7 days ago
'Mark your own homework': Healthy Homes checks under fire
By Bella Craig of RNZ
Like drivers issuing their own warrants of fitness - that's how building experts and renter advocates describe the new Healthy Homes Standards.
Since July 1, all rental properties across the motu have been required to comply with the new standards, which set minimum requirements for heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture ingress and drainage.
But who gets to say whether a property is up to scratch? Well, with no certification required in order to complete an assessment, the role could technically be filled by anyone.
This has prompted calls for an independent certification system.
Ideally, under the new standards, damp and draughty rentals should now be a thing of the past.
But the New Zealand Institute of Building Inspectors isn't convinced.
Chief executive Graeme Blissett, said the standards contain several loopholes. Not least, that anyone can label themselves a healthy homes assessor.
"It's a huge problem, because there's no one looking at what they're actually inspecting and writing reports on is actually correct.
"There are no guarantees because no one's double-checking what they're doing, and I believe that if you're charging $150, $200 to do a healthy homes inspection on a house, you're not doing it correctly."
It doesn't take long to find companies offering Healthy Homes assessments - a business was found online, offering to carry out a certification for around $200.
But Blissett fears that without certification, many of these businesses will prioritise "quantity over quality".
He said he's seen several certificates that ticked off each of the standards, despite the properties falling short.
"The tenants [are] usually up to speed with these sorts of regulations and rules, so if the landlords do it on their own property and they get it incorrect, and the tenant finds out about it or talks to someone, and they've got a little bit of knowledge on it. There is a chance for them to be taken [to] the Tenancy Tribunal.
"I believe there's fines of like $5000 or something like that for non-compliance."
Renters United President, Zac Thomas, said the Healthy Homes Standards are a positive step towards a warmer and drier housing stock.
But he's also concerned about the assessment process.
"There is a mark your own homework situation where landlords don't even need to use an independent assessor in the first place. They can say that they are healthy homes compliant, that's the first thing.
"But then the second thing is they can get this assessment from an agency that in many cases won't actually be complying or assessing to the standards as they should be."
Thomas said that if the checks were completed by qualified assessors, it would give peace of mind to both landlords and tenants.
"A renter might go, 'hey, please show me your healthy homes compliance.' They might be worried that the house is not compliant, and the landlord will probably show this, and then they might go, 'Oh well, I guess I have nothing to complain about'.
"In reality, if there was a consistent standard, tenants would have the confidence to say, 'Okay, like this does meet standard, therefore I don't need to worry about going to the Tenancy Tribunal."
University of Otago Professor, Lucy Telfer Barnard, said that as winter rolls around, if houses aren't up to standard, it's the tenants who face the consequences.
"The tenants may not necessarily initially know that's why they're feeling unwell, but then if they do start to wonder, there's whole process that they can then have to go through to get those standards met.
"To have that after the fact when they've moved in, in good faith, thinking that the property meets the standards, really isn't fair and puts a whole burden onto people."
Landlords who fail to meet the Healthy Homes standards can face fines of up to $7200. Owners of six or more rentals that do not comply could be hit with $50,000 fines.
A statement from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development said they don't assess how landlords achieve compliance, and there is no licensing requirement to undertake Healthy Homes Standards assessments. Moving to this sort of "WOF" scheme would be a big undertaking with significant costs and impacts.
It said landlords need to satisfy themselves that the person they hire is suitably experienced and can undertake the required inspection or work to an acceptable standard.
If a tenant thinks the property they are renting is not up to standard, they can make a complaint on the Tenancy Services website or apply for a work order from the Tenancy Tribunal.
