Directors Commentary – Healthy Homes Act

With the deadline extended from July 1 to December 1, 2020, Landlords have had a few extra months up their sleeves, to work towards providing a compliance statement for the Healthy Homes standards.

The compliance statement is an addition to tenancy agreements and provides detailed information about how a property meets the Healthy Homes standards. It helps the tenants see how their landlord is working towards being compliant.

At Point Property Management, our goal is to ensure this process for our property owners is as seamless and straight-forward as possible.  Accordingly, we have developed our Healthy Homes Assessment & Implementation program, which will ensure every Point property meets standard and has the benefit of our special contract rates. Our Property Managers will go through the Assessment program with their landlords and have answers to any questions that may come up.

The fines imposed by the Ministry of Business for not complying with the Residential Tenancies Act are substantial so working towards compliance is a smart move.

We are happy that most of our Owners have booked in their Healthy Homes Assessments. For those who have not, we urge you to do so as quickly as possible.   As always, we want to care for you and your property and to do this, we need to make sure your property complies with the following five summarised standards:

Insulation – Congratulations you have already complied to this standard.

Heating - Landlords must provide one or more fixed heaters that can directly heat the main living room. The heater(s) must be acceptable types and must meet the minimum heating capacity required of 18 degrees to your main living room.

Ventilation - Rental homes must have openable windows in the living room, dining room, kitchen, and bedrooms. Kitchens and bathrooms must be externally vented.

Draught stopping - Landlords must make sure the property doesn’t have unreasonable gaps or holes in walls, ceilings, windows, skylights, floors and doors which cause noticeable draughts. All unused open fireplaces closed off or their chimneys must be blocked to prevent draughts.

Moisture and Drainage - Properties must have efficient drainage for the removal of storm water, surface water and ground water. Rental properties with an enclosed sub-floor space must have a ground moisture barrier.

A summary of the next steps required to become compliant, are listed below. Talk to your Point Property Manager if you need any clarification:

1. All tenancy agreements, whether for a current tenant on a renewed term, or a new tenant, must have the Landlords Statement of Compliance completed by December 1, 2020.
2. Point Property requires that the new Property Management Agreement be signed and executed by you, as the Landlord’s Statement of Intent to be compliant, is part of the new agreement.
3. A Healthy Homes Assessment needs to be completed, so book this in if you haven’t already. This gives you a full understanding of any work your property requires to become compliant with the Healthy Homes Act.

If you need answers to any Healthy Homes questions or any other aspect of your property please feel free to call your Property Manager.

For more detailed information please click on the following government link.   https://www.tenancy.govt.nz/healthy-homes/