Renters left in the cold over warm homes scheme

VINDICATED: Metiria Turei

Bay of Plenty landlords are lagging behind homeowners in taking up a Government offer of free or cheap home insulation.

More than 1000 owner occupied properties have been insulated in the region since the scheme began, compared with almost 400 rental properties.

Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei said the party predicted the scheme would fail renters and this has been proven true.

"Landlords who are only interested in their immediate profit have no incentive to be good landlords."

She said a warrant of fitness scheme was needed to set a minimum standard for housing and hold landlords to account.

However, Tauranga's Smart Energy Solutions manager Carl Vujnovich said the scheme offered enough support - it just needed to be used more.

"There have been calls for greater government support rather than implement a housing warrant of fitness but the support is there waiting to be used."

"It's crazy for landlords not to take up the opportunity."

Nationwide, only one-third of the 36,000 homes retrofitted with insulation since the Warm Up New Zealand: Healthy Homes initiative kicked off in September 2013 were rentals. It's estimated more than half of uninsulated properties are rentals.

Merivale Community Centre social worker Kate Elliot said concerns had also been raised from members of the community about Housing New Zealand with properties that had bare floorboards, no curtains and inappropriate heating.

But Housing New Zealand area manager Teresa Pou said the organisation had spent millions in the region on maintenance and upgrades - and its role was to provide warm, dry and suitable housing to those that need it the most.

It had 1281 properties in Tauranga and "all of our properties have been insulated wherever possible".

"Since 2000 we have carried out insulation work at 1054 Tauranga properties."

Under its Energy Efficiency Programme 202 properties constructed after 2000 were fully insulated, she said.

New thermal backed, mould resistant curtains had also been installed at 265 homes in the city.

"Since August 2012 we have invested $13.7 million on maintenance and upgrades to our Tauranga portfolio across 23,000 working orders that equates to an average of $10,700 per property."

Tauranga Properties Investors Association secretary Lindsay Richards said most of the landlords he knew were responsible because they wanted their tenants to stay.

He had insulated his properties and said if you did not keep up with maintenance "it could end up costing you a fortune".

The WOF programme was too stringent and the added expense would have inevitably bounced back to tenants, he said.

Under the insulation initiative, homeowners or tenants were eligible for free or reduced cost insulation if they had a Community Services Card and the house was occupied by someone under 17 years or over 65 years.