In November the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill reached royal assent in NZ's parliament.

This Bill changes some aspects of the Residential Tenancies Act that was legislated last year.

The biggest change so far is to the deadlines -

All rental property that have a new tenancy agreement written after 1 July 2019 must have insulation that meets the requirements as set out by MBIE on the Tenancy Services Web Site.

Secondly, any house that does not have a tenancy change after 1 July 2019 must meet the requirements as set out by MBIE on the Tenancy Services Web Site by 1 July 2024.

MBIE now has several months to review the minimum requirements that were implemented in July 16 and it is expected that there could be further changes to the minimum standards required.  An example of this is the current minimum of 70mm for existing ceiling insulation is a pass so long as it is installed to the NZ standard.  Should the standard be lifted to, say 90mm or 100mm, a lot of houses that have been "passed" will need to be revisited for additional insulation.  Ultimately this is all a guessing game until MBIE complete their review and publish the new standard but it is important that as an industry we are thinking about and planning for the potential impact. 

If new insulation is being installed in a rental property it must be a full grade (min R2.9 for ceiling and R1.3 for under floor).  These grades meet the requirements of the current NZ Building code so it is not expected that any further insulation will be required in those properties.  At The Insulation Warehouse we have many options but our best value is R3.6 ceiling and R1.5 underfloor so we are even further above the current building code standard.

Here are some links that you may find useful:

Healthy Homes Bill

Residential Tenancy Act

Tenancy Services Insulation Requirements This site has not been updated to include the Healthy Home Guarantee Bill at the time of writing.

• Emma
• 20 December