Fewer than one in 500 rental properties are being checked to make sure they're up to the Government's minimum standards because there's an expectation that landlords should be honest, the Housing Minister says.
Megan Woods told Q+A she would like to see the number of Healthy Homes Standards compliance checks increased. She said, however, that the onus should be on landlords to tell the truth rather than taxpayers paying to police it.
"We also do need landlords to be honest. I don't think any of us think that's an unrealistic expectation. We ask people to make declarations all over the place in terms of their lives… but we are doing some checks."
The Government passed the Healthy Homes Standards came into effect in July 2021. It puts minimum requirements for heating, insulation, and ventilation for rental properties. By July next year, all private rental properties must meet the standard.
Answers to written Parliamentary questions from the Greens reveal the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's tenancy compliance team undertook 921 Healthy Homes Standards checks between May 2022 and May 2023.
Of the checks, 296 were the result of complaints and the rest were carried out proactively. In total, MBIE found breaches in 395 cases.
There are approximately 600,000 rental homes in New Zealand, meaning about 0.15% or fewer than 1 in 500 properties for rent have been assessed.
"We've got to a sad point if the only way we can have compliance on any issue… if the Government are going to come around to check on you," Woods said.
As of May 2023, 91% of Kāinga Ora's homes met the Healthy Homes Standards, 6% are having remedial work done, and the remaining are expected to be compliant by July 2024.
This week, Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick lodged a member's bill that aimed to ensure landlords followed the standards.
She told 1News the current rules were "largely voluntary" for landlords and relied on tenants to raise issues through the Tenancy Tribunal.
Last year, Swarbrick's questioning of then-Associate Housing Minister Poto Williams revealed the Government did not collect data on whether rental properties met Healthy Homes standards.
Williams also could not answer how many rental properties had been assessed by third parties nor landlords themselves as meeting the standards.
New Zealand Property Investors Federation vice president Peter Lewis said Swarbrick's member's bill added unnecessary bureaucracy, and that the extra costs it could bring would see rents go up.
He said New Zealand already has the adequate framework to hold landlords accountable through the Tenancy Tribunal.
Meanwhile, advocacy group Renters United welcomed the proactive approach.
"It's certainly something we've been asking for for a long time," Renters United president Geordie Rogers told 1News.
An estimated 1.6 million people in New Zealand are renters.
Q+A is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.
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