A proposal to make all rental properties comply to a warrant of fitness would do more harm than good for tenants, a local property owner has warned.
Under the Energy Efficiency and Conservation (Warm Healthy Rentals Warrant of Fitness) Amendment Bill, residential rental accommodation would require minimum energy performance standards, which would need to meet a warrant of fitness regime.
The aim of the bill is to ensure New Zealanders, especially children and their families, live in warm and healthy residential properties.
However, Rotorua Property Investors Association president Debbie Van Den Broek said tenants would end up having to fork out for the changes, if they were made.
She said 99 per cent of landlords in Rotorua ensured their tenants lived in warm, healthy and tidy homes. The policy would therefore only apply to a handful of landlords in the region.
"It's in a landlord's best interest to make sure their tenant is living in a healthy home and is happy. It means the tenant will stay longer," she said. "I don't think a man with a clipboard coming round every so often would make a difference."
Mrs Van Den Broek said it was unfair for the requirements to be made across the board. She said the requirements would cost landlords more and that cost would ultimately be put on to the tenant through rent increases.
"I don't think it's fair, I'd rather tenants have that money to pay their power bill, for their groceries or to do something nice with their kids, not have to pay additional housing costs."
Mrs Van Den Broek encouraged tenants unhappy with the state of their rental property to look elsewhere. She said plenty of landlords had affordable, healthy and clean homes to rent and would be happy to take them on.
She encouraged people to email info@rpia.org.nz if they were on the lookout for a responsible landlord.