Healthy Homes records NZ landlords should check before winter

Before winter, a NZ landlord should check that the Healthy Homes record for each rental matches the current state of the property. The job is not only to have a compliance statement. The job is to keep the evidence, tenant reports, repair notes, assessor reports, and follow-up work close enough to the rental that the record can be found when it matters.

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

Why do Healthy Homes records matter before winter?

Healthy Homes records matter before winter because heating, moisture, ventilation, drainage, and draught issues are more likely to show up when the weather turns. If the evidence sits across email, photos, invoices, old tenancy documents, and memory, the landlord has to rebuild the picture at the worst possible time.

Tenancy Services says all rental properties must comply with the Healthy Homes standards unless an exemption applies. It also says landlords must keep records and documents that show how they are complying, and tenants can request compliance information.

That makes the pre-winter check simple: do not wait for a tenant complaint to discover that the record is missing.

What should the Healthy Homes record include?

Keep one current record per rental that covers the five Healthy Homes areas:

• heating
• insulation
• ventilation
• moisture ingress and drainage
• draught stopping

For each area, the record should answer three practical questions:

1. What is the current status?
2. What evidence proves it?
3. What follow-up is still open?

If the answer depends on an exemption, assessor report, specialist calculation, or trade note, keep that document with the rental record rather than in a separate folder.

What heating records should landlords keep?

Keep the evidence that shows the main living room has acceptable fixed heating and that the heating capacity has been checked properly.

Useful records include:

• heating capacity calculation
• assessor report or specialist note
• heater make, model, location, and installation date
• invoice or completion certificate
• photos of the installed heater
• maintenance or servicing notes
• tenant reports about heating problems
• follow-up work after a heater fault

If a tenant reports that the fixed heater is not working, connect the repair record back to the Healthy Homes file. A heater fault is not just a maintenance message. It may affect the evidence that the rental is still meeting the standard.

What insulation records should landlords keep?

Keep the insulation evidence that supports the tenancy agreement statements and any compliance position.

Useful records include:

• ceiling and underfloor insulation details
• R-values where known
• install date or assessment date
• assessor photos or inspection notes
• invoices for top-up or replacement work
• notes explaining any area that could not be inspected
• follow-up dates for damaged, missing, or compressed insulation

The risk is not only that insulation is absent. The risk is that nobody can prove what was checked, when, and what changed after a contractor visited.

What ventilation records should landlords keep?

Keep records that show liveable spaces and wet areas have been checked, and that kitchen and bathroom extractor fans are doing what the record says they do.

Useful records include:

• extractor fan make, model, and location
• installation or replacement invoice
• notes on whether fans vent outside
• inspection photos
• openable-window or door checks for liveable spaces
• tenant reports about condensation, damp, mould, or fan failure
• follow-up work after ventilation issues

Winter condensation often looks like a small tenant complaint at first. It is easier to respond calmly when the ventilation record is already attached to the property.

What moisture, drainage, and draught records should landlords keep?

For moisture ingress and drainage, keep evidence that gutters, downpipes, surface water, ground water, subfloor spaces, and moisture barriers have been checked where relevant.

Useful records include:

• drainage inspection notes
• gutter and downpipe repair invoices
• photos of subfloor areas where relevant
• ground moisture barrier evidence where required
• leak, damp, or mould reports
• contractor notes after water issues
• follow-up dates for any monitoring work

For draught stopping, keep evidence of unreasonable gaps or holes being checked and fixed.

Useful records include:

• inspection notes for doors, windows, floors, walls, ceilings, and skylights
• photos before and after draught work
• invoices for sealing, repairs, or joinery work
• notes on fireplaces and chimneys
• tenant reports about noticeable draughts

The winter record should show not only that a standard was checked once, but that later reports and repairs did not drift away from the compliance file.

What tenant reports should be linked to the record?

Link tenant reports to the Healthy Homes record when they touch:

• fixed heating
• no heat in the main living area
• mould or damp
• condensation
• leaking gutters or downpipes
• blocked drainage
• water entering the property
• extractor fan faults
• draughts
• cold rooms that may indicate insulation or ventilation issues

Not every report proves a compliance breach. But every report is useful context. The landlord needs to know what was reported, what was checked, what was repaired, and what follow-up remains open.

What is the simplest pre-winter workflow?

Use this sequence for each rental:

1. Open the current Healthy Homes compliance statement.
2. Check the evidence behind each standard.
3. Add recent tenant reports that touch heating, damp, ventilation, drainage, or draughts.
4. Mark anything missing, stale, or unresolved.
5. Book assessor or trade follow-up where needed.
6. Update the property record after the work is done.
7. Keep tenant updates and invoices with the same rental file.

This is not a legal conclusion. It is an operating check. The goal is to reduce the chance that a winter issue turns into a scramble through old messages and PDFs.

Where Keel fits

Keel does not replace Tenancy Services, qualified assessors, tradespeople, insurers, or legal advisers.

Keel helps with the operating layer around the record:

• property records stay attached to the rental
• tenant reports can be linked to the right maintenance or compliance job
• approvals, photos, invoices, and follow-up notes stay together
• landlords review the next step instead of reconstructing the file from memory
• compliance-sensitive work is less likely to disappear after the repair is done

For a self-managing landlord, the value is not only having a document. It is having one place where the document, evidence, tenant report, repair decision, and follow-up date stay connected.

If your Healthy Homes records are scattered across inboxes and folders, see Keel's Healthy Homes workflow for NZ landlords.

The takeaway

Before winter, check the record before winter makes it urgent.

For each rental, make sure you can find:

• the current compliance statement
• evidence for each Healthy Homes area
• recent tenant reports that may affect the record
• assessor and trade notes
• invoices, photos, and follow-up dates
• the next unresolved action

If the record is clear, the landlord can make the next decision faster. If the record is scattered, the first winter issue becomes an admin job as well as a repair.

Source notes

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