The Government has today announced a raft of new measures to reform the rental property sector, including an extension to the healthy homes standards deadline for private landlords and Kāinga Ora.
The previous deadline meant all rental homes must comply with healthy homes standards by July 1, 2024. Private landlords have had to ensure their rental properties comply with the standards within 90 days of any new or renewed tenancy since July 2021.
It comes after it was revealed last week that Cabinet was actively seeking an extension for Kāinga Ora to meet its July 1, 2023 deadline due to Covid-19 and supply chain issues.
Private landlords now have until July 1, 2025 to comply with the new standards. Compliance for a new or renewed tenancy will also shift from 90 days to 120 days.
Meanwhile, Kāinga Ora and community housing providers will have its timeframe for compliance shift from July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2024.
Woods said the Government is also monitoring the private sector's compliance, with the last survey in 2021 indicating 85% of private rentals had met the standards or had action underway to do so.
"Similarly, 84% of Kāinga Ora homes either meet the standards or there is work in progress to meet them. Currently Kāinga Ora are bringing around 600 homes a week up to the new standard, as part of a wider programme that is making the biggest improvement to the quality of public housing in a generation.
"Pragmatically delaying the timeframes for compliance will ease pressure on landlords, however we do expect Kāinga Ora to aim to have as many properties as possible to be compliant by the original deadline of July next year. Projections indicate they could achieve around 95% compliance by the original date."
The deadline extension comes alongside a raft of measures introduced by Woods as part of the Government's continued push to regulate the rental property sector.
Residential property management regulations
The Government will also regulate residential property managers to ensure they are registered, trained and licensed.
"Sometimes tenants are vulnerable to poor behaviour from residential property managers, especially in a tight rental market. Following our moves to give tenants more protection through the Residential Tenancies Act, we made a manifesto commitment in 2020 to regulate residential property managers," Woods said.
"This means that like many other professions such as real estate agents, builders and lawyers, they will have conduct and competency standards to abide by and if they don’t, they can be held to account.
"Nearly one in three households rent their homes and 42% of these tenancies are managed by residential property managers, so they have a lot of access to rental homes and interaction with tenants. Having safeguards to ensure they meet minimum conduct and competency standards is in the best interests of both property owners and tenants."
Complaints and disciplinary matters will now also be dealt with through a new regulatory framework.
Cabinet has agreed the Real Estate Authority will serve as the regulator, while the Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal will have an expanded role as Disciplinary Tribunal for residential property management-related complaints.
Methamphetamine contamination
The Government will also seek public consultation before making legally binding rules on what an acceptable maximum allowable level of methamphetamine residue is, the levels the homes must be decontaminated to, and when tenancies can be terminated due to high levels of residue.
"Currently there are two levels used - neither of which are legally binding – which create uncertainty for landlords and tenants," Woods said.
The proposals are "informed by science, on screening, testing, and decontamination, with clear obligations for landlords".
It also proposes a "maximum acceptable level of surface methamphetamine residue" of 15 micrograms per 100 square centimetres, which Woods said is "also the level which a property needs to be decontaminated back to, or below".
"The sector needs certainty on what level of methamphetamine residue requires decontamination, so making regulations to clarify this is a priority," she said.
Once regulations are in place, landlords could be fined up to $4000 if they knowingly rent out premises contaminated above the prescribed levels, without first decontaminating to the proposed standard.
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