The following article appeared in The Westerly magazine November 2017 edition, and is written by our Secretary John Riddell who is a Health and Safety Consultant. The article has particular relevance for residents and ratepayers so we thought it should appear on the pages of resident and ratepayers website. The Westerly is a great local publication that covers Massey, West Harbour and Hobsonville areas and published monthly.
In addressing the increasing number of serious work-related injuries and deaths in New Zealand, landlords are now responsible for ensuring health and safety at rental properties. “Landlords will be regarded as PCBUs ( a PCBU – Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking) and have a responsibility to ensure health and safety of workers they engage or who are influenced or directed by the PCBU while they are doing work for that PCBU ‘so far as is reasonably practicable… [at the end of the day, it is] about what the Landlord can reasonably do to manage health and safety.” PCBUs must also maintain any worker accommodation that is owned or managed by the PCBU, must be maintained so the worker is not exposed to health and safety risks. A case scenario from Worksafe: To give more clarity on the HSWA, Worksafe has provided a landlord case scenario: “For example, if a landlord engages a plumbing firm to do repairs on a rental property, they have control over the engaging of that company. So they could set healthy and safety standards they expect of the company they hire (e.g. they have to be a member of a professional body, they have to be qualified for the job they have to have previous experience of doing this wok etc). But once the plumbing company is on site the landlord will have little influence or control over their day to day work (unless there is some hazard on the property the plumber should know about). The risks created by the plumbing company on the job are up to them to manage.” John Riddell, H&S Consultant Securo – Phone 027 477 9750 or Email [email protected]. Website https://www.securo.co.nz/