Matt Ball: Advocacy Manager at the Property Investors Federation discusses the Healthy Homes deadline

From tomorrow, all rental properties in New Zealand will have to meet the healthy home standards. 

The Healthy Homes Act brought in stricter rules around heating, insulation, ventilation and draft stopping.  

Despite the long notice period and extensions, Advocacy manager at the Property Investors Federation Matt Ball says some homes are still not up to standard.  

In a recent sample of 1000 homes, only 23% were found to be fully compliant.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
D day tomorrow for the landlords of the country's five
hundred and sixty five thousand rental properties. From tomorrow, all
rental properties must meet the government's Healthy Home Standards, which
include rules around heating, insulation, ventilation, draft stopping, et cetera.
Matt Ball as the advocacy manager at the Property Investors Federation.
Good morning, Matt, Good morning, Ryan, how are you good?
Thank you? Now, when I say all rental properties, this

(00:22):
doesn't well, I'm assuming still doesn't include cayeing or order right,
all of their homes don't have to be up to
scratch or does that include them too?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
I thought they had to be up to date last year,
but I may be wrong.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Okay, Well, I'd like to see some numbers on how
well that's coming for them.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, me too.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, Hey, for the rest of the private landlords. So, Matt,
do you think most are up to standard already?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
It's interesting, Ryan, So I would have said yesterday a
year that most were up to standard, but there was
some interesting reporting out yesterdays that said maybe quite a
few more than I thought.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Aren't as an like close to eighty percent.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, something like that. I would have thought. I would
have thought in the high eighties would have been through
this by now. I mean there's been plenty.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Of notice, right, And this sample that you're talking about,
one thousand random rental properties in the last two months,
found only twenty three percent were fully compliant.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, that's quite a low number. When you look at
the numbers in detail, it seems like there are five
different standards, right, So a lot of landlords are compliant
with it's one or two or three of the standards,
but there might miss out on only one. So apparently
draft stopping only fifty percent of landlords up to speed
on that one, and that that is the reason for

(01:39):
the low compliance rate. So there's still a lot more
heaters in houses, there's a lot more insulation, there's a
lot more moisture barriers, all that sort of stuff. So
homes are definitely drier and warmer, and we see that
in the census data. But yeah, there's still a few
people who do need to fully.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Comply, okay, and what happens to them if they don't?
They can the tenants can go to the make a complaint,
They can potentially get a fine, but presumably there's a
period of discussion that could happen between that.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, the recommended approach in this is, you know, if
you're a tenant and your home's not quite up to scratch,
have a chat with your landlord and see if they'll
get the work fixed, and then if they won't, that's
when you can start taking action through the tenancy tribunal.
I mean, there's a lot of variation around the country.
For example, and this is the extreme, but I've seen
homes where it's definitely not up to scratch, but the

(02:31):
tenant is living in it. They're very happy because they
get a cheap rent, and the landlord's happy because the
tenant's happy. So both parties will just keep it quiet.
There'll be plenty of that going on around the country,
but by and large, I think most landlords will get
things fixed if the tenant asks them to do it.
Really they should do it proactively straight away.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Matt Appreciate Times Wanting Matt Bull from the Property Investors Federation.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
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