“This division of responsibility achieves the balance of minimising damage and keeping costs down for both the property owner and the person renting.”
Ventilation in rental properties has been a controversial topic for years. A lack of ventilation tends to create an environment of moisture. This prevents the property from being able to “breathe” in a healthy manner and can lead to mildew and mould. With obligations for property owners and those renting being unclear, the question of whom was responsible for preventing and dealing with these effects led to a vast difference of opinion. Just search historical Tribunal rulings referencing ventilation. You will find pages of orders with various approaches to decisions on the responsibilities of both property owners and renters. Unfortunately, the ambiguity of the topic in the Residential Tenancies Act, Building Code, and other related Acts left a lot to interpretation.
With the Healthy Homes Standards in place, we now have some clarity on the requirements and responsibilities. The owner of the property is responsible for the tools to enable ventilation, ensuring that each habitable room has external windows or doors and kitchens and bathrooms have extractor fans to the outside (not in the roof cavity). The person renting the property is responsible for using those tools to maintain moisture levels in the property, using the extractor fans and opening windows and doors to allow the house to breathe on a regular basis which helps prevent mildew growth. This division of responsibility achieves the balance of minimising damage and keeping costs down for both the property owner and those renting. Yes, there are sticking points. Some properties may have special features that make compliance with these rules challenging if not downright impossible. But at least we now have a basis from which to work and clarify where exemptions apply.
A healthy home allows for “breathing” by the circulation of air from outside and has methods of extraction to eliminate moisture. However, we don’t want it breathing too much! Draughty houses are difficult to keep warm and cost a small fortune to run. It’s important for rental property owners to attend to the surrounding gaps of windows and doors and ensure there are no gaping holes where free-flowing air undermines the comfort. This requirement in the Healthy Homes Standards was created to allow people who are renting to keep the heat in.
As of 1st July 2020, a statement of the condition of compliance with the Healthy Homes Standards is required to be included with any new or renewed tenancy agreement. Failure to provide this can expose the property owner to the risk of a $500 fine. Although compliance with the standards is not required until 1st July 2021, I would encourage all rental property owners to begin now. This will prevent you from getting caught in a backlog with suppliers. Another incentive to make these changes sooner rather than later is the recent rise in the threshold of low-value asset write-offs. This was increased to $5000 until 17th March 2021, at which point it will return to the $500 level.
An experienced property investor with a background project management and IT, Juli Anne Tolley has been a principal partner of Quinovic Property Management (Tauranga) since 2010 and President of the Tauranga Property Investors Association since 2018.
