Healthy Homes compliance statement NZ: what landlords need to keep on file

A Healthy Homes compliance statement is the signed record in a new, renewed, or varied tenancy agreement that explains the rental property's current level of compliance with the Healthy Homes Standards. It is not just a formality. It should be backed by records that show how the property meets the standards, what was checked, and what evidence sits behind the statement.

This is general information for New Zealand landlords, not legal advice. Tenancy Services, qualified assessors, and legal advisers should remain the source of truth for legal or technical decisions.

What is a Healthy Homes compliance statement?

A Healthy Homes compliance statement records the rental property's current level of compliance with the standards. Tenancy Services says new, renewed, or varied tenancy agreements must include a signed statement with details of the property's current compliance level.

The statement is designed to cover the Healthy Homes Standards and exemptions, and it can also combine insulation information that landlords must provide. The practical point is simple: the statement should match the real property records, not sit separately as a document nobody can prove later.

When do landlords need to include one?

Landlords need to include the statement when required for new, renewed, or varied tenancy agreements. Tenancy Services also says all private rentals must comply with the Healthy Homes Standards from 1 July 2025, unless an exemption applies.

If the statement is missing when required, Tenancy Services says landlords could face a financial penalty of up to $500 for each tenancy. If the property does not meet Healthy Homes obligations, larger consequences can apply, including financial penalties of up to $7,200.

What needs to be included in the statement?

The compliance statement needs enough detail to show the property's current level of compliance across the standards. Tenancy Services lists information that can be required for heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture ingress and drainage, draught stopping, and exemptions.

For a landlord, that usually means having answers to questions like:

• What fixed heater serves the main living area, and what is its heating capacity?
• What insulation is present in ceilings and underfloor spaces?
• Are kitchen and bathroom extractor fans vented outside, and what are their capacities or diameters?
• Does the property have efficient drainage?
• If there is an enclosed subfloor, is there a ground moisture barrier?
• Are open fireplaces blocked where required?
• Is the property free from unreasonable draught gaps?
• If an exemption applies, what is the exemption and why does it apply?

Do not treat this as a memory task. If a tenant asks for compliance information later, you need records that support what the statement says.

What records should landlords keep?

Tenancy Services says landlords must keep records and documents that show how they comply with the Healthy Homes Standards, and tenants can request this information. Landlords must provide requested compliance information to tenants within 21 days.

Useful records include:

• signed Healthy Homes compliance statements
• heating capacity calculations or assessor notes
• heater make, model, location, and installation records
• insulation R-values, thickness, install dates, inspection dates, and photos
• extractor fan details and proof they vent outside
• drainage, gutter, downpipe, and subfloor moisture-barrier records
• draught-stopping photos, invoices, and notes
• assessor reports
• contractor quotes, invoices, and completion notes
• tenant communications about mould, damp, heating, ventilation, leaks, or draughts
• follow-up dates for anything that needs rechecking

The goal is not to create a giant compliance archive. The goal is to keep the records close enough to the property that you can find them when a tenancy starts, a tenant asks, a contractor visits, or a dispute appears.

What is the common landlord mistake?

The common mistake is treating the compliance statement as a one-off paperwork step. Healthy Homes compliance is ongoing. Heating systems fail, extractor fans stop working, gutters block, seals wear out, and tenant-reported damp can reveal a problem that was not obvious during the last check.

That means the statement should sit inside a workflow:

1. Record the property's current Healthy Homes status.
2. Attach the evidence that supports each standard.
3. Log tenant reports that may affect compliance.
4. Book or approve work when something changes.
5. Update the record after assessment, repair, or inspection.
6. Keep the next tenancy agreement and compliance statement aligned with the current property state.

This is where self-managing landlords often lose time. The information is usually somewhere, but it is scattered across emails, PDFs, photos, trade invoices, text messages, and memory.

How should landlords run a simple compliance workflow?

Use a property-by-property workflow rather than a document-only workflow. For each rental, keep one active Healthy Homes record with:

• the latest statement
• current status for each standard
• supporting evidence
• unresolved gaps
• assigned next steps
• owner approvals
• contractor updates
• tenant-facing communication
• follow-up date

If a tenant reports mould, damp, no heating, a broken extractor fan, a leak, or a draught issue, connect that report back to the same compliance record. That way the issue does not sit in one inbox while the statement sits in another folder.

Where Keel fits

Keel does not replace Tenancy Services, a qualified assessor, a contractor, or a legal adviser.

Keel helps with the operating layer around Healthy Homes work:

• property records stay attached to the rental
• tenant reports can be linked to the right maintenance or compliance job
• photos, invoices, and follow-up notes are easier to keep together
• approval steps do not rely on scattered messages
• reminders and evidence are less likely to disappear into memory

For a self-managing landlord, the benefit is not only having the statement. It is having a calmer way to keep the statement, the evidence, and the follow-up work aligned.

If Healthy Homes compliance is becoming an inbox-and-memory job, see Keel's Healthy Homes compliance workflow for NZ landlords.

Source notes

• Tenancy Services, Compliance statement.
• Tenancy Services, Healthy homes compliance.
• Tenancy Services, Required statements for tenancy agreements.
• Tenancy Services, Healthy homes standards - what a landlord needs to know.