North Shore Center for Hoarding and Cluttering

300 Rosewood Dr. Suite 200

Danvers, MA 01923

(978)- 624-2207

UNIFORM INSPECTION CHECKLIST – HOARDING / EXCESSIVE CLUTTER

The vast majority of hoarding cases that are seeking assistance or being reported, ranging from preventative measures to crisis management and rectification planning, arise from inspectional issues. The Uniform Inspection Checklist (UIC) is a resource that provides a universal and effective protocol for all parties involved at any stage of the case process. The UIC covers the minimum safety and sanitation standards required by multiple inspection sources such as: maintenance, property management, subsidized housing, Board of Health, and Fire.The universal nature of the UIC allows it to be used in a multitude of settings and geographic locations by a wide range of users including but not limited to individuals, friends, families, inspectors, social service agencies, and service providers. Use of the UIC allows for specific, objective, and coordinated assessment and planning while providing reasonable and measureable outcomes. The UIC ensures all involved parties, including the client, have clear and consistent expectations and guidelines for rectifying and maintaining a safe and sanitary home environment.

It is important to note that the North Shore Peer Advisory Committee reviewed and provided input based on their own personal lived experience with hoarding disorder and inspectional issues. Their input provided valuable insight that greatly affected the language of the UIC. This input helped produce the most understandable and actionable resource possible to address rectifying and managing safety and sanitation issues for hoarding cases at all levels of insight and motivation. Additionally, the North Shore Hoarding Task Force worked diligently to ensure the universal aspect of the UIC in order to provide a resource that is applicable and available to as many individuals and agencies as possible. Translations of the UIC in Spanish and Russian are also available and were provided courtesy of Professional Profiles, Inc. Over the last six months, a multitude of people have reviewed, used, and provided much needed feedback as to the formatting, functionality, and effectiveness of the UIC for both personal and professional use. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. While this version of the UIC is the final draft and is now ready and available for public use, we still welcome your feedback so that we can continue to provide the best resource possible. The most updated version is available at under the heading ‘Tools: Assessments & Forms’.

The UIC can be filled out and saved electronically as well as downloaded and printed out. If filling out electronically, you can use the tab or the arrow keys to move between the blank fields and simply put an ‘X’ in the field you wish to indicate. All fields that contain data are locked therefore cannot be entered or changed. Please keep in mind the document is legal size and the entire document will not be visible if printed out on standard size paper. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us immediately.

Sincerely,