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Law changes requiring landlords to place smoke alarms in all rental properties and insulate them within three years are the most significant tenancy changes in decades, Housing Minister Nick Smith says.However, Labour says a failure to place heating standards into the rules means they are not enough to help families living in cold homes.
The new tenancy laws, which come into effect on Friday, mean all rental properties must have working, long-life smoke alarms by then.
Labour says a failure to place heating standards into the rules means they are not enough to help families living in ...
FAIRFAX NZ
Labour says a failure to place heating standards into the rules means they are not enough to help families living in cold homes.
There must be underfloor and ceiling insulation in all 60,000 social housing properties by Friday, and all new tenancy agreements must declare the level of insulation.
New tenancy rules coming into effect from tomorrow include a requirement for all rentals to have working smoke alarms.
JOHN BISSET/FAIRFAX NZ.
New tenancy rules coming into effect from tomorrow include a requirement for all rentals to have working smoke alarms.
All rental properties, "subject to a few exemptions", must be insulated by July 2019.
Smith said the new rules were the most significant changes in tenancy law in 30 years, and would affect more than 450,000 rentals.
The requirement for all rentals to have working smoke alarms was "a no-brainer", as it was estimated last year that more than a quarter - or 120,000 homes - did not.
Smith said another significant change would allow the Government to prosecute landlords whose properties breached basic standards, instead of relying on tenants to take cases to the Tenancy Tribunal.
"The intention is for most cases to continue to be taken up by affected tenants, and the new law further supports doing this by strengthening the protection from retaliatory evictions by landlords."
'LONG OVERDUE'
A new investigations team would focus on tenancies of vulnerable tenants, as well as landlords with multiple properties which did not meet the rules, Smith said.
Labour housing spokesman Phil Twyford said the law change was "long overdue", but it did not go far enough.
"For too long, the worst slum landlords have been renting out houses that are cold and damp and mouldy and a risk to the health of people living in those homes.
"This bill is a small step in the right direction, but the big gap is it has nothing to say about heating - it's no good just insulating a cold damp mouldy home if you've got no way of heating it."
Failure to provide a rental with working smoke alarms could result in a $4000 fine.
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