Warrant of Fitness for rentals (including details)

[flyernzl]

Right now, in Wellington (or elsewhere) you could get a really nice rental for, say, $800 per week
or you can get a really crappy one for $300 per week.

What these people actually want is an $800 per week rental for $300 per week.

(Same goes for Dunedin students).

[Learning]

Hundreds of rentals advertised on Trademe in Wellington right now. But, for example, almost none have the Pets oK box ticked.

For rent: Dod kennel. $200/wk. humans only, no pets allowed!

[flyernzl]

Good news!

Not really.

As I predicted somewhere earlier in this thread, there are two possibly outcomes:

Either very few landlords will take up the optional option
So the call will go out: no-ones doing it, so lets force the bastards and make it compulsory!

Or many will take it up
So the call will go out: Only the bad landlords are not doing it, so lets make it compulsory!

My money is on the first option.

[artemis]

A third option is 'follow the money' or in this case the lack of. Setting up a voluntary system is one thing, though must involve initial and ongoing costs in training, staff costs, systems, procedures, compliance, funding the University of Otago in Wellington to monitor. Costs and outcomes will have to be available under the LGOIM Act, just saying.

Setting up a mandatory system is a whole other order of cost and I doubt any one local authority would want to go it alone. They will press the government to enact legislation for the whole country, and pay to set up a nation wide system. Depending on the outcome of this year's election that could be a goer, though NZ First is rather lukewarm so maybe not.

[Perry]

See No Evil

Temporarily taking a devil's advocacy position here, is it safe to say that all commercial accommodation providers such as hotels, motels, backpackers, camping grounds, etc., all have to have some sort of clipboard-toting, hi-vis-vest-wearing bureaucrat around their places, every so often? Even office buildings and boarding houses over a certain number of rooms? If so, why should residential rentals be different?

What I really can't grasp is why and how all the busybodies think the costs of all this aren't going to be passed on, making residential rentals less affordable, rather than more.

It's a sort of facsimile of all the pseudo-safety costs, scaffolding, double glazing and so on, all making housing less affordable, rather than more. Millions of houses were built in NZ before this new age fetish overtook us all. Same for the many families raised strong and healthy in those uninsulated, non-double-glazed houses.

A builder quoting a job for me said that when putting up roof trusses, the entire internal floor must now have a deep layer of bean bags over it, or safety nets strung across the same area. This all has a cost and somebody must pay.

Perhaps the clipboard-toting, hi-vis-vest-wearing bureaucrats know this and don't care, and the do-gooders and politicians just ignore it and play let's pretend?

[Wayne]

Setting up a mandatory system is a whole other order of cost and I doubt any one local authority would want to go it alone. They will press the government to enact legislation for the whole country, and pay to set up a nation wide system. Depending on the outcome of this year's election that could be a goer, though NZ First is rather lukewarm so maybe not.

Is it within the councils power to make it compulsory?
Can they regulate to that extent?

[Nick G]

My PM is consulting with WCC. The big issue is there is a) No grading on the different checklist items, so visibility strips on your sliding doors are as important as insulation, and b) failing one item means you fail the WoF - so a mint new house without said visibility strips will fail.

The PMs have of course asked for more sensible grading, it remains to be seen if the taskforce take that on board.

[Don't believe the Hype]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/97978929/rental-wof-struggles-to-gain-traction-since-wellington-city-council-launch

The progress on voluntary WOF for rentals is out of the blocks at break neck speed. In the 6 weeks they've been available TWO (2) landlords have booked inspections. Extrapolated out for the full year of the trial that could be 17 or 18 landlords...

But if you're running the program here is your thoughts on it...

"While the numbers seem low, we've had good interest so far considering it's voluntary, and we're only six weeks into a year-long campaign," said Ewan Gebbie, of the Sustainability Trust, which will carry out the inspections.

[Davo36]

Man I hate this crap, more legislation, more cost, NIL benefit.

Just more people wanting to control what other people are doing "To make sure they are doing it right".

Cause you know, we can't be left alone to run our own lives can we?

[flyernzl]

What I really can't grasp is why and how all the busybodies think the costs of all this aren't going to be passed on, making residential rentals less affordable, rather than more.
<snip>

This all has a cost and somebody must pay.

Perhaps the clipboard-toting, hi-vis-vest-wearing bureaucrats know this and don't care, and the do-gooders and politicians just ignore it and play let's pretend?

I think that it is due to the firmly-held belief that all business operators and landlords are extremely wealthy, and spend their spare time diving in and out of their money-pile à la Scrooge McDuck.
Therefore any extra costs can easily - even willing - be 'absorbed' into the overall cost structure of the enterprise with absolutely no impact on the price that customers must pay.

Couple that with the unwavering belief that things can be 'free' (as in the current Adern promises that the first year of tertiary studies will now be free) and the academics/public servants/fawning acolytes can see no valid reason why any increase in overhead will need to be passed on. You can easily afford it!

[artemis]

Man I hate this crap, more legislation, more cost, NIL benefit.

Just more people wanting to control what other people are doing "To make sure they are doing it right".

Cause you know, we can't be left alone to run our own lives can we?

An excellent article by Bryce Wilkinson on this very topic - link below. Much of it relating to housing compliance costs and (not many) benefits.

In the DC comic story, a flying Superman spies Lois Lane tied across a railroad line. A fast-moving passenger train is but metres away. Superman swoops down. With a single out-stretched arm he stops the iron monster dead in its tracks. He has saved Lois. What else could matter?

Well, the comic book did not do a cost-benefit assessment. But the plausible tally is one life saved and hundreds killed or injured in the concertinaed train.

Enter WorkSafe NZ. Its vision is that “everyone who goes to work comes home healthy and safe.”

https://nzinitiative.org.nz/reports-and-media/opinion/how-not-to-save-lives/

[sidinz]

The progress on voluntary WOF for rentals is out of the blocks at break neck speed. In the 6 weeks they've been available TWO (2) landlords have booked inspections.

And one of those wrote a not very complimentary blog post about the experience.

[Perry]

And one of those wrote a not very complimentary blog post about the experience.

. . . which we will be able to read where?

[artemis]

And one of those wrote a not very complimentary blog post about the experience.

Where is that post sidinz?

[sidinz]

Where is that post sidinz?

Somebody linked to it from Graeme's FB page. I read it on my iPad, so unfortunately can't check in my browser history to link it here, sorry.