Healthy Homes Versus Builders Reports

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Today we're going to talk about healthy home compliance and what does it actually checks versus builders' reports. I've got Evan back. Hello, Evan. Hi. Right. You're the expert in anything to do with reports.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

That's a stretch and a half, but sure I'll take it. Yeah, so healthy home reports versus building inspections. Building inspections cover the entire dwelling and well the entire accessible dwelling, I should say. Whereas healthy homes check specific areas to see if it's compliant with the tenancy services government mandate. So

What Healthy Homes Actually Checks

SPEAKER_00 0:39

ventilation, heating, draft stopping, insulation, surface water issues, those are the main ones. There's a couple of others that I can't think of off the top of my head, but clearly they're not that important. No, that's that's a lie. Smoke alarms. That's another one. So yeah, when it comes to seeing if something's compliant, it's very black and white. And that's what I like about healthy home inspections, because you're going to the government mandate. So if for the heating, heating, for example, you we calculate the

Heating Assessment Tool Explained

SPEAKER_00 1:22

total area of the living space. And a living space doesn't technically mean a living room because that may not be the most used area in a dwelling. So the most used area in a dwelling may be a kitchen dining area that might be bigger. So that there is what we calculate our heating assessment from. Then we go onto the government website to the heating assessment tool, and we put in all the external walls, all the interior walls, if they've got windows, what type of windows, single double glazing. You have to put in the age of the dwelling, where it's located, what council, and that will determine like a baseline R value for the insulation, which is how warm effectively it is. At the end of it, it'll spit out a number that will say, right, you need X amount of kilowatts to heat this house. And then we assess what's on site, if that meets the requirement, if it's within 80% and it's an older unit, it's okay if it's past, I think it's July 1st, 2019, then it would need to be upgraded completely to a new unit to meet the entire heading assessment. And yeah, so it kind of just runs through a checklist. And it's it's a pretty small checklist, but it's it's important to make sure that you know the house is warm, dry. That's what we're kind of there for.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

What blows my mind usually is that people could be buying a house that's not healthy home check for their own needs, but if they're buying as an investment property, it has to be healthy home checked. Don't you think it's weird? How we can live in a house that's substandard?

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Yeah, it is weird. Yeah, yeah. Simple answer. It is weird. Everything should really meet the minimum requirements. And I guess that's what you know the the new H1 standards in New Zealand.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

What is H1?

Minimum Standards And H1 Basics

SPEAKER_00 3:24

So it's the it's the heating.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

The heating guide, essentially. So what the different types of insulation is required in the different areas, zone one, two, and three. I don't think there's a four, I think there's only three, where it's located that will determine what type of insulation is required in a building. And usually, although I have just come across this recently with a healthy home report,

When New Builds Still Fail

SPEAKER_00 3:54

it's a brand new build, but the heating was insufficient for the house. And I don't think the person who designed the house, because it was specified this unit to be put in the house, but that unit is insufficient for the healthy home standards. So they probably didn't check to make sure that it was big enough. So they immediately need to upgrade the heat pump. Yeah. Which is wild because you know it's gonna cost them five, six grand or something.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Yeah, and it's a new house. Yeah, you'd think that yeah, those things are addressed at the start. Yeah, because to me, like, you know, when people go, well, should I be also checking if the house I'm buying has also got the healthy home checks? And to be honest,

Why Buyers Should Get One

SPEAKER_01 4:39

what I started saying to my clients that maybe you should, because eventually down the track, if you're gonna, you know, sell the house or if you're gonna rent it out to buy another house, because a lot of my first-home buyers, they're not buying their forever home. They're buying a house as a stepping stone to get into something better. So that could be a good idea for them to make sure they know what's yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

I mean, healthy homes reports are are really cheap as well.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Okay, how much are they normally?

SPEAKER_00 5:06

They're typically around about $300.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

So to make sure to to see whether or not your home is compliant for healthy homes, then you know, it's gonna have to get done anyways. I don't know any I I I think the legislation changed just recently this year, that it used to be like I think you had like 90 days or something or 60 days to get it healthy homes compliant, but it's it's now changed where you literally can't rent out a house.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

If it's not compliant. And you know, there was a big saga about it because people waited and waited and waited, and then I think on the last day, all the inspectors were run off their feet because suddenly they were getting all those calls to get their houses checked off.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Yeah.

unknown 5:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Why do people do that? Oh, yeah, it's good times, and that's that's when you end up doing, you know, 17 inspections in a week and it's a good time.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Yeah, I can imagine. Okay, so we've covered off the difference between healthy

Deadlines, Fines, And Tribunal Risk

SPEAKER_01 6:04

home compliance versus normal builders' report. Basically, it's slightly different issues that it addresses.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

Yeah, it a lot of it is the same though. Uh and it it's it's just instead of saying what's there, you know, if it's functioning with healthy homes, you then refer back to the the New Zealand standard tenancy and say this is not compliant, this is what is required to be compliant. So we can be very explicit in saying what the fix is. You must do this. Yeah, because it's the law.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

And if you don't do this, you cannot rent it out.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Exactly. Yeah. Okay. Half the time, uh if you're not compliant and you're renting out a house, I think the fine is like seven thousand two hundred dollars. And the fix to get it compliant, the majority of the time it's gonna be a lot less than that.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

And also the tenants apparently can take you to the tribunal and and claim all their rent back.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

So, you know, it's not worth it.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

No.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much, Evan. No worries. Makes it very clear.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Cheers.