February 17, 2017

House to Rent
Metro NZ Property Management
Properties For Rent
Property Owners
Rental Property
Residential Tenancy Act
By: metronz

As the Housing Minister Nick Smith has announced, landlords will be required to insulate and install smoke alarms for their rental properties before mid of 2019 to meet the new standard in Residential Tenancy Act to provide the tenant with a proper living environment.

"Overall this package will see the biggest improvement in the quality of New Zealand's older homes this decade than in any decade and it will see a half million New Zealanders, particularly those on low incomes, having a safer warmer and drier homes," As Smith announced.

The landlord will be fined for breaching the tenancy legislation up to $4,000 if their rental properties don't meet the standard of insulation by mid of 2019.

Referring to stuff.co.nz, the insulation standards were introduced to New Zealand's building code in 1978 and it is to this standard that the rules will apply. The building code is the basic requirements for developments of properties. Every newly built property should be met the Building Code regardless of any situation.

An estimated amount of up to 280,000 rented properties are not insulated up to the standard, however, around 100,000 are so close to the ground or have insufficient space in the ceiling to reasonably expect them to be insulated regarding to the Government report. The estimated insulation costs were expected to be around $600 million while installing smoke alarms would cost around $7m.

"This pragmatic package of tenancy law changes will make homes warmer, drier and safer for hundreds of thousands of New Zealand families without imposing excessive bureaucracy or cost,"  as the Housing Minister Smith said.

"Every cost that we put on the landlord, is ultimately going to be passed onto the cost of the tenancy."

"Sadly this is the kind of grudging half-measure that's become the trademark of National's housing policy, where initiatives are only announced when they are forced by public opinion,"

"New Zealanders want the Government to ensure all rental properties are warm and dry. Many families are already struggling to afford to heat their homes and we are only half way through a bitterly cold winter."

The insulation requirements aim to get every rental properties in a suitable tenantable situation for all the tenants. The right of getting an appropriate living environment should be the basic right for the tenants. Thus, the landlord should be aware of the whole going process pushing by the government.

-Metro NZ Property Management