Editorial: Rental home heating regulations should be in force

Housing Minister Phil Twyford. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Editorial

A blast of wintry weather reaching as far north as Auckland this week should bring some urgency to the Government's plans making the provision of heating mandatory in rental homes. This was part of the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill that ranked third on the Government's first 100 days programme, just behind the abolition of tertiary fees and an increase in student living allowances.

Those have come into effect but it seems poor tenants in cold and draughty houses are still waiting for heat pumps.

Housing Minister Phil Twyford tells us today the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment will soon call for feedback on the Government's proposals. He expects to have the standards and timeframes for landlords compliance decided "later this year". In time for summer perhaps.

Furthermore he says the form of heating to be required would not necessarily be heat pumps, as landlords reportedly fear. The Property Investors Federation is arguing some apartments do not suit heat pumps and some body corporates do not allow them. The Government should not be letting this sort of detail delay the standards that are supposed to come into force on July 1.

Like all good consumer law, the proposed standards for heating, insulation, ventilation and drainage do no more than responsible landlords will be doing without compulsion. Letting a house is not something any property investor should do lightly. They are providing a home to people who in most cases can not afford to own one. It should be a point of pride for the investors to ensure they are providing a home that can be kept warm, dry and properly ventilated, with a heat pump if possible and draught stoppers wherever necessary.

Tenants should not be treated as no more than cashflow providers covering the holding costs of the property while the investor waits to realise a capital gain. So long as they pay their rent, they deserve to be provided with a house that can be kept warm and dry.

The federation says landlords find some tenants will not use heating provided and do not open curtains in daylight to help keep the house dry. They dry clothes inside and use unflued gas heaters, both practices adding to the moisture that makes the house damp.

But landlords should not need regulation to force them to do what they can to discourage such practices. Unless they regard the house as a very short term investment, it is in their interest to keep it dry.

It is of concern that the federation warns that rents will have to rise once the regulations come into force. That suggests very few landlords have installed adequate heating, insulation and ventilation requirements of their own accord. Surely most have done so and rents already reflect those costs. Many others will have done so in the belief the new Government's legislation is already in force, or assumed it would in force well before winter arrived.

This is the time of year the previous Government was caught napping on the problem of homelessness which had become much worse with the rise of house prices to that point, mid 2015. It had to hire motels to meet a shortage of emergency accommodation. House prices have stopped rising, properties are being held longer and tenancies are more stable. Now standards of rental accommodation can be enforced and the Government should get on with it.