Landlords liable for the safety of contractors they hire

Property

Rental properties are now classified as workplaces putting new responsibilities on landlords when undertaking repairs and maintenance

12th May 16, 9:54am by Guest

By Jessie Lapthorne

New legislation means landlords have a responsibility to ensure the health and safety of contractors they engage to carry out work on their property.

Under the new Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSW Act), a landlord is classified as a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) and the property will be classified as a “workplace” if a person is undertaking work there.

As with any other workplace, the PCBU is tasked with protecting the health and safety of its workers and anyone else influenced by the work being carried out.

If, for example, a landlord hires someone to undertake electrical repairs on their rental property, the landlord will have an obligation to ensure that the contractor is suitably qualified to undertake the work and has health and safety systems in place to ensure that workers, tenants, or visitors to the property are not injured in connection with that work.

A landlord who does not meet this obligation could face prosecution under the HSW Act, if someone is injured.

WorkSafe will not take lightly to those who plead ignorance.The latest ACC statistics show that there were more than 146,100 active claims in the home or a commercial/service location as a result of work, at a staggering cost of over $289 million in the year to June 2015.

Given the nature of residential work, such as cleaning, gardening, building, plumbing and electrical, there is likely to be more than one PCBU, including the landlord and the contractor. There are a number of steps you can take to remain compliant: Identify and manage the risks on the property (such as dogs) and connected to the work to be undertaken;

Ensure contractors are sufficiently competent to perform the work and have their own individual health and safety plan;
Ensure contractors understand their health and safety requirements, particularly in relation to the risks identified;
If possible, meet with the contractor on site at the property and discuss risks and health and safety requirements, and make notes of the meeting and the discussion;
Consider appointing a project manager or property manager to manage the risks for contractors (although this will not excuse a landlord from liability).

Jessie Lapthorne is an associate at law firm Duncan Cotterill, where she specialises in employment law, industrial relations and health and safety.

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18 Comments

by waymad | 12th May 16, 10:35am 1463006124

Oh, spiffing. Let's follow the august legal eagle's advice for replacement of a leaky tap washer.

"Find a competent person". A plumber? A franchise fix-it wallah? A cuzzie? A property maintenance firm? Kiss goodbye to half an hour @$200, to find the fixer, assess their competence, and actually hire them.
"Ensure hired fixer understands HS requirements and has a RAM strategy". First ensure fixer has adequate command of English (or Maori, the second official language) and then request their RAMS doco. Another 15 mins @$200.
"Meet if possible with fixer and record engagement details". 2 x cross-town trips @$30 each for vehicle details plus allow 2 hours total @200 for travel and for the meeting itself.
"Consider a property manager" and kiss goodbye to 10-15% of your rental income

Now let's tot up the cost of said contractor and the overheads:

Contractor:

Truck roll $70.
Labour 0.5 hour @ 150 = $75.
Materials and consumables $10.
Total $155.

Landlord (add up the above) $610 assuming no property manager.

Happy, happy joy joy, and guess where this is heading.....more $ on the rent to try to recover some fraction of this overhead......

by head_down_bum_up | 12th May 16, 11:40am 1463010010

tad dramatic...

by sharetrader | 12th May 16, 11:49am 1463010595

what a government department deems landlords to be small business owners, gee who would of seen that coming especially since we have had some many of their spokespersons in the news lately saying the same thing when fighting against new regulations.
they are small businesses and should be made to abide by all the rules and regulations that every other small business owner has to contend with

by rastus1 | 12th May 16, 12:40pm 1463013651

..is there an oppurunity for local councils to start a fight back against Landlords defrauding FHBrs by charging LL commercial rates ...or is at that long term dwellings might be exempt (as per gst)? Anyone know the answer??

by Jamin | 12th May 16, 12:01pm 1463011297

So if I hire an plasterer, I am suppose to personally look into the company / person and check that they have proper health and safety procedures in place. Wouldn't it make more sense to put the emphasis on the plasterer themselves as they should know what the proper health and safety standards are for their particular trade. How is a landlord or property manager suppose to know the health and safety rules for every task that may take place on their property?

by notaneconomist | 12th May 16, 12:30pm 1463013050

As a PCBU you will need to have a H&S plan.......make sure the person you hire has a H&S Plan and that both your plans can work together.........it is easier to contract people who have some kind of licensing behind them and ask to see their H&S plans and provide a copy of your plan to them too.

You ask "how is a landlord or property manager suppose to know the health and safety rules for every task" sorry to inform you but this is what is expected of everyone in any type of business......

by sharetrader | 12th May 16, 12:36pm 1463013370

the main thing for your plan is to identify risk and if possible elimate them or if you cant mitigate them so that your plaster is unlikely to be injured in any way.
example, electrical wires he may come in contact with, turn the power off while he is working on that room.

by christlucas | 12th May 16, 2:36pm 1463020589

I have just decided not to do the electrical and plumbing work I was going to get done. I have also just fired my lawnmower and maintenance people as I can't risk them being dumb and injuring themselves on my rental properties while doing there job. This is saving me heaps see its not all bad

by KH | 12th May 16, 2:47pm 1463021220

Never take Health and Safety Advice from a Lawyer and the author is just that. A real Health and Safety advisor will tell you how to be a safe operation, in a realistic way for your operation. The lawyers just want to scare you into needing them, their solution to the problem is just having the paperwork right, you don't end up safe anyway, and if it ain't safe no amount of paper and signatures will save you anyway.

by Jamin | 12th May 16, 2:52pm 1463021543

Do these rules apply to private residents as well? If my grandma calls a trades person around to her house to fix the wall, she needs to have a health and safety plan? Because in reality whats the difference? A property rented out or a private dwelling....they are both houses that carry the same risk to the trades person.

by dictator | 12th May 16, 3:09pm 1463022559

Yes. Say grandma has let her entire house rot to the point where it's unsafe to walk on the floor. Tradesperson falls through the floor and breaks his leg then she's in trouble.

She could draw up a straight forward health and safety plan, and also ask the tradesperson to supply one for their work. These aren't difficult things to do. There are a lot of guides online on how to do this and it's straightforward stuff (you don't need to reinvent the wheel).

by Jamin | 12th May 16, 3:26pm 1463023615

What if the house hasn't been left to rot, but she just doesn't want to be prosecuted if someone trips over something. Grandma doesn't know how to draw up a health and safety so she will have to hire a lawyer. All seems like a lot of money spent because we have to try and hold people liable for anything that happens in life.

by dictator | 12th May 16, 3:43pm 1463024587

Grandma needs to go online and download a health and safety plan. Again there's no reason to reinvent the wheel. The other option is to seek out a contractor that can provide a health and safety plan to do the work. Grandma still needs to read it (it should be in plan english and straight forward).

She could hire a lawyer but she would be better seeking out advice from a professional specialising in health and safety. It would cost a lot less than lawyer hourly rates, be more practical and would be more likely to protect Grandma from prosecution.

by classic | 12th May 16, 3:58pm 1463025492

There seems to be a lot of misinformation going on. A private resident does not have to have a health & safety plan, thats for the tradesmen to have.
There are differing requirements for residential and commercial landlords. I enquired from Worksafe what the difference was. Quote from their answer by email to my question.
"Thank you for your enquiry. I understand you would like information on the responsibility of landlords under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

Please see the following link which provides this information –
http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/hswa/mythbusting/property-manageme…
"I would like an explanation of the following paragraph please.
The extent of responsibility will usually be less for residential property owners – the duties only apply when work is being carried out at or on a property.
What is meant by "usually less". How do duties differ from Commercial landlords in respect to tenants and visitors for a residental landlord. Is there some interpretation of the different duties in print or in the Act
Answer " I apologise for the delay in responding and thank you for your further enquiry. I understand you would like clarification on what is meant by the term “usually less” in the information that I send you about residential landlords and their duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

The words simply reflect that a residential landlord as a PCBU only has duties when work is being done on the property (e.g. repairs or maintenance) and only to the extent they have influence and control over the work being done (e.g. safe access to the property). So the scale of the duty will be less than compared to a commercial landlord whose business is to manage premises on a daily basis.
Hope this helps

by TuaWai Smith | 13th May 16, 2:00pm 1463104832

So now we are responsible for dumbasses who are required, but don't, have a health and safety plan themselves. I do all the work I can on my rental property, being about 90% I guess. Why? Because there are so many dumbass ripoff trades people out there that I don't want them on my property. This is just another reason not to provide work for them. The contractor needs to take responsibility for his own business. That is why they charge so much for doing very little. Case in point. I was overseas so had a plumber come to my rental property to fix a leaky faucet. I got a bill for $125.00 to replace a washer I presume. I never did find out because there was no detail explaining what he actually did in the invoice. He was probably too embarrassed to reflect what actual work he did to justify the invoice. Point being. We pay astronomical hourly rates because the CONTRACTOR is meant to provide the necessary coverage of health and safety. Now we have to double up as a landlord. Must have been some great insurance lobbying in the Cariibean for corrupt officials.What a bunch of pathetic govt. crap to waste the time of landlords. This is the last straw for me. It is just not worth the hassle of renting the place and I for one will convert back to personal use and get rid of the bludging, interfering, childish govt. My renters have been good, they have never wanted for any lack of maintenance, but now they can look for another place to live.
New Zealand is going the way of the USA where no one takes responsibility for their actions. Idiotic and pathetic moron NZ Govt. pencil pushers who have no glue on how to run a PROFITABLE business. Right at this moment I am ashamed to be a Kiwi.

by Ralph | 13th May 16, 2:04pm 1463105044

It's all part of the grand plan. To run a society where everyone is a victim requires somebody to blame - you see?

Hence the well known expression, "It doesn't matter how you play the game, it only matters how you allocate the blame."

by O.Farr-Kinnell | 13th May 16, 2:26pm 1463106408

So now we can't rely on darwinism to enhance skill sets.

by Robt. | 20th May 16, 10:54am 1463698468

I suppose everyone who works from home will also have responsibilities to make sure they have plans for their homes has plans for their kids and others in the house to follow. Employers who allow their staff to work from home will need to ensure the home has H&S procedures and that the owners kids, other family members living there and any guests follow them and report all accidents, hazards etc.?