Thursday, May 15, 2014



Why we need rental property WOFs

For the past few years, housing and health advocates have been pushing for a "warrant of fitness" for rental properties. The biggest opponents of this move have been landlords. Why? Because their properties fail the tests:

More than 90 per cent of New Zealand rental homes inspected in a pilot warrant of fitness test failed to pass.

The trial, which assessed 144 properties across Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, found the vast majority (94 per cent) failed on at least one of the 31 criteria on the checklist.

Carried out by home assessment experts, the inspections looked at weathertightness, insulation and ventilation, lighting, heating, condition of appliances and general building safety.

The top five areas that rental homes failed on were water temperature, lack of smoke alarms in bedrooms, lack of code-compliant handrails and balustrades, lack of a fixed form of heating, and security.


So basicly landlords want the right to rent substandard properties and skimp on basic maintenance. Fuck that. The quicker we have this as a mandatory requirement on rental properties, the better.