Healthy Homes standards need more teeth

With mandatory Healthy Homes standards coming into effect for all tenancies tomorrow, the Green Party is calling for a new Rental Warrant of Fitness system to give the new standards true effect.

“Healthy Homes standards are only meaningful if they are enforced by a system that is independent and has teeth,” says the Green Party spokesperson for Housing, Tamatha Paul.

“We should turn the Healthy Homes standards into a Rental Warrant of Fitness that is certified by independent certifiers, not self-certified by landlords. I have a Member’s Bill that would do just that.

“We know that the one in three households in New Zealand who rent cannot rely on this Government to properly enforce the standards - to date it has barely done any monitoring at all. Placing the onus on tenants to hold their landlord accountable only plays into the power imbalance in favour of landlords.

“With the recent return of No-Cause Evictions, renters have even less power to exercise their rights, leaving landlords off the hook. That’s why we need independent certification.

"The fines for non-compliance should be higher. When profit from rents far outweighs the cost of non-compliance, there’s little incentive for landlords to improve the quality of their homes"

“Our Rental Warrant of Fitness would also go further in areas such as heating. We would extend the minimum heating requirements to all bedrooms so that all renters stay warm and healthy.

“Our Green Budget provides for training to ensure compliance certification is done consistently and to a high standard, because housing is a human right and everyone who rents should be able to sleep in a warm, dry bedroom,” says Tamatha Paul.

Notes for Editors:

Tamatha Paul’s member’s bill to introduce a Rental Warrant of Fitness is online here: https://bills.parliament.nz/v/1/a4abd5e2-08b5-43f3-83bf-08dc6d5f52cc
Further details on our Rental Warrant of Fitness are included in our Pledge to Renters policy: https://www.greens.org.nz/our_pledge_to_renters

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