Healthy Homes Exemptions NZ: Which Properties Qualify and What You Still Owe

The Exemptions Are Narrow — Not a Free Pass

Most landlords who think they're exempt are wrong. The Healthy Homes Standards apply to every private residential tenancy in New Zealand, and there is no blanket exemption for older properties, high compliance costs, or financial hardship. What the Residential Tenancies (Healthy Homes Standards) Regulations 2019 do provide are specific, narrowly defined carve-outs for situations where full compliance is physically impossible or the tenancy structure falls outside the standard framework.

Exemptions are limited by their specific conditions and scope. An inaccessible subfloor can exempt you from the underfloor insulation requirement for that space. It does not remove the separate heating or ventilation obligations.

Regulation 19: Inaccessible Ceiling or Subfloor Insulation

If a professional installer confirms in writing that the ceiling cavity or subfloor space is too restricted for safe access — or that installing insulation would require substantial structural demolition — Regulation 19 exempts that specific area from the insulation R-value requirement.

The exemption requires:

• A written report from a professional installer specifying the access limitation
• Dated photographs of the restricted space
• The exemption recorded on your Healthy Homes Compliance Statement (Form HHS-8113)
• All documentation stored in your evidence file

The "120mm existing insulation" rule is separate — pre-July 2016 ceiling insulation in reasonable condition at 120mm depth or more meets the standard without needing an exemption claim.

Regulation 29: Inaccessible Ground Moisture Barrier

Enclosed subfloor spaces must be fully covered by a ground moisture barrier (polythene sheet to NZS 4246:2016). But if an experienced installer confirms that subfloor clearance is too tight to crawl through safely, Regulation 29 exempts that property from the barrier requirement.

You need the same documentation chain: the installer's written statement, photographs, and the exemption noted on your compliance statement.

Regulation 31: Demolition or Substantial Rebuild

If you've applied for or obtained building consent to demolish or substantially rebuild the property within 12 months, Regulation 31 provides a temporary exemption. This is time-limited — once 12 months pass or the consent lapses, full compliance is immediately required.

Regulation 30: Former Owner Tenancies

Where your tenant was the immediate previous owner of the property, a 12-month compliance window applies from the start of the tenancy. After 12 months, every standard applies in full.

Regulation 32: Body Corporate and Unit Title Properties

If you own a unit in a body corporate and cannot unilaterally alter shared building elements — common walls, shared roof spaces, communal drainage — Regulation 32 applies. You must take all reasonable steps to obtain body corporate approval for compliance work. If the body corporate refuses or the work is physically impossible without altering common property you don't control, you're exempt from that specific element.

The critical point: you're exempt only from work requiring shared-property changes. Everything inside your unit — the fixed heater in the living room, the extractor fan in the bathroom, the draught stopping around your unit's doors and windows — remains your obligation.

When letting a unit title property, you must also attach the most recent body corporate operational rules to the tenancy agreement.

Boarding Houses

Boarding houses are covered by the Healthy Homes Standards under Part 2A of the Residential Tenancies Act. Their compliance deadline was 1 July 2021 — earlier than private rentals. If you operate a boarding house, you should already be compliant; check the boarding-house provisions for how the standards and exemptions apply.

What No Exemption Covers

Cost is never an exemption. Contractor delays are never an exemption. Not knowing about the standards is never an exemption. The Tenancy Tribunal does not accept financial hardship as grounds for non-compliance, and exemplary damages for failing the standards can be up to $7,200.

How to Document an Exemption Claim

Every exemption requires a paper trail:

1. Get it in writing — a professional installer or qualified tradesperson must confirm the specific limitation
2. Photograph everything — dated images of the inaccessible space, restricted clearance, or structural barrier
3. Record it on Form HHS-8113 — the compliance statement has specific fields for exemptions; leaving them blank while claiming an exemption is a compliance gap
4. File it for the required period — keep exemption evidence for the duration of the tenancy plus 12 months after it ends

If the property's situation changes — you renovate, the body corporate approves the work, or access improves — the exemption falls away and you must comply.

For a systematic approach to documenting exemptions alongside the rest of your compliance evidence, the NZ Healthy Homes Compliance Guide walks through each standard's evidence requirements and exemption fields step by step.

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