Close inspection
A landlord who test-drove Wellington’s warrant of fitness scheme says it needs to be more reliable.
It’s tidy, it’s clean and it’s only seven years old – but it failed the Wellington City Council’s new rental warrant of fitness test.
The house’s owner, one of two landlords to test-drive the voluntary standard so far, says the council’s own inspection needs a closer look.
Financial adviser Joseph Williams’ property failed, even though it passed a basic council inspection in 2011.
The council maintains that its inspection was adequate and conducted by independent and experienced experts.
But Williams said councillors ‘‘rushed into the decision’’ and he questioned its reliability.
Williams paid $250 for the inspection, which failed because his porch light was not working, and some window fittings needed security stays.
Williams said the person who inspected his property was from the Sustainability Trust. ‘‘I don’t know how they’re trained and what qualifications they have.’’
Williams said he believed the rental warrant of fitness scheme had good intentions, was good for landlords, and hoped it would be made compulsory. ‘‘But it needs to be tested better.’’
Williams said he has 10 rental properties in Wellington, and he wanted all of them to meet the new standard.
His Johnsonville property that failed had passed all council inspections in 2011.
‘‘If this can fail, then what about all the other properties [in Wellington]?’’
The report was poorly written and had spelling errors, he said.
Council spokeswoman Victoria Barton-Chapple said the Sustainability Trust, which conducts the council’s rental WoF inspections, were ‘‘independent and experienced home performance experts’’.
‘‘Every inspector conducting rental WoF inspections has completed training specifically for the rental WoF.’’
Councillors were not ‘‘rushed’’ into approving the scheme, she said.
‘‘Supporting this voluntary rollout is the first step towards developing a Wellington housing standard.’’
Information from the pilot’s uptake, criteria and implementation would form a draft Wellington City housing quality standard for councillors to consider.
‘‘[It] will set a measure for homes that incorporates both personal health and earthquake resilience,’’ she said.
Sustainability Trust acting chief executive Ewan Gebbie said they had ‘‘a couple of hiccups’’ when the WoF was launched, which were resolved.
‘‘This was an inconvenience to Mr Williams, though, so for that reason we refunded him the WoF fee,’’ Gebbie said.
‘‘We can reassess the home within six months for free, and we’re happy to do that.’’
The trust had eight insulation and home energy assessors, with three specifically trained to carry out the rental WoF.
They did a one-day training course with the University of Otago, following on at least a year’s experience in assessing the energy efficiency and health of homes, or be a licensed builder or an eco-design adviser.
‘‘There is an auditing and quality assurance process already in place, but because we’ve only had two assessments so far that hasn’t been actioned yet.’’
Once Williams’s home had passed the test, he could put his property on the council’s list of verified ‘‘passed’’ list, he said.
As for the spelling errors in the report, Gebbie said they worked hard to maintain standards of professionalism.