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Residential Tenancies Act 1986

Miscellaneous provisions

138B: Healthy homes standards

You could also call this:

“Rules about making homes healthy and safe for people to live in”

The Governor-General can make rules called healthy homes standards that landlords must follow. These standards can cover things like indoor temperature, moisture levels, and requirements for heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture control, draught stopping, and drainage in rental homes.

The standards might say what needs to be installed in the rental home, how to maintain or replace these things, and give details about their quantity, location, condition, type, or technical specifications.

The rules can also explain how to check if the standards are being met and may include some exceptions.

Landlords might need to include information about these standards when they make agreements with tenants. They may also need to keep records about work done on the property, even from before the tenancy started.

These rules can be different for different types of landlords, properties, or areas in New Zealand. They might apply to all landlords or only to some.

For most tenancies, these standards apply to the rental home and any facilities that come with it. For boarding house tenancies, they only apply to the rental home itself.

These regulations are considered secondary legislation, which means they have specific publication requirements.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6866586.

Topics:
Housing and property > Renting
Housing and property > Home safety and repairs
Health and wellbeing > Public health
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Part 5 Miscellaneous provisions

138BHealthy homes standards

  1. The Governor-General may, by Order in Council, make regulations that provide for, in accordance with this section, standards (the healthy homes standards) with which landlords must comply for the purposes of section 45(1)(bb) or 66I(1)(bb).

  2. The healthy homes standards may include any of the following:

  3. standards about the indoor temperatures that must be capable of being achieved in the premises:
    1. standards about other outcomes (for example, levels of moisture or humidity) that must be capable of being achieved in the premises and that may be affected by any of the things referred to in paragraph (c)(i) to (vii):
      1. standards imposing requirements in relation to any of the following:
        1. heating:
          1. insulation:
            1. ventilation:
              1. moisture ingress:
                1. draught stopping:
                  1. drainage:
                    1. any material or other thing relating to a thing referred to in subparagraphs (i) to (vi).

                    2. The requirements that may be imposed by standards under subsection (2)(c) include the following (for example):

                    3. requirements that things be installed or provided at the premises:
                      1. requirements about the inspection, maintenance, or replacement of things that are installed or provided at the premises:
                        1. requirements about the quantities, locations, condition, types, or technical specifications of things that are installed or provided at the premises and requirements about methods of installing or providing things at the premises.

                          1. Regulations under subsection (1) may—

                          2. specify methods for determining whether standards have been complied with (including any assumptions that may be made for the purpose):
                            1. include exceptions to standards.

                              1. The Governor-General may, by Order in Council, make regulations—

                              2. prescribing information relating to the healthy homes standards that must be included in a landlord’s statement for the purposes of section 13A(1CA)(b) or (1CB)(b):
                                1. prescribing the records or other documents that must be retained by a landlord for the purposes of section 123A(1)(ca) (which may include records or other documents relating to work or other things done before the commencement of the tenancy).

                                  1. Regulations under this section may—

                                  2. make different provisions for different descriptions of landlords, premises, areas in New Zealand, or other circumstances:
                                    1. make provisions applying to all landlords or provisions that apply only to particular descriptions of landlords, premises, areas in New Zealand, or other circumstances.

                                      1. In this section, premises, in relation to a tenancy that is not a boarding house tenancy, includes facilities.

                                      2. Regulations under this section are secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

                                      Notes
                                      • Section 138B: replaced, on , by section 6 of the Healthy Homes Guarantee Act 2017 (2017 No 46).
                                      • Section 138B(8): inserted, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).