100,000 homes exempt from rental insulation rules

Officials estimate 180,000 privately tenanted rental properties will require insulation retro-fitting and 120,000 homes will need smoke alarms. Photo / Chris Loufte

Tenants' rights groups have welcomed plans to insulate all rental properties and make smoke alarms mandatory, but want greater security of tenure for long-term renters priced out of home ownership.

Housing Minister Nick Smith announced plans yesterday to strengthen residential tenancy laws, including requirements for landlords to provide smoke alarms and insulation, and declare the standard of insulation on tenancy agreements.

"The new law will require retro-fitting of ceiling and underfloor insulation in rental homes over the next four years," Dr Smith said.

"The health benefits of this will be reduced hospitalisations from circulatory and respiratory illnesses, reduced pharmaceutical costs and fewer days off work and school."

The requirement would apply from next July for government-subsidised social housing, and from July 2019 for all other rentals. However, nearly 100,000 properties would be exempt where it was impossible to retro-fit insulation.

Smoke alarms would be compulsory from July next year.

"Regulations will make landlords responsible for ensuring an operational smoke alarm is in place, and tenants responsible for replacing batteries or notifying landlords of defects," Dr Smith said.

"The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment will have new powers to investigate and prosecute landlords for breaking tenancy laws as part of these reforms, particularly where there is risk to the health and safety of tenants."

The changes would also ensure tenants could take concerns to the Tenancy Tribunal without fear of retaliatory evictions from landlords.

Officials estimate 180,000 privately tenanted rental properties will require insulation retro-fitting and 120,000 homes will need smoke alarms.

The average cost of retro-fitting both ceiling and floor insulation was about $3300.

Tenants Protection Association (Auckland) co-ordinator Angela Maynard said the changes would help thousands of Auckland tenants keep safer and warm.

"It's way past when it should have happened and not before time. Any landlord who hasn't provided smoke alarms in my opinion is remiss."

Dr Maynard said as house prices rose across Auckland, countless residents were being shut out of home ownership and forced to rent for life.

She wanted greater security of tenure for renters and enforceable regulations around the sale of rental properties to protect tenants' long-term rights.

"If you're going to commit to becoming a landlord and taking on a tenant then you have to commit to a certain period of time ... so people know that the house is not going to be sold out from under them."

This would improve renters' lives and make long-term rental arrangements more acceptable and safe.

Tenants Protection Association (Christchurch) manager Helen Gatonyi said the "superficial changes" were a good start. But tens of thousands of properties would either be exempt from insulation rules because of their physical layout, or retro-fitting would make little difference because the properties had broken windows or failing electricity.

Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei said insulation and smoke alarms alone would not fix the "appalling state of rental stock in this country". The Government should introduce a wide-ranging warrant of fitness with enforceable minimum standards, she said.

Labour's housing spokesman, Phil Twyford, said the new policy was a step in the right direction.

But insulating a cold house without requiring modern, efficient heating still left tenants at risk of respiratory disease, he warned.

Family at mercy of cold, damp houses

Barry Kent says his daughter was often sick in houses they rented which were badly in need of insulation. Photo / Supplied

Barry Kent says living in uninsulated rental properties with mould and drafts coming through gaps in the joinery caused his teenage daughter to develop respiratory problems.

Over a 10-year period, Mr Kent, a small business owner, lived with his wife and daughter in two cold, damp homes in Havelock North and Hastings.

During that time he said his wife was often sick as well - coughing and complaining of sore throats that required "numerous" doctors' visits.

The first rental property, a 1960s weatherboard house in Havelock North, had no insulation in the bedrooms or walls, he said.

"Louvre windows were in the bathroom and gaps around frames into the lounge and kitchen were causing draughts.

"The landlord increased the rent without improving the conditions so we decided to move out."

After living there for 7 years, Mr Kent said he lost a $900 bond, because the landlord claimed it for repapering and painting mouldy walls and ceilings - although he said the damage was already visible when he moved in.

The charge was also despite the fact that the family kept the house clean and tidy and shampooed the carpet before moving out, he said.

The next flat - built with concrete in the 1970s - had some insulation, but not under the floors.

Mr Kent said there was also no ventilation. "As a result moisture would run down the single glazed windows in winter."

This time, when he moved out of the property, their bond was claimed by the landlord for repair of window frames, repainting walls and replacing curtains.

"Yet the bathroom window frame had already started to swell from rot, and mould that had been painted over around the window frames got consistently worse over the duration of our two-year occupation."

He said he had alerted the landlord to the problem, but had simply been told to keep the bathroom window open.

He said compulsory insulation was great news, but the mandate should go further - to include proper ventilation to remove moisture from inside homes.

- Susan Strongman