— MBIE could come knocking
Fourteen of the 15 Auckland boarding houses MBIE inspected in April this year failed to meet Healthy Homes Standards. While boarding house operators aren’t famous for their attention to regulation, the surprising thing is that two of those properties had passed assessment in 2023 and 2024. It only takes a heat pump filter to clog or an extractor fan motor to give out – ordinary wear and tear left unchecked – to fail an inspection.
Compliance statement no guarantee
Every rental agreement must include a signed Healthy Homes Compliance Statement confirming the property’s position against the five standards: heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture ingress and drainage, and draught stopping.
Since 1 July 2025, the law has required all five to be always met, not just at the start of a tenancy. But the paperwork only captures a moment, and nothing in the compliance process re-checks status unless a landlord, a property manager, or MBIE does it deliberately.
MBIE has stopped waiting for complaints
The Ministry’s Tenancy Compliance and Investigations Team ran 1,100 proactive assessments in 2024 and found a breach in more than 500 of them. It ran over 900 more in the first half of 2025, with a breach found in around 270. Separately, data released under the Official Information Act show 327 cases covering 3,699 properties were closed between last July and the end of May, with at least one Healthy Homes breach confirmed in each. Auckland accounted for 200 of the 463 complaints logged nationwide; Canterbury and Wellington each recorded 52. Across those cases, MBIE recorded 634 separate breaches of the five standards.
Where compliance breaks down
MBIE’s breach data ranks the five standards by how often they fail on inspection. Property managers who carry out routine re-checks report the same patterns showing up on the ground.
| Standard | Breaches recorded | Rank |
| Draught stopping (gaps and holes) | 133 | Most common |
| Heating | 119 | Second |
| Ventilation (extractor fans) | 107 | Third |
| Moisture ingress and drainage | 99 | Fourth |
| Total across 327 closed cases | 634 | 3,699 properties |
- Draught stopping: gaps around doors, windows, and floor penetrations that were sealed once and never checked again.
- Heating: a heat pump that fails to meet the legal minimum for the room. Required capacity is calculated by formula.
- Ventilation: extractor fans in kitchens and bathrooms that no longer meet the required airflow or have simply stopped working.
- Moisture ingress and drainage: guttering, window seals, and door seals that let in water.
- Missing ground moisture barriers: an enclosed subfloor without a polythene barrier is treated as an automatic fail.
- Insulation below the required R-value: especially in pre-2000 stock, where original insulation may never have met the current climate-zone minimum.
- A missing or outdated compliance statement: This is a breach in its own right, carrying a separate penalty of up to $500 per tenancy (even if the property itself is fully compliant).
- Work carried out by an unlicensed tradesperson: heating, insulation, and ventilation fixes done by a handyman rather than a licensed installer routinely fail re-inspection.
What it costs when it reaches the Tribunal
A review of every published Healthy Homes decision from January to May 2026 found landlords lost 100% of tribunal cases involving the heating and ventilation standards. The average award exceeded $4,150; the median was $2,700; the largest reached $31,000. The statutory ceiling is $7,200 per breach for smaller landlords and up to $50,000 for those holding six or more properties, with the tribunal able to separately order repair work worth up to $100,000. Adjudicators have also signalled they expect more from professional property managers than from private landlords, particularly where an issue was already known and not followed through.
Get compliance on the calendar
None of the standards above require major capital work to maintain once a property is compliant. What they require is a re-check between tenancies rather than a one-off assessment. That’s no problem for a landlord with one or two properties, but a different story for a portfolio.
Want a Healthy Homes check built into your management plan? Call us on 0800 GOODWINS.
