Healthy home rules for rental properties revealed

Rental properties will have to be warmer and more weather tight under proposed minimum standards.

Housing and Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford revealed the proposed standards in Wellington yesterday, saying they were designed to eradicate the tens of thousands of health complaints resulting every winter from ‘‘damp, cold and mouldy’’ rental homes.

The proposed regulations, which will be open for public consultation until October 22, set minimum requirements for heating, insulation, ventilation, draught stopping, and moisture and drainage.

Just how demanding these standards are is up for discussion, and both renter and property-owner organisations are questioning how new standards will be enforced.

Twyford said the new regulations aimed to redress the imbalance between landlords and renters, which often resulted in renters being reluctant to raise housing issues with landlords.

‘‘Renting is now the long-term reality for about a third of all Kiwi households,’’ Twyford told media said at Wellington’s Sustainability Trust.

‘‘Unfortunately, there are some landlords at the bottom of the market who rent out cold, damp, unhealthy homes. Sadly, many tenants put up with this because they are afraid of complaining for fear of losing their tenancies."

The proposals come on the back of the Government’s Healthy Homes Guarantee Act passed in December.

They will require all landlords to bring their rental properties up to the new health standards, except where those improvements are not practical.

Landlords who did not comply with the new standards could face a $4000 fine issued by the Tenancy Tribunal.