Insulation scheme behind

The Christchurch City Council has less than a year to assess and potentially insulate 725 social housing properties.

If it fails to reach a July 1, 2019, deadline it could face fines of up to $4000 per property.

The council has assessed 1675 of its 2400 units and would have to check and potentially remedy about 3.5 every working day until next July to meet the standard. So far, about half of the properties assessed have required insulation work.

In 2015, the council said 1045 units were already sufficiently insulated.

The council has fallen well behind other centres including Wellington City Council, which has 86 units out of 2091 left to assess. Auckland, which owned 1452 units, and Dunedin, which had 940, have both finished.

According to figures provided earlier this month, 440 Christchurch City Council units were exempt from insulation. Of those, 112 were unable to be insulated because of skillion ceilings – the same situation Pickering Courts, St Albans resident Lynda McKenzie was told she was in before she hired a contractor to cut a manhole and install insulation.

‘‘We plan to review the exempt units once all 2400 have been assessed and see if there are any other actions that can be taken [to improve the properties],’’ council corporate services general manager Anne Columbus said.

The council has identified ‘‘several problems’’ with McKenzie’s insulation and she faces the prospect of it being removed.

Social housing providers charging tenants income-related rent – in which weekly payments are a percentage of that person’s income – had until July 2016 to have their housing units up to standard.

Most council housing units have not used this model and must instead meet the 2019 deadline for all rental owners. However, new tenancies since the O¯ tautahi Community Housing Trust took over management of council social housing in 2016 have used income-related rent.

The council was unable to say how many, if any, of its incomerelated tenants’ flats had been assessed or required work to comply with current standards.

If any did not, the council would be breaking the law, according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Ministry tenancy compliance and investigations national manager Steve Watson said councils that did not comply with the new standards could be charged ‘‘exemplary damages’’ if ordered by the Tenancy Tribunal.

These would usually be paid to the tenant.

‘‘Landlords who have more than one tenancy may face separate damages for each property that doesn’t comply,’’ Watson said.

‘‘They will then still need to install insulation that meets the correct standard.

‘‘Any landlords who still don’t comply after paying the penalty may face further action.’’

Christchurch city councillor Glenn Livingstone, who is deputy chairman of its social, community development and housing committee, said he was ‘‘reasonably confident’’ in the council’s ability to meet next year’s deadline.

‘‘We just need to keep pushing on it,’’ he said.

‘‘With skillion ceilings, we could create a false ceiling and put insulation in there.’’

All Dunedin City Council’s 940 units were assessed before 2016 and have been insulated or reinsulated up to EECA standards, where possible, in the past eight years, housing manager Alana Reid said.

‘‘Only a small number, fewer than 50 units, have some older roof insulation which is unable to be renewed . . . 213 have concrete floors that are unable to be insulated.’’

A Wellington City Council spokeswoman said 86 of its 2091 social housing properties were yet to be assessed, and 580 were exempt.

‘‘This is mainly because of the physical make up of these units with many being middle level apartments, where there are other apartments above and below them, or apartments with a flat roof.’’

Auckland City Council’s social housing was managed by a separate trust, Haumaru Housing.

Its chief executive, Gabby Clezy, said all properties were insulated to current standards except those where the building design did not allow it.

She said she did not ‘‘understand the purpose’’ of providing the number of exempt properties and did not do so before deadline.