Insulation of cold flats at a crawl
The Government admits it wanted more cheap and cold rentals insulated by now, ahead of a 2019 deadline.
The admission comes as new figures show just over 4000 landlords have taken advantage of a government insulation subsidy budgeted for more than twice that.
They also show that compliance officers had taken up just one case about the lack of an insulation statement.
Around 1600 deaths were attributed to cold houses every winter.
New rules introduced in 2015 mandated that all rentals that could have underfloor and ceiling insulation installed - about 180,000 homes - must have by July 1 2019.
To help landlords with lowincome tenants an insulation grant was set up in July of 2016.
With this, the Government agreed to cover half of the costs of insulation for any landlord whose tenants had Community Services Card, or had been told by a doctor that they had a condition relating to cold or damp housing.
However in the year since the scheme’s introduction just 4175 landlords had used the grant - far less than the 13,000 the Government expected.
In total Energy Minister Judith Collins said she wanted 20,000 landlords to get the subsidy before it ended in 2018.
A new advertising campaign across web, radio, and print was on the way to alert landlords.
‘‘I’ve been getting around the property investor associations and stressing to them the importance of compliance,’’ Building and Construction Minister Nick Smith said.
‘‘My worry remains that landlords will leave it to the the last moment, and then will seek lenience from the Tribunal. The Government has no appetite for stretching that date forward.’’
There was no way to know exactly how many of the 180,000 suitable uninsulated homes had been insulated without the help of the Government, but Smith said the insulation industry had told him they were busy at work.
The Government was aiming for around 50,000 a year to be insulated before the 2019 deadline, so the insulation industry wouldn’t have to deal with a mad rush just before the date.
A further 100,000 uninsulated homes have been excluded as installing insulation would be too costly.
Another rule brought in last year required all new tenancy agreements to have a separately signed insulation statement which informed tenants about the level of insulation already present.
This could be especially helpful as many tenants signed new leases in summer, when they were unable to properly assess the warmth of a home.
However MBIE’S tenancy compliance team had taken up just a single case about a lack of an insulation statement in the year since.
Labour’s Phil Twyford said that was because any complaints-based scheme would run into problems like that, because tenants would be scared of ratting out bad landlords.
‘‘In the kind of rental market we have today, tenants simply won’t want to complain because they are scared of being kicked out or having their rent put up,’’ Twyford said.
Smith said there was a significant penalty for any landlord taking retribution on tenants.