Frequently Asked Questions

Healthy Home Assessments FAQ's

Find answers to commonly asked questions about our Healthy Homes Assessments service below. If you can’t find your answer here, feel free to get in touch with us through our contact us page.

There is no legal requirement as to who can complete a healthy homes assessment, but there are penalties for not completing a Healthy Homes Assessment correctly.

There is a $500 fine for not completing a HHS compliance statement correctly and/or not including it with the tenancy agreement when it’s needed.

The Tenancy Tribunal may also award exemplary damages, a financial penalty of up to $4000 against the landlord, which is usually awarded to the tenants. This will likely be in cases of not meeting the standards and taking into account the intention of the landlord and the effect non-compliance had on the tenant.

The Tribunal may also award compensation for any material loss and/or general damages for intangible loss, stress, humiliation, and inconvenience suffered by the tenant due to the landlord’s non-compliance.

Source: myrent.co.nz/hhs-compliance-and-penalties.

Because Healthy Home Assessment Heating Requirements are so specific, landlords are encouraged to seek professional, impartial assessment. Purchasing and installing heat pumps is expensive. To avoid:

  1. Putting them in the wrong place and having to relocate them, or
  2. Buying the wrong type and having to replace it

It pays to seek professional advice that’s independent.

Resultz Group New Zealand is not affiliated with any electrical company or heating provider, and so we do not profit from any sales or installation of heating devices.

Our assessments typically require 60-90 minutes onsite. Then our technicians prepare a detailed report. While our standard turnaround time for report completion and delivery is 5 working days, we also offer priority services for faster completion.

Healthy Home Assessment Compliance Statements are highly detailed. This is because there are very specific standards against five broad areas that need to be reviewed and documented.

Source: Tenancy Services

You’ll be given a detailed report that tells you what aspects have failed and what you need to do to meet compliance. In order to remedy these areas you can either:

  1. Resolve them yourself, or
  2. Engage the services of a professional to do this for you

If your property is in the management of a rental company, they will likely have a professional network they can call on to remedy issues for you.

Once the work is complete, provide us with documents and invoices to support the remedial action taken. Once we are confident that the home now meets these standards, we’ll issue an updated Healthy Homes Compliance statement. It’s important that work is undertaken by certified, licensed professionals to ensure compliance.

By July 2021 all private landlords must ensure their rental properties comply within 90 days of any new tenancy.

An assessment of several thousand properties since June 2020, found 90% of homes failed some part of the Healthy Homes Standards Assessment.

  1. Insufficient heating in the largest living area
  2. Extractor fans not externally ducted
  3. No plastic ground moisture barrier in homes with enclosed subfloor space

Failure to comply with new requirements for smoke alarms is another common finding in the several thousand homes assessed.

Any heating device installed before 2018 will quietly possibly not meet the Healthy Homes Standards Assessment. Prior to 2018, there were different requirements as per the Residential Tenancy Act. Today we find heating is often in the wrong location, or wattage is insignificant for the area being heated.

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