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Blowtorch turned on cold landlords
NEIL REID Last updated 05:00 17/04/2011
Gareth Hughes
An MP campaigning to ensure rental homes are warm and healthy is turning the heat up on landlords.
Green Party's Gareth Hughes is trying to introduce legislation to ensure all rental properties meet a new minimum energy performance standard by 2018.
Travelling New Zealand while researching for his Warm Healthy Rentals member's bill, he said he encountered a number of "tragic tales" of tenants being poorly treated by landlords.
An elderly woman had to dip into her small life savings fund to pay for a heat pump, after her doctor told her he was concerned about her living in a "cold and damp" house, he said.
"This elderly lady is in her mid-90s and lived in the same house for 30 years," Hughes told Sunday News.
"She had a doctor's letter saying the house was essentially shortening her life because it was cold and damp, yet the landlord still refused to put a heat pump in.
"So she dipped into her life-savings... now that elderly lady only has $400 to her name."
Hughes said the landlord should have paid for the heat pump, which would increase the home's value and reduce risks of mould and rot.
The MP said he was also contacted by tenants whose landlord used their Community Services card number to have a heat pump installed in their rental property. Using the card meant the landlord got a larger Government subsidy, under its Warm Up New Zealand scheme.
But just a day after the heavily subsidised heat-pump was installed, the tenants were informed their property was being put up for sale.
Under Hughes' proposed Warm Healthy Rentals bill, landlords who failed to meet minimum energy performance standards in their rental properties would face fines up to $10,000.
The MP said landlords would reap long-term financial benefits.
"It is going to increase the retail values of their properties, it means they are going to be able to attract better tenants and also the house is going to last longer if it is not damp and mouldy," Hughes said.
New Zealand's youngest MP at 29, Hughes stayed in student flats and investigated some "of the coldest, most unhealthy houses in the country" while researching for his bill.
He said the standard of many rentals was a "scandal".
"It is not just a student issue... it effects so many New Zealanders around the country," he said.
"And I am trying to change that stereotype that students like living in cold, crappy houses. They want to live in warm houses, but they want to live in affordable housing.
"I saw some houses in Dunedin where the window sills were virtually like a Cadbury Flake bar... you could pull big chunks of wood off them."
- Sunday News
NEIL REID Last updated 05:00 17/04/2011
Gareth Hughes
An MP campaigning to ensure rental homes are warm and healthy is turning the heat up on landlords.
Green Party's Gareth Hughes is trying to introduce legislation to ensure all rental properties meet a new minimum energy performance standard by 2018.
Travelling New Zealand while researching for his Warm Healthy Rentals member's bill, he said he encountered a number of "tragic tales" of tenants being poorly treated by landlords.
An elderly woman had to dip into her small life savings fund to pay for a heat pump, after her doctor told her he was concerned about her living in a "cold and damp" house, he said.
"This elderly lady is in her mid-90s and lived in the same house for 30 years," Hughes told Sunday News.
"She had a doctor's letter saying the house was essentially shortening her life because it was cold and damp, yet the landlord still refused to put a heat pump in.
"So she dipped into her life-savings... now that elderly lady only has $400 to her name."
Hughes said the landlord should have paid for the heat pump, which would increase the home's value and reduce risks of mould and rot.
The MP said he was also contacted by tenants whose landlord used their Community Services card number to have a heat pump installed in their rental property. Using the card meant the landlord got a larger Government subsidy, under its Warm Up New Zealand scheme.
But just a day after the heavily subsidised heat-pump was installed, the tenants were informed their property was being put up for sale.
Under Hughes' proposed Warm Healthy Rentals bill, landlords who failed to meet minimum energy performance standards in their rental properties would face fines up to $10,000.
The MP said landlords would reap long-term financial benefits.
"It is going to increase the retail values of their properties, it means they are going to be able to attract better tenants and also the house is going to last longer if it is not damp and mouldy," Hughes said.
New Zealand's youngest MP at 29, Hughes stayed in student flats and investigated some "of the coldest, most unhealthy houses in the country" while researching for his bill.
He said the standard of many rentals was a "scandal".
"It is not just a student issue... it effects so many New Zealanders around the country," he said.
"And I am trying to change that stereotype that students like living in cold, crappy houses. They want to live in warm houses, but they want to live in affordable housing.
"I saw some houses in Dunedin where the window sills were virtually like a Cadbury Flake bar... you could pull big chunks of wood off them."
- Sunday News
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