Healthy Homes Guarantee Act standards announced

[Learning]

The regs will be written so that existing is ok but any new or modification needs to be brought up to new standard. And the new law will mean many will need to be modified.

[Nice]

The regs will be written so that existing is ok but any new or modification needs to be brought up to new standard. And the new law will mean many will need to be modified.

No, the new regs will be written just like the existing insulation ones. We will need to upgrade existing bathrooms and kitchens, and install moisture barriers wherever they can feasbly be done. You will NOT get the opportunity to wait until anything else is done !

[Learning]

No, the new regs will be written just like the existing insulation ones. We will need to upgrade existing bathrooms and kitchens, and install moisture barriers wherever they can feasbly be done. You will NOT get the opportunity to wait until anything else is done !

Yes for the new 'healthy homes' bit but existing windows won't need to be upgraded to the toughened glass regs unless you're "modifying" the windows. Such as eri's example.

[eri]

^

my impression too

in an old 60s apartment with louvre windows in kitchen and bathroom was able to replace the top pane of the bathroom louvre with an alloy/acrylic panel and put a small 100m fan through...then remove the louvre handle

https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/manrose-wall/ceiling-fan-standard-100mm-white-fascia/p/172243?gclid=Cj0KCQiAn4PkBRCDARIsAGHmH3cgbBWXtp53njEWdcy2iM2nLI8EHmqy9liTASk3XqSuHFqVd3q-ntIaAmRnEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

looks like will now need to do that to the kitchen too

[artemis]

^

my impression too

in an old 60s apartment with louvre windows in kitchen and bathroom was able to replace the top pane of the bathroom louvre with an alloy/acrylic panel and put a small 100m fan through...then remove the louvre handle

https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/manrose-wall/ceiling-fan-standard-100mm-white-fascia/p/172243?gclid=Cj0KCQiAn4PkBRCDARIsAGHmH3cgbBWXtp53njEWdcy2iM2nLI8EHmqy9liTASk3XqSuHFqVd3q-ntIaAmRnEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

looks like will now need to do that to the kitchen too

"Standards" mean minimums will be specified. We have already been told that an app is to be provided to tell landlords and tenants what fixed heating standards are acceptable and what are not. Why wouldn't extractors and other new standards have specifications attached. (They will.)

[Perry]

Media Item

Meeting new rental property standards not easy, even if you are trying, landlord says
8 Mar 2019

LLs are struggling to get tradespeople to upgrade housing rentals to new government standards. Peter Lewis said he was working to meet the healthy homes standards that included providing heating, insulation and ventilation for all rental properties by July 2021. Renters had higher expectations, so he was happy to upgrade his properties to meet them, because he could charge more rent, Lewis said.

The intention behind the new rules was good but for LLs there were a raft of frustrations that went with complying. A general shortage of tradespeople and a culture of unaccountability in some areas had left him high and dry, he said. "The problem is two-fold. One is getting someone to do something within the time scale, and the other problem, of course, is to get them to do what they say they would do," Lewis said.

[Thinkingbutnotdoing]

I live in a wooden (Fraemohs) 1980s house which we may need to rent out soon as my partner has a new job (2 yrs contract) in another city. We installed extractor fans in the bathrooms when we moved in, ugly as, as they are wired over hte walls (no internal wall cavity). No way will i be installing a rangehood in the kitchen with massive ugly ducting over the cooktop as its simply not necessary!!!! There goes another potential rental property from the market. (curiously in 20yrs of renting, I have only ever once had a kitchen rangehood and thought it was a waste of space, they'd be better to ban drying of laundry inside....)

Oh - and when we put the fire in, i noted that there are batts in the roof (between the wood 65mm thick roof and the building paper/tin). Lucky that, as otherwise we'd have to take the roof off to install insulation - in one of the warmest houses i've ever lived in.

Yes there will need to be exemptions as this is ridiculous.

[Don't believe the Hype]

I’m pretty sure the government want you to buy in the new location as you’ll need somewhere to live and they can’t see why there is a need for landlords.

if it was up to our commie overlords they’d have you sell your house (pay agent fees, mortgage break fees etc) then waste your time finding a place in the new city to buy. Then in about 16 months time pay another agent to sell your short term home in order to move back to your previous location and buy a house when the original one would have done just fine.

Maybe you could write directly to Phail Twitford so he could advise the best course of action.

[skid]

Nope. They are specifying how efficient/economical the heating needs to be. Anything that costs too much to run won't meet the requirements.




On another note, I have a kitchen that you can't install a rangehood in. The standards say that in this case, you need to install a window-mounted extractor. In my case, the window directly behind the stove is an opening one. Oh, the irony.

I will also need to install a through-wall/horizontal bathroom fan (not even sure where the motor goes?) which will not be very effective, I'm guessing, in a stucco wall, right next to an opening window. And God knows how it will even be able to be wired up, as there's no ceiling cavity to run cables through.

So on two counts, (times two, as two flats) I will need to spend extra money (nonstandard installations) to put in sub-optimal products right next to, or through, an opening window. You couldn't make this stuff up!

With the insulation requirements you are exempt if you have no space to put the insulation (ceiling)---Are you sure this is not a similar case with the extractor fan?

[skid]

There is one glaring thing missing from all this regulation......the ability to have someone qualified to come and inspect and give the ok
for situations where a part of the regulation is not necessary(like plastic down on a bone dry under floor area)

[Learning]

There is one glaring thing missing from all this regulation......the ability to have someone qualified to come and inspect and give the ok
for situations where a part of the regulation is not necessary(like plastic down on a bone dry under floor area)

There are enough damp under floor houses to warrant the registration. As soon as you add the words "if needed" you add years of arguments, costly "qualified" inspections and ignorant denials. By making it across the board the few who are the problem get fixed.

[richard56]

There are enough damp under floor houses to warrant the registration. As soon as you add the words "if needed" you add years of arguments, costly "qualified" inspections and ignorant denials. By making it across the board the few who are the problem get fixed.

Hi
That's like saying ...some people have poor eyesight.....not everyone but some....so everyone must pay to have laser surgery done on their own eyes...whether needed or not.
Richard

[Learning]

And saying "not everyone can drive safely so everyone has to wear a seatbelt". Problem is it's not the owners who are effected by the damp, it's their tenants. If everyone drove like little old ladies we wouldn't need seatbelts and if slumlords damp-proofed their rentals we wouldn't need "healthy home guarentee" rubbish.

[artemis]

With the insulation requirements you are exempt if you have no space to put the insulation (ceiling)---Are you sure this is not a similar case with the extractor fan?

Not much detail available yet, just a broad outline. Standards will have to be much more detailed.

[skid]

There are enough damp under floor houses to warrant the registration. As soon as you add the words "if needed" you add years of arguments, costly "qualified" inspections and ignorant denials. By making it across the board the few who are the problem get fixed.

Im sure they must have devices that test that sort of thing(moisture in the earth)---It is by far the driest area of the section in winter---How many private homes actually have this? and what is considered ''enclosed'' Is a skirting with gaps between,(standard bungalow)still enclosed. when I was under there a few years back I ran across a long dead rat....It was the weight of a piece of styrofoam---there are going to be alot of people grumbling about moving untold stuff to put plastic down on dry earth.-----Isulation is ''if needed''in terms of thickness....why not this?(in terms of moisture)