Warrants of fitness not the solution: NZPIF

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Warrants of fitness for rental properties are not the solution to unhealthy homes, says the New Zealand Property Investors’ Federation.

Thursday, September 6th 2012, 12:00AM 3 Comments

by The Landlord

The Green Party has a bill in the ballot that would require minimum standards for rental properties.

Property investors have been accused in recent weeks of not taking up the Government’s Warm Up New Zealand insulation subsidy and have been threatened with regulation.

But the NZPIF says more rental properties have been insulated than the statistics would suggest. “This doesn’t take account of all the rental properties that already had insulation. It doesn’t take account of all the rental properties that were insulated under the NZPIF scheme with EECA. It also doesn’t take into account the fact that installers’ costs are such that it is often cheaper to pay full price for the insulation materials and DIY install them. In addition, to these points, the Heat Smart Programme was not initially available to rental properties and promotion of its availability to rental property owners was poor.”

The cost of insulating is not tax deductible and depreciation cannot be claimed.

The Federation says if tenants do not use heaters, insulation will not help keep a property warm. “If curtains are drawn all through the day, then sunlight will not warm up the home. If windows are not left open occasionally to ventilate the property, the condensation and mould will form even when insulation is present.”

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