Right to heating
Question from Jay updated on 13th January 2017:
When I moved in to a rental property, we had a fireplace in the lounge for heating. When the men came to sweep it they said it was deemed unsafe, so they blocked it off and chopped the chimney top off. I'm wanting to know if I'm entitled to some sort of heating such as a heat pump? The property does have insulation, but winter is not far away and insulation won't quite cut it.
Our expert Bernard Parker responded:
When you rent a property the old adage applies: “what you see is what you get”. So if the fireplace was thought to be working at the start of the tenancy it should be working throughout the tenancy. In short, you rented the property with a working fireplace, and now you haven’t got what you rented. You have a right to have an alternative form of heating to replace the fireplace. I suggest you talk to your landlord. He should see that it is in his interest to have stable, happy tenants.
Bernard is principal of Quinovic – Kapiti-Mana. Quinovic's outstanding people and systems provide the most professional, effective and reliable residential property management service in the NZ market for over 30 years.