Truthhs
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Property management RESEARCH HEIGHTENS AWARENESS OF SAFETY
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F IT’S LIKELY your rental property is going to be tenanted by a family with children, talk to your property manager about what safety measures you can put in place. Research which claims many private rental houses are not safe places to bring up children is heightening awareness of safety issues in tenanted properties. It found 28 per cent of privately-owned rental properties did not have working smoke alarms, and New Zealand property investors are backing calls for smoke alarms to be made compulsory in rental properties. The Fire Service is asking for photoelectric
smoke alarms in every bedroom, one in the hallway between living areas and bedrooms and one on each level of every rented house. With fire alarms available for less than $10 each, making sure a house is covered is not a large outlay. However many tenants remove batteries and/ or fire alarms for a variety of reasons, and the NZPIF believes landlords should not be held responsible for making sure the alarms are kept in working order. The high number of children killed or injured in driveway accidents is making driveway safety another issue of which
NEED TO KNOW
residential landlords are being made aware. For those who are keen to fence driveways on their properties, Housing New Zealand has a guide available. It also provides driveway safety advice to tenants when they move into a state rental home and regularly includes driveway safety information in its tenant newsletters.
Landlords new to the investment property business need to be broadly aware of health and safety-related requirements in the following laws: • Building Act 2004 and the Building Code • Health Act 1956, and • Housing Improvement Regulations and bylaws made under the Local Government Act 2002. These are set by individual councils.
MORE INFO You can download this information at hnzc.co.nz.
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