What is a Healthy Homes compliance statement, and when do I need one?

A Healthy Homes compliance statement is a signed statement in the tenancy agreement that sets out how the property currently meets each of the five Healthy Homes standards: the heating and its capacity, the insulation and its R-values, the extractor fans, drainage and subfloor, and draught stopping. You need one in every new tenancy agreement and in any written renewal or variation. The landlord, or an agent acting as the landlord, signs it, and leaving it out can cost you.

The legal basis

Section 13A of the Residential Tenancies Act requires the landlord to include in a new tenancy agreement a statement, made and signed by the landlord, that they will comply with the Healthy Homes standards, together with the information the regulations prescribe. The same applies to a written renewal or variation of the agreement. Regulations 33 to 39 of the Residential Tenancies (Healthy Homes Standards) Regulations 2019 set out that information, standard by standard.

It arrived in two steps: a statement of intent to comply from 1 July 2019, then details of the property's current level of compliance from 1 December 2020. Tenancy Services' template also combines it with the separate insulation statement the same section requires.

When you need one

• Every new residential tenancy agreement, before the tenancy starts.
• Every written renewal of a tenancy agreement.
• Every written variation of a tenancy agreement.
• Boarding house tenancies, which have their own version of the same obligation.

The statement describes the property as at the date it is signed, so it should reflect a recent look at the house, not last year's paperwork.

What it must contain

Tenancy Services' guidance and the regulations list the required details for each standard:

• Heating: the required heating capacity of the main living room, and for each qualifying heater its type and capacity in kW. If you rely on the modern dwelling or apartment formula, a qualified heating specialist under regulation 10A, geothermal heating under regulation 10B, or the top-up allowance for heaters installed before 1 July 2019, you must say so and briefly why. The specialist route also needs the specialist's name and qualifications.
• Insulation: for each ceiling, the R-value (with install and last inspection dates if known) or the thickness (with the last inspection date if known); for each underfloor space, the R-value with dates if known; and for any ceiling or floor that is not insulated, the reason. The insulation statement also covers the location, type and condition of insulation in ceilings, floors and walls. Wall insulation is not required, but you must make a reasonable effort to find out, and if you cannot, say what you could not find out and why. You do not have to make holes in walls to check.
• Ventilation: a statement that each habitable space has at least one qualifying openable window or door, and for each kitchen and bathroom, whether it has an extractor fan or qualifying ventilation, with each fan's diameter or exhaust capacity, or a brief description of the ventilation system and its exhaust capacity.
• Moisture and drainage: a statement that the property has an efficient drainage system, and either that it has no enclosed subfloor or that each enclosed subfloor has a ground moisture barrier.
• Draught stopping: for each open fireplace, whether it is closed off or available for use at the tenant's written request, and a statement that the property is free of unreasonable gaps and holes that let draughts in or out.
• Exemptions: if any general or specific exemption applies, which one and a brief description of the circumstances.

How to complete and sign it

1. Re-walk the five standards and update your records. Check that fans still vent outside, the heater still works, and nothing has been disturbed under the floor or in the ceiling.
2. Use the Tenancy Services template, our free compliance statement builder, or your own document. Any version is fine as long as it contains the same information and is signed.
3. Complete every section. Where you rely on an exemption or a transitional rule, name it and briefly explain why it applies.
4. The landlord signs and dates it, declaring the information true and correct at the date of signing. A property manager acting as the landlord can sign. A professional can assess the property and supply the details, but cannot sign for you.
5. This signature is in addition to signing the tenancy agreement itself. The insulation statement and compliance statement can be combined and signed once.
6. Attach it to the agreement, give the tenant a copy, and keep yours with the property's records.

The penalty for leaving it out

Failing to include the statement when required is an unlawful act under the Act, for which the Tenancy Tribunal can order up to $750 in exemplary damages. Including something you know to be false or misleading carries up to $900. It is also an infringement offence: the infringement fee is $500, or $1,000 for a landlord with six or more tenancies or a boarding house. Tenancy Services summarises this as a penalty of up to $500 for each tenancy. These are separate from the penalties of up to $7,200 for a property that does not actually meet the standards.

The statement does not change what the house has to be: the Act says it does not affect the landlord's underlying duty to comply. A statement that says complies over a dead extractor fan is a written record of a breach you should have caught.

Statement versus certificate

Assessors often issue their own reports or certificates. They can be good evidence, but they are not the document the law asks for, and they do not replace your signed statement. Our guide to Healthy Homes certificates and compliance statements explains the difference.

Mistakes that cause trouble

• Copying the last statement forward without checking whether anything has changed.
• Writing complies as a hope rather than a checked fact.
• Leaving out fan sizes or heater capacities because they are hard to find. Find them: the rules only let you explain missing information in limited cases, such as insulation you cannot get to.
• Forgetting a statement on a renewal or written variation because the tenant is not changing.

Every line of the statement is a fact you should already hold evidence for. Landy keeps that evidence in a section per standard, next to its in-app compliance statement PDF, so the statement and the records live in the same place.