Letter to New Zealand Government re: Minimum Fire Detection Requirements

Hon. Chris Carter, MP
Minister for Housing
Parliament Buildings
Wellington

Tuesday, 26 June 2007

To Hon. Chris Carter,

Since the beginning of 2007, there have been two house fires in student flats in Dunedin. Though there have been no causalities and serious injuries in either of these fires they have still been tragic and emotionally hurtful for all those involved.

I believe that both of these fires highlight a serious gap in New Zealand legislation in terms of fire safety for residential flats. I agree that the tenants of these flats have a responsibility to ensure that the flats that they are renting are protected as much as possible from the dangers of fires, I also believe that the landlords need to be responsible for providing safe housing conditions for their tenants and this includes preventive fire measures and fire detection systems.

I understand that there is currently legislation in place that requires buildings with rooms more than a given number to have sprinkler systems and smoke alarms in place however currently no requirement exists for landlords of residential flats/houses.

To this end, on behalf of the members of the Otago Polytechnic Students' Association, I would to request that you formulate and table a bill in the house of representatives that requires landlords to fit the flats they rent out with minimum requirements of fire detection systems (including smoke alarms in all rooms and a certain number of fire extinguishers depending on the numbers of rooms in the flat).

Too often it takes a tragedy when several people perish in a house fire before the government will enact preventative legislation. The best thing the government can do in this situation is to create legislation before a tragedy occurs.

Please feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss this request in further detail.

Thank you,




Richard Mitchell
President
Otago Polytechnic Students' Association

Phone/Fax: 03 477 6974
Mobile: 021 182 6274
Email: president@opsa.org.nz