Peter Lewis is the Vice President of the Auckland Property Investors’ Association and also sits on the board of the New Zealand Property Investors’ Federation.
Despite all the recent media coverage of the ‘P’ contamination problem, little has been heard from those people who are most affected – property owners
and, especially, residential landlords.
Most landlords want to provide properties that are safe and secure for their tenants but are naturally also concerned about the financial impact of such
contamination on their landlording business.
We are now being told that we need to test each tenanted property for ‘P’ both at the start of each tenancy and at the conclusion. To get this testing
carried out by a contractor will cost the landlord around $230 just for one screening test, that’s $460 from the start to finish for just one tenancy.
If a level of contamination is detected at this stage, a more detailed test will then need to be carried out which will cost somewhere in the range
of $3,000 – $10, 000.
Related article: Knowledge of P contamination “immaterial”
From the landlord’s point of view, this is not the end of the financial impact. Time is money. This testing, and the subsequent delay waiting to receive
the results will mean more vacancy days before the property can be relet. Each day the property is empty costs the landlord money. There is no reduction
in the costs of rates, insurance or mortgage interest just because the property is sitting there unoccupied.
Should the contamination be assessed as above benchmark levels then, remedial action must be taken. The landlord cannot rent out a property that is contaminated.
If they do so they...
