Landlords required to insulate properties and install smoke alarms
Landlords will be required to insulate properties and install smoke alarms, Housing Minister Nick Smith has announced.
Under plans to strengthen the Residential Tenancies Act all tenanted properties will require floor and ceiling insulation by mid 2019, while social housing which receives government subsidies will require insulation by July 2016.
From next year all rentals will also need to have smoke alarms, and where new smoke alarms were being installed they would have to be more expensive long-life smoke alarms which retail at around $40 or more each.