Smith Nick: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSmith Nick: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8624. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for Building and Housing): I move That the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services Committee to consider this bill. This bill is part of this Government’s practical programme to improve the safety and well-being of Kiwi families particularly those who are the most vulnerable. It builds on our work this year of increasing base benefits for the first time in 30 years and the extension of free doctors visits for under-13-year-olds. It contains well-targeted measures that will deliver warmer drier and safer homes.We all know the connection between the quality of housing and how this impacts on the social educational and health outcomes for our families. The goal of this bill is to maximise the gains in housing quality while minimising the costs we impose on the sector that will ultimately be passed on in increased rents.The first big change in this bill is around home insulation. It addresses the problem that not until 1978 did we require nationally new homes to be insulated. We set out in 2008 with an ambitious programme to warm up these homes. We first needed to get our own house in order and launched a programme to insulate every State house that could be insulated completing 40000 by 2014. We also invested $500 million in grants for retrofitting insulation in private homes and to date we have done 280000 homes.The measures in this bill are the next logical step. They will require all tenanted homes to be insulated by 1 July 2019. Those homes receiving the very high Government income-related rent subsidy will be required to comply by 1 July next year. The bill also introduces a new disclosure regime where landlords will be required in new tenancy agreements from 1 July next year to state whether the home has underfloor ceiling and wall insulation and to what level. This is designed to better inform the rental market of the insulation standard of homes—something that is not easy to do via pre-rental inspections—and to help lead the sector in providing warm healthier homes by the deadline of winter 2019.We estimate these new requirements will see 180000 tenanted homes insulated over the next 3 years on top of the 320000 we have done to date through our other programmes. This contrasts with just 19000 done during the 9 years of the last Government and makes a mockery of Labour’s current claims that the Government’s efforts are insufficient. A lasting positive legacy of this John Key - Government will be 500000 insulated homes providing 1.3 million New Zealanders now and into the future with warmer drier and healthier accommodation.It is important these insulation measures are kept practical. For these reasons they are constrained to underfloor and ceiling insulation where the gains are greatest and because it is not economic to retrofit wall insulation. We are also allowing exceptions in the draft regulations to those homes with raked ceilings or minimum floor clearances.There are also exceptions for where a property is to be demolished in the next 12 months and in those situations where it is tenanted by the previous owner for short periods. We welcome feedback on the associated regulations to this bill so we achieve our goal of not requiring insulation where it is not practical but equally not allowing an easy “get out of jail free” card for those landlords just trying to avoid costs.The second significant measure in this bill is the requirement for smoke alarms in all tenanted properties from 1 July next year. It is estimated that 120000 rental properties currently do not have a working smoke alarm. We see tragedy after tragedy of home fires and the loss of life because of a lack of this most basic and inexpensive protection. The requirement we are proposing with this bill and the regulations is a minimum of one smoke alarm in the hallway within 3 metres of each bedroom each self-contained sleep out or caravan and on each floor of a home. We want to shift to the newer 10-year long-life smoke alarms and so we are requiring that all new and replacement alarms are either this sort or the hardwired type. These new smoke alarm requirements are expected to prevent three fatalities per year and for every dollar spent to save over $15.This bill has been developed in the context of a wider debate about whether we need a broader warrant of fitness regime for housing like we have for motor vehicles. I came to this debate open minded and have carefully considered the issue over the past 2 years. It is true that we do have tenanted properties that are dives and unfit to be lived in. But on investigation apart from these issues of insulation and smoke alarms I found the problem over the quality of these rentals was one of enforcement. The existing housing regulations already require homes to be free of dampness to be secure to not leak to have safe wiring and to have proper sanitation. The answer lies not in more regulation but in strengthening compliance.This bill makes three important changes in this regard. The first is it would enable my ministry to take enforcement cases to the Tenancy Tribunal. This acknowledges that there are some vulnerable tenants—people with disabilities—who will not realistically take a dodgy landlord on. They either put up with unsafe or unhealthy homes or leave the property for another vulnerable tenant. There is a public interest in the ministry being able to take these cases on get the houses upgraded and ensure a better overall standard of housing in New Zealand.The second change is beefing up the enforcement of work orders from the Tenancy Tribunal to fix a substandard property. The bill removes a landlord’s defence of forgetfulness over an order and ensures that a monetary payment cannot be used as a substitute for getting a home repaired. We also want to strengthen the protection for tenants who take cases to the tribunal over these housing standards issues. A tenant will be able to apply for a retaliatory eviction notice to be quashed up to 28 days after it is given and the landlord will be able to be fined up to $2000 for an unlawful retaliatory notice.The reason we believe these measures are the best way to improve rental housing standards is that they are targeted at those homes that are the real problem. Requiring every one of New Zealand’s 450000 rental properties to be annually inspected with a warrant of fitness would cost over $100 million a year. This is just the administrative cost and does not physically improve a single home. This cost would inevitably be passed on to tenants and put rents up by over $200 a year an increase that would squeeze many household budgets.I am also doubtful of the practicality of some of the draft warrant of fitness proposals I have seen. Requiring staircases to have certain widths and step depths is justifiable for new buildings but would impose enormous costs on older rentals. I noticed my own home and Beehive office break some of the proposed rules for visibility strips on full-height windows and sliding doors which are way too nanny State for this Government. The approach taken in this bill of nailing the practical issues like insulation and smoke alarms and strengthening enforcement of the existing regulations is a more effective way forward.The final change I want to note in this bill is about property abandonment. When this happens landlords lose rent but the community also loses by a property being left vacant while people are desperate for housing. This bill contains sensible faster mechanisms for dealing with those situations.I thank the many organisations tenant advocates insulation experts fire-prevention proponents and the New Zealand Property Investors Federation for the input into this bill. It will make tens of thousands of homes warmer drier and safer and deserves the support of this House. I commend the bill.