Housing Minister Megan Woods has announced a one-year delay in healthy homes standards to July 1, 2025 for private landlords, and a one year delay to July 1, 2024 for Kāinga Ora.
Woods also announced residential property managers would be regulated, as promised in Labour's 2020 election manifesto. She said the Government would also consult on creating binding limits for meth residue in rentals.
“Nearly 600,000 households rent in New Zealand and these measures will result in regulated oversight of residential property managers, science-based rules on meth residue testing and a reprieve for landlords in meeting a compliance deadline,” Woods said.
The Government would regulate residential property managers so they were registered, trained and licensed, Woods said, adding that complaints and disciplinary matters would be dealt with through a new regulatory framework.
“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," she said.
One in three households rent and 42% of those are managed by residential property managers.
Cabinet had agreed the Real Estate Authority would be the regulator and that the Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal would have an expanded role as Disciplinary Tribunal for residential property management-related complaints, Woods said.
Meth standards to be set
Woods said the Government would also consult the public before making binding rules on what an acceptable maximum allowable level of methamphetamine residue was, at what levels those homes needed to 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.
“We have proposals that are informed by science, on screening, testing, and decontamination, with clear obligations for landlords. Under National, this issue was a dog’s breakfast; hundreds of tenants were unnecessarily evicted from public housing through the application of pseudo-science and we are cleaning up that mess.
“While the witch hunt on public housing tenants stopped under this Government and the former Chief Science Advisor Sir Peter Gluckman’s 2018 report resulted in a more scientific approach to residue dangers, it’s time to settle the rules once and for all," she said.
The Government proposed a maximum acceptable level of surface methamphetamine residue at 15 micrograms per 100 square centimetres, which would also the level at which a property needs to be decontaminated back to, or below.
“This level of residue is consistent with the findings of Sir Peter Gluckman’s report and advice from ESR. The sector needs certainty on what level of methamphetamine residue requires decontamination, so making regulations to clarify this is a priority,” Woods said.
She said Gluckman supported the proposals.
Extension of healthy homes deadline
Woods said legislation would be introduced into Parliament today to delay the deadlines for the healthy homes standards and passed under urgency before the end of the Parliamentary year.
“We recognise the impact that COVID-19 has had on getting this work done because of global supply-chain and delivery challenges, including limited workforce challenges,” Woods said.
“It makes sense to be pragmatic as most landlords are genuinely trying to comply with their obligations but are at risk of breaching them because of issues outside of their control," she said.
“The change means private landlords have one more year to comply, so all private rentals must comply by 1 July 2025, instead of 1 July 2024. The timeframe for compliance for a new or renewed tenancy shifts from 90 days to 120 days.
“For Kāinga Ora and Community Housing Providers, the timeframe for compliance shifts from 1 July 2023 to a new date of 1 July 2024."
Woods said the last survey in 2021 indicated 85% of private rentals met, or had action underway, to meet the standards, while 84% of Kāinga Ora homes either met the standards or there was work in progress to meet them.
“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,” Megan Woods said.
Political reaction
National Housing Spokesman Chris Bishop said he was not surprised by the delay as only 50% of Kainga Ora homes met the Health Homes standards as of July this year.
“All private rental properties have had to comply with the standards for any new or renewed tenancy since July last year. It was one rule for them, and one rule for the Government. And now the Government is extending the deadline for Kāinga Ora houses to 1 July 2024," Bishop said.
“The majority of private landlords have done the right thing, followed the rules and upgraded properties. This is a giant slap in the face from a Government that simply can’t get anything done," he said.
59 Comments
ROFLMAO !!!! .... this stupid government couldn't abide by the dumb rules they put in place , and now require a time extension , to allow them to get up to speed ....
... little wonder the PM is gladly grasping at the Supreme Court's decision to lower the voting age , because they desperately need to divert our attention from everything else that they're totally stuffing up ... pretty much everything they touch , they wreck...
Careful. The media is onto National because they would just hate it if they got in. So any slight minor thing and they will jump on it. Faux outrage. Luckily the public see through that approach.
However, if indeed National make any serious blunders, ACT will be the winner, so they should get in easily.
Glad you brought up the voting age. It did occur to me that tax laws would have to be adjusted for those of voting age too.
"If you’re under 14, or 15- 17 and is still at school, then you don’t have to pay tax on income less than $2,340 per year if the income is not normally taxed. This would include performing work for a neighbour, friend or if you’re self-employed."
I also wonder if child support responsibilities for children should end at 16 as well, I mean they are obviously all grown up by then. Get them out of school and into the coal mines.
but to regulate landlords
No regulates property managers. Private landlords can continue to bend and break the rules either through malice, ignorance or knowing that the tenant will put up with it at risk of being kicked out because a fictional family member is moving in.
While we're at it, how about regulating tenants continue to bend and break the rules either through malice, ignorance or knowing that the landlord & Kainga Ora will have to put up with it at risk of property damage & neighbours being kicked because Tenancy law & Tenancy Tribunals consider occupying another persons home is a "human right"
Or because it suits both parties and they are happy with how things are. For example the tenants are happy with the current heatpump and dont need the landlord to install a new high spec one to meet the standards. Or maybe the tenants are happy to left alone in their home like some landlords allow without needing constant inspections etc, and dont want the hassle of builders through the house.
Understand that the regs are aimed at the worst offenders and everyone else gets caught up in it, but sometimes adults can make their own decisions without mother Ardern telling them what they need.
Not sure the unemployed will be able to afford pop-corn so have a little sympathy for those who will suffer most in the coming recession, those who have no assets.
Landlords who have over-leveraged themselves will be getting a lesson here, hopefully they will sell and release this stock to the market. Current interest rates mean it is still very hard for a FHB to get on the ladder and when the interest rates come down the asset cycle will start again.
Good move. Most properties are already falling into line on standards but supply chain issues are a reality.
Also pleased to see that property managers are to be regulated to a small degree. Wild West out there.
I doubt you will hear much moaning from Nats or ACT on this. Hard to see this as anything other than sensible governance.
The consequences are good and bad, good in that the tenants will be more protected by these standards, bad in that the cost of these training courses and governance groups will be passed through to tenants without touching the sides. So I hope the tenants think raising their rents in return for the occasional bad Property Manager getting held to account is a fair trade.
Do the tenants have enough money in their pockets for this to be passed through? If they don't do you think we would see empty Rentals? If not empty rentals, would we see rentals hitting some sort of equilibrium around what tenants can pay? Or would the difference come from somewhere else? Government Subsidies etc?
Landlords have their own costs, if they cannot cover their costs they will have to sell, we will see some of that I think. Whether that benefits FHB's I cannot say, interest rates being high mean they cannot service the (lower) mortgages, when they can, the landlords will be able to as well.
Private landlords managed to meet these standards for existing tenancies in mid-2021 when there were real supply chain issues.
The fact the government can't do it despite virtually unlimited resources and a 5 year lead in from the policy announcement shows what an appalling landlord they are for the most vulnerable members of society. Their tenants would be better off if they sold off the bulk of their stock to the private market and let them manage the properties.
They're the ones writing the policy and imposing the deadlines. If there are capacity issues those should have been accounted for when the policy was written.
Private households and businesses can't just change deadlines or complain it's too hard, they are liable if they don't follow the law.
Yet at the same time as Labour announce their Ministry have failed the most vulnerable in society they announce another regulatory regime that imposes costs on the property management industry. Given the REA are responsible for overseeing it the regime will end up largely being an early Christmas present for Barfoot & Thompson as small businesses are driven under. They truly are the party of corporate welfare and red tape.
"compliance" - overreached by the Labour regime
"obligations" - something they know nothing about - perhaps telling the truth to the NZ public for once would help
"control" - the master strategy they try to employ
"abide by" - Labour: "do as I say no as I do"
"held to account" - Genuinely surprised they have the gall to add this in given their track record
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