Fit to rent? Housing WOF trial results released
Fit to rent? Housing WOF trial results released
The results of a rental housing ‘warrant of fitness’ field trial have been released. This is the first step in a collaborative project aimed at making rental housing safer, healthier and more energy efficient.
More than 140 rental properties were given the once-over by home assessment experts in Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin earlier this year. The pilot aimed to test whether draft warrant of fitness (WOF) checklists and methodologies were practical for landlords, assessors and tenants.
The field trial has not resulted in the immediate issue of a WOF for each home, but it is an important step towards standardising methodologies and checklists to ensure the credibility of any national WOF scheme.
The rental housing WOF field trial involved the Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin councils, the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC) and the University of Otago, Wellington. The trial tested a range of criteria that could potentially be included in a housing WOF. It aimed to identify aspects such as average assessment times and how to best communicate results to landlords and tenants.
The assessment tool was developed by the NZGBC and the University of Otago, Wellington, with feedback and input from the five councils, and ACC.
A spokesperson for the steering group behind the WOF survey trial, Dr Julie Bennett from the University of Otago Wellington, says work is now underway to tweak the WOF checklist. “We have received good feedback from landlords, tenants and the assessors and we are now going back to look at the checklist and criteria to make sure we have a robust and usable housing WOF for the rental market.”
Dr Bennett said landlords, assessors and tenants provided valuable information during the field trial. “The trial was really important so that we could gain an understanding about what is going to work for landlords, assessors and tenants. For a housing WOF to work, it has to add value for the landlords and we needed to actually trial the draft WOF checklist and methodology.”
Some of the key information gathered from the field
trial and subsequent interviews are:
•
Landlords surveyed were supportive of a WOF in New
Zealand
• Landlords surveyed said that they
were going to undertake work as a result of the new
information from the draft WOF assessment
• 36
per cent of the homes that went through field trial would
pass all of the draft WOF criteria with relatively minor
fixes ($50 - $150 worth of materials/hardware perhaps).
Items attracting most of the attention during this testing phase included whether houses need a ‘fixed’ form of heating such as a heat pump or a wood burner in order to ‘pass’ the WOF.
After the inspection system has been refined it will be presented to the participating councils for discussion.
Auckland Mayor Len Brown says, with a third of New Zealanders living in rental accommodation, the trial has underscored that a rental housing WOF system would be highly useful to potential renters. “The work so far shows real progress is possible in our efforts to ensure tenants have healthy and safe homes and that landlords maintain good minimum standards. I look forward to the next stage where we can apply this initiative more broadly, particularly in the most vulnerable communities.
Most assessors who were interviewed after the trial said they were willing to make ‘easy’ fixes, while doing the inspections, to make homes compliant. The fixes included installing smoke alarms or smoke alarm batteries, changing lightbulbs or adjusting hot-water temperature.
Many homes still lack working smoke alarms – despite extensive and ongoing advertising – but the trial also found the overall condition of the homes that participated was good.
Around 94 per cent of the homes inspected in the field trial did not pass at least one checklist criteria, but most dwellings failed on only a handful of the 31 inspection targets on the WOF checklist. Around 36 per cent of homes would pass all the criteria in the draft WOF checklist after just a few minor and inexpensive fixes.
In terms of the next steps
for the project, the partners in the project aim
to:
• Share the results of the trial, including
reporting back to relevant councils
• Get
endorsement/agreement from participating councils on the
next steps
• Continue discussions with Central
Government to work towards one WOF tool for
NZ
• Finalise checklists and
methodologies
• Investigate next steps for introduction
of a voluntary WOF scheme.
Facts and figures from the
trial:
• 144 houses inspected
• The
inspection checklist looked at 31 items that covered a wide
range of aspects ranging from weathertightness and
insulation to ventilation, lighting, heating, condition of
appliances and general building safety (see list)
• Age
range from 1880s to less than 10 years old
• Wide range
of houses participated – from detached to
apartments
• Average time to inspect houses – 51
minutes
• The majority of houses ‘failed’ on only a
handful of checklist items
Top five checklist items that
homes did not pass:
o 40 per cent of houses did not pass
the water temperature check
o 30 per cent of bedrooms did
not have a working smoke alarm within 3 metres of the
bedroom
o 31 per cent of houses lacked code-compliant
handrails and balustrades
o 37 per cent of houses did
not pass the check for having a fixed form of heating
o
38 per cent of houses did not pass the security stays
check