One of the biggest reasons why you should have a Property Manager is, so you don’t have to spend your valuable time sorting out tenant disputes.
Having had many years of practice as well as knowing the Residentials Tenancies Act well, we are highly skilled at resolving any problems which may occur. Some common problems we find are as follows:
- Property damage
- Complaints about neighbours
- Property Improvement/alteration requests
- Rent payment queries / following up rent arrears
- Difficulty with access to property
Below are some examples of issues we have had to resolve and our practices we have in place to resolve these:
Tenant: “My tenancy is ending soon but I paid two weeks rent in advanced, does this mean I can stop paying a month before my tenancy ends?”
Housingplus: “Paying rent is like a parking meter, you pay before you park for the time you require the car park. Your first fortnightly rent payment ever made covered you for the first 14 days living at the property, you then made your second and subsequent rent payments every 14th day thereafter meaning that your last ever payment will need to be made 14 days before your tenancy ends”.
Tenant: “My neighbour is using their washing machine after 10pm at night and I can hear it as its directly against my bedroom wall, what can I do?”
Housingplus: “There are a couple of options here. First how would you feel about talking to your neighbour directly about the problem? I can give you their contact number or feel free to knock on their door. If you are unconformable about relating directly to them or the problem is still occurring after you have spoken to them we can contact them via phone/email reminding them of the conditions in their tenancy agreement regarding noise to adjacent flats.”
Tenant: “A tradesperson wants to come into my property and fix the leaking pipe under the sink, but I don’t want them to come in while I am not there, but they can’t come when I am home?”
Housingplus: “Our tradespeople and us are extremely respectful of tenant’s privacy and we do our best to work in with you when scheduling maintenance if you are not comfortable with people coming in without you present however maintenance which if left unattended results in further damage by law our tradespeople are allowed to give you 24 hours notification that they are coming in to repair the problem. Most of our tradespeople we work with we have long standing relationships with and any new trades people are thoroughly vetted.”
Tenant: “Fibre is available in my street, can I have it installed?
Housingplus: “Please refer to the careful wording in your tenancy agreement within the general conditions as well as the special conditions:
3.2 The Tenant/s agree not to install any external or internal radio, television, internet/telephone wiring and/or cabling, Sky satellite dish, aerial, or other receptor devices that are attached to any part of the property without prior written consent from HP. HP reserves the right to make a claim towards the Tenant/s if the property is damaged and such permission was not granted from HP even if the installation was undertaken by a qualified installer.
We are very happy to work with you to hopefully make your request possible however depending on whats involved with the install, this has to be reviewed on a case by case basis”.
If a tenant damages your property, who is liable?
The question of what constitutes damage and what is considered acceptable “wear and tear” is always an issue in property management.
Since the Osaki case (see further information here: https://www.apia.org.nz/apia-blog/holler-v-osaki-and-how-it-will-affect-landlords & https://www.tenancy.govt.nz/about-tenancy-services/news-and-events/tenancy-tribunal-practice-note-in-response-to-holler-and-rouse-v-osaki-decision/) a lot of landlords are fearful of whether their case will be reviewed as intentional damage or carelessness. We are not surprised by this fear given that we have spoken to a number of different staff at the Tenancy Helpline and it is more common that we have had an answer from them that the damage is accidental so therefore due to the Osaki case in not claimable.
This is why we at Housingplus recommend adopting our practice where at all possible resolving tenancy disputes outside of the Tenancy Tribunal. We have found that more often than not, our tenants who have caused accidental damage due to carelessness will accept full liability and agree to pay for the costs incurred. If the cost is high, we do recommend offering payment plans where at all possible. Although it might be less than ideal not receiving your money all in one payment, the outcome of going through Tenancy Tribunal could result in no payment at all or most likely a payment plan too.