computer if you prefer; the survey itself is done at the property on the phone. Everything saves on the device as you go and it works with no signal; only submitting at the end needs one, and Wi-Fi or mobile data will do.
• How often do I have to reassess? The assessment tells you, and the interval comes from what the property is rather than a default — a mains-fed house with nothing stored is reassessed far less often than one with a loft tank and a vented cylinder.
• What if I have one or two? That works — it is who this was built to be simplest for. Survey each one yourself on your phone — allow thirty minutes to an hour — and the documents issue the moment you finish.
• I’m an agent — my landlords hold the duty. Whose assessment is it? The duty sits with whoever is responsible for the property — usually the landlord; for a managed property the management contract sets who that is — and it sits there whoever holds the phone. Your staff survey, the person who surveys is named on the assessment as the assessor, and the documents issue per property: one copy for your compliance file, one to pass to the landlord the way their gas safety record reaches them today.
• What if I have five hundred? Import them from a spreadsheet, assign them to your own staff, and work through them. Talk to us first — at that size the conversation is worth having.
• There are apps that sell a Legionella assessment for £9.99. Why pay more? Look at what is missing from one: no temperature readings, no photographs, no schematic and no written scheme of control — and ACoP L8 asks for the scheme as well as the assessment. Put one of our example assessments beside one and decide for yourself.
• Can I see one before I pay? Yes, and you should. Two complete assessments are published in full, free, with no account.