Do rental kitchens and bathrooms need extractor fans?

Yes. Under the Healthy Homes ventilation standard, every kitchen and bathroom in a rental needs an extractor fan that vents to the outdoors, or a qualifying continuous mechanical ventilation system. Fans installed on or after 1 July 2019 must meet a minimum size or flow rate. Fans installed before then can stay as long as they work and vent outside.

The size and flow rules

• Kitchen fans and rangehoods installed on or after 1 July 2019: the fan and all its exhaust ducting must be at least 150 mm in diameter, or have an exhaust capacity of at least 50 litres per second.
• Bathroom fans installed on or after 1 July 2019: the fan and all its ducting must be at least 120 mm in diameter, or have an exhaust capacity of at least 25 litres per second.
• Fans installed before 1 July 2019: no size or flow requirement, but they must be in good working order and vent outside. The ducting must be connected, intact and free of kinks, and grilles and filters must not be clogged.
• When a pre-2019 fan stops working and cannot be repaired, its replacement must meet the size or flow rule above.

A fan only needs to meet one of the two tests. If it relies on size, the diameter has to be kept through the whole duct run, including bends. If it relies on flow, remember that ducting reduces real-world performance: a fan vented straight through a wall will get close to its rated flow, while one with a long, bendy duct needs a higher rating to compensate. Tenancy Services advises asking installers to put the fan diameter, ducting and flow rate in writing, because the compliance statement needs one of those figures for every kitchen and bathroom.

What counts as a kitchen or a bathroom

• A kitchen is a space with an indoor cooktop installed. In an open-plan kitchen and living area, the rule follows the cooktop.
• A bathroom is a space with a bath or shower installed. An ensuite with a shower is a bathroom.
• A separate toilet or a laundry with no bath or shower is not a bathroom under this standard, so the extractor fan rule does not apply to it.

What does not count

• Recirculating rangehoods and fans, which filter air and put the moisture back into the room. They can be made to comply by adding ducting to the outside.
• Recirculating ventilation systems. Tenancy Services names HRV and DVS type products as examples that do not meet the standard.
• Any fan that vents into the roof space, wall cavity or subfloor rather than outdoors.
• Openable windows on their own, unless the specific exemption below applies.

Combined heater, fan and light units need checking. Tenancy Services notes that not all of them meet the 120 mm or 25 litres per second requirement.

The continuous ventilation alternative

Instead of fans, a kitchen or bathroom can be served by qualifying continuous mechanical ventilation that extracts air directly from the room to the outdoors. It qualifies if it was part of the original building consent for a home first consented on or after 1 November 2019 and still meets that consent, or if it is a multi-room system that extracts at least 12 litres per second from the kitchen and at least 10 litres per second from the bathroom.

Exemptions

There is a specific exemption for a kitchen or bathroom where all of these apply: it had no extractor fan or qualifying ventilation at the start of the tenancy; it is not reasonably practicable for an experienced professional installer to fit a compliant fan; not having a fan was lawful when the room was built or converted; and if that was only lawful because of alternative ventilation such as openable windows, the room still meets those requirements. Tenancy Services' example is an apartment several floors up where a licensed electrician has advised a fan cannot reasonably be installed and the kitchen's windows met the Building Code when it was built.

Normal installation work does not qualify. Cutting through a ceiling and running ducting is ordinary fan installation, not substantial building work. Get professional advice in writing if you think the exemption applies, keep it, and note that the exemption ends if installation becomes practicable. The general exemptions also apply; see our guide to Healthy Homes exemptions.

How to check your fans

1. List every room with an indoor cooktop, bath or shower.
2. Find each fan's installation date from invoices. If it went in on or after 1 July 2019, find its diameter or flow rate on the label, the product specification or the installer's invoice.
3. Run the fan, go outside and find the outlet. The flap should open or you should feel air moving. If you cannot find an outlet, check the roof space: ducting that ends there fails.
4. Look along the ducting where you can for disconnections, tears or crushed sections.
5. For a rough performance check, hold a square of toilet paper to the grille while the fan runs. It should be held against the grille. This is a quick check, not a measurement.
6. Clean clogged grilles and filters, and photograph the label, the outside outlet and the invoice for your records.

Tenancy Services also has an online ventilation tool to help work out whether you need new fans. More on the whole standard, including openable windows, is on our ventilation page.

When a fan fails

Anything installed to meet the standards must be kept in good working order or replaced within a reasonable time. Tenants should report a fan that has stopped, gone noisy or stopped clearing steam. Tenancy Services' guidance treats cleaning grilles and filters as generally the tenant's job, unless it needs technical knowledge or tools or the filter is hard to reach; worn bearings, loose ducting and repairs are the landlord's. Any electrical work needs a licensed electrician. You can enter to do the work with at least 24 hours' notice, giving the reason, between 8am and 7pm. Log the report, the fix and the new fan's specification against the property, and test every fan at routine inspections.