Healthy Homes Compliance: What I Check on My Own Properties (NZ)

Why I did this myself first

I own four apartments at Imperial Gardens, 135 Hobson St in Auckland CBD: a three-bedroom, two one-bedrooms with car parks, and a one-bedroom. When the Healthy Homes Standards came into force I had to get all four compliant. Not because a tenant complained, but because it is the law and the penalties are real.

Before the body corporate got involved I did my own research on each of the five standards, working out what applied, what I was exempt from, and what needed fixing. A few weekends with the regulations and a tape measure. Our body corp later arranged a professional assessment and sent compliance certificates to all owners, which confirmed everything I had already figured out. I was glad I had done the homework first, because I understood what the certificate actually meant.

Here is what I learned going through it, standard by standard. The official summary is on the Tenancy Services healthy homes page, and the binding detail is in the Healthy Homes Standards Regulations 2019. For the deeper explanation of each standard, see my complete Healthy Homes Standards guide.

Heating

The heating standard requires a fixed heater in the main living area that can heat the room to at least 18 degrees Celsius. The key word is "fixed": portable heaters do not count, and neither do unflued gas heaters or open fires.

My apartments do not have heat pumps or fixed heaters. The body corp does not allow split systems in any unit, and I have not installed panel heaters. But the units are warm, even too hot sometimes. Each apartment has only one external wall, surrounded by other heated units on all sides. They are warm, dry, and centrally ventilated. Some owners in the building have installed fixed panel heaters; mine have not needed it.

For most standalone houses a heat pump is the obvious choice. The bit that catches people out: it has to be big enough for the room. You cannot stick a small unit on the wall and call it done. Use the heating calculator on the Tenancy Services site: punch in room dimensions, ceiling height, region, and insulation level. Check the manufacturer specs so the rated output meets the required number. An undersized unit is non-compliant even though it is bolted to the wall and working fine.

Insulation

This is where apartments differ from standalone houses, and it tripped me up at first. In an apartment building you typically do not have a crawl space under the floor or an accessible ceiling cavity above your unit. My apartments have concrete slab floors, and the ceiling space belongs to the unit above or the building structure.

The good news: concrete slab floors and inaccessible ceiling spaces are exempt. But you still have to confirm and document the exemption. I checked with the body corporate to understand the building construction: concrete floors, insulated roof above the top floor.

For standalone houses you need ceiling insulation of at least R2.9 in the warmer zones 1 and 2, rising to R3.3 in the colder zone 3 (the lower South Island), and underfloor insulation of at least R1.3. It has to be in reasonable condition: compressed, sagging, or water-damaged insulation does not pass. Get up in the ceiling and look.

Ventilation

Every habitable room needs at least one window or door that opens to the outside, with an openable area of at least 5% of the floor area. Most modern apartments meet this, but I measured anyway.

The bigger requirement is extractor fans. The kitchen needs one that vents outside, not a recirculating rangehood. The bathroom needs either an extractor fan ducted outside or an opening window; if there is no window, the fan is mandatory.

In one of my units the bathroom fan had stopped working and I had not noticed, because the window was always cracked open. Replaced it: twenty minutes and fifty bucks. Check yours. A broken fan is non-compliant even if the bathroom has a window.

Moisture and drainage

The moisture standard requires efficient drainage for storm water and surface water, no obvious leaks, and a ground moisture barrier over any exposed earth in an enclosed subfloor.

For my apartments, drainage is handled by building common infrastructure. But I still checked for leaks around windows and doors. One unit had a slow leak around a window frame from failed sealant. Fixed it before it became a compliance issue.

If you have a standalone house with exposed earth under an enclosed subfloor, you need a polythene ground moisture barrier covering all the ground. Gutters and downpipes need to be clear and working. Walk around the property during heavy rain sometime. You will quickly see what is draining and what is not.

Draught stopping

All unused open fireplaces and chimneys must be blocked: a chimney balloon, a fitted board, whatever works. My apartments do not have fireplaces, but if you have a house with a decorative one that has not been used in years, this is yours to solve.

Beyond fireplaces, there must be no unreasonable gaps or holes that cause noticeable draughts. Not airtight, just no daylight under doors or wind through wall gaps. I walked through each unit with the windows closed, feeling around doors and frames. Draught excluders on external doors, gap filler on wall penetrations. Small fixes, big difference.

The compliance statement

Before or at the start of every new tenancy you must give the tenant a signed compliance statement with specific details for each standard: heater type and capacity, insulation R-values or exemption reasons, ventilation confirmation, drainage condition, and draught stopping.

Tenancy Services has a template on their website. Use it. Fill it out with real numbers. If your property does not meet a standard yet, you must disclose that. A false or misleading compliance statement is itself a breach. For more on what assessors produce and how it differs from your own statement, see healthy homes assessment certificates.

With the turnover I have had across four units, fourteen-plus tenants, that is a lot of compliance statements. Having the data already recorded turns it into a five-minute job instead of a weekend project.

If you own a house, not an apartment

My experience is with unit titles where the body corp eventually handled the assessment. A standalone house is a different situation:

• New build: ask the developer for Healthy Homes compliance information before you settle. It should be straightforward for a modern home.
• Buying an existing rental: ask the agent for compliance information before you make an offer. Make sure it is compliant, or factor the cost of getting it compliant into your offer price.
• An older house you already own: get it professionally assessed and bring it up to standard. The assessor should give you a document confirming compliance that you can rely on if you are ever inspected. Budget roughly $250 to $400 for the assessment. The fixes vary: a few hundred dollars for draught stopping and fans, or a few thousand if you need ceiling insulation or a heat pump installed.

Track it properly, because the penalties are real

Failing to meet the Healthy Homes obligations is an unlawful act under the Residential Tenancies Act. The Tribunal can order exemplary damages up to $7,200, and Tenancy Services can issue infringement notices. For landlords who own six or more rental properties and act in trade, a separate pecuniary penalty path applies with much higher maximums. Non-compliance is one of the most common reasons tenants take landlords to the Tribunal, and one of the easiest to prove, because the standards are objective and measurable. The extractor fan either vents outside or it does not.

That compliance overhead is one reason I am cautious about growing beyond my current portfolio. The rules change with most new governments, and keeping up across a larger portfolio becomes a real cost in time and money. It is not only Healthy Homes: interest deductibility, the bright-line test, ring-fenced losses, tenancy-law amendments. Every year there is something new. If you are thinking about scaling, factor in the compliance cost, not just the mortgage.

Keep receipts for everything: heater installations, insulation work, fan replacements. If a tenant disputes your compliance statement, receipts and photos are your evidence. I learned this from my own Tribunal experiences: documentation wins cases. The landlord who shows up with organised records gets taken seriously. The one who says "I think I fixed that last year" does not. A routine inspection checklist is a good way to catch a failed fan or a torn moisture barrier between tenancies.

How RentManager handles this

I built the Healthy Homes tracking in RentManager because I was tired of keeping this in a folder of paper receipts and photos. Each property now has its compliance status recorded: what is compliant, the details behind it, and when it was last checked. Reminders surface the work before it bites. When I set up a new tenancy I can see exactly where each property stands before the tenant moves in, so the compliance statement is filled from data I already hold. No scrambling, no guessing.

If you manage your own properties, get on top of this. Walk through each unit, work through the five standards, document everything. It is a weekend's work that saves you thousands in potential penalties and gives you confidence you are doing right by your tenants.

Frequently asked questions

What are the five Healthy Homes Standards?

Heating (a fixed heater able to reach at least 18 degrees Celsius in the main living area), insulation (ceiling and underfloor to minimum R-values), ventilation (opening windows plus extractor fans in kitchen and bathroom), moisture and drainage (efficient drainage and a ground moisture barrier over enclosed subfloors), and draught stopping (block unused fireplaces and seal noticeable gaps).

Do Healthy Homes Standards apply to apartments?

Yes, but some standards may be met by exemption. Concrete slab floors and inaccessible ceiling spaces are exempt from the insulation standard, for example, but you still have to confirm and document why the exemption applies.

What R-values does the insulation standard require?

Ceiling insulation of at least R2.9 in the warmer zones 1 and 2 (R3.3 in the colder zone 3) and underfloor insulation of at least R1.3, and it must be in reasonable condition.

What is the penalty for failing the Healthy Homes Standards?

Failing the obligations is an unlawful act under the Residential Tenancies Act 1986. The Tenancy Tribunal can award exemplary damages up to $7,200, and Tenancy Services can issue infringement notices. Higher pecuniary penalties apply to landlords with six or more rental properties acting in trade.