Insulation companies still busy

Some Southland insulation companies still have large backlogs and waiting lists almost two months on from changes to legislation requiring landlords to provide floor and ceiling insulation,

Dunbars Insulation owner Janine Dunbars said the Southland market had been more proactive than the other regions in getting ready for the change but there was still a strong demand for work.

What was happening in the current market was there was a lot of houses that were being bought whose owners did not want to install insulation and the new owners were prepared to spend money on installation, Dunbars said.

Her company had a backlog of one to two months and there might be a couple more years of high demand, she said.

Compared to other regions that Dunbars covered in Otago and South Canterbury, Southland had been proactive in getting homes ready but other areas like Oamaru and Timaru were only sorting out there insulation problems now, she said.

Awarua Synergy sales co-ordinator Ana Natoa said it still had a high demand for services but they were mostly for people insulating their own homes instead of rentals.

Awarua Synergy hired another fitter to deal with the increase in demand, she said.

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment tenancy services, dispute resolution general manager said there had been three tenancy tribunal applications since July 1 in the Southland region that related to insulation.

One has been set down for a hearing date, one application was withdrawn by the tenant and the third was still under assessment by tenancy services.