Carrot-and-stick approach to insulation
Landlords could face spot checks and fines of up to $4000 if they don’t make sure their rental properties are insulated by mid-2019.
But to soften the blow, the Government is offering is at least 20,000 insulation grants to lowincome earners or their landlords over the next 18 months.
The subsidies are being offered through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority EECA.
Its general manager of residential, Robert Linterman, said he hoped landlords would grasp the chance to get a helping hand before regulation arrived.
‘‘We know that not only homes that meet the criteria for our programme but other rental
The industry can only cope with 70,000 to 80,000 retrofits a year.
properties that don’t, still need to be insulated - there’s probably 300,000 of those nationwide.
‘‘And the industry can only cope with about 70,000 to 80,000 insulation retrofits a year.
‘‘So people need to be starting to do it now.’’
This year, in an effort to ramp up the improvement of New Zealand’s poor rental stock, the Government put its foot down on insulation.
Rental homes that can take ceiling or floor insulation must have it by July 1, 2019.
Linterman said the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) took more than a million tenancy-related calls each year, and from those calls it was building a database of non-compliant properties.
Officials were gearing up to carry out spot checks on houses after the law came into force, he said.
The importance of insulation is not lost on Joyce van Vliet, a Kapiti property manager.
She used the grants to insulate and install heat pumps into her properties.
‘‘The difference was amazing. Tenants said their house was warmer, it held the heat and they could stay there until they saved to buy their own place.’’