Owners in this situation must now appoint a New Zealand based agent for the entire duration of the time that they will be out of the country. Failing to comply with this provision of the RTA by March 2011 could result in the awarding of costs to the tenant of up to $1000. The changes have been made to ensure that tenants are always able to contact a local agent working on behalf of the owner when they are out of the country.

Owners can choose either a professional management company or could elect to use someone such as a family member to manage their property whilst overseas. Prior to going overseas the tenant must be notified of the agent’s contact details and the bond centre must also be notified.

When deciding who will manage your property while you are overseas, remember that property management is simple when everything is going right, but ensure that whoever you choose is both prepared, and suitably experienced, to be able to deal with a tenancy emergency should one arise.

Refer Residential Tenancy Act – new section 16A

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1) Department of Building and Housing

The DBH website has a link to market rent statistics based on information from all bonds received within the last 6 months to provide an indication of the weekly rent charged in all areas throughout New Zealand. The information is updated every month and is available at:

http://dbh.govt.nz/market-rent

2) Rental Property Websites

Other properties listed on TradeMe and Realestate.co.nz can give a good indication of a likely market rent achievable. Properties listed can be filtered by suburb, number of bedrooms, and even ranked by price, so you can quickly determine where the market rent for your property may lie. Another great benefit of these sites is that the majority of properties also have photos which mean you can quickly look to see how another property stacks up in relation to yours. Have a look at:

trademe.co.nz/Houses-to-rent/index.htm
realestate.co.nz/rental

These sources can give you a good idea of a market rent figure which is likely to be achievable for a property. Make sure you are not under renting your property and you are getting the market rate that you deserve.

If you have a property management question you would like answered please feel free to get in touch!

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• tenant packs up and leaves
• communication between the tenant and landlord breaks down
• the tenant takes the landlord to the tenancy tribunal

The best way to operate your rental properties is to treat it like a business. By acting ethically and in a professional manner, you can attempt to provide a hassle free tenancy for your tenant. This will result in rent being paid on time, the property being well maintained, and maintenance issues being reported as they occur.

Once communication is lost between the tenant and the landlord, it becomes difficult to re-establish that level of trust that was once there. The tenant needs to be made aware at the beginning that if they do have any issues they need to communicate them to the landlord. By having open two way dialogue, the tenant feels that the landlord is there to listen and provide guidance when needed.

If you use an independent property management firm, make sure they belong to IPMA (Independent property managers association). They follow a set code of conduct that they are bound to which ensures all property managers under the IPMA umbrella are acting in an ethical and professional manner.

Without your tenants, you have no income. They can always pack up and leave and go elsewhere, where as you will be left with a vacant property that you will now need to advertise and get tenanted which will cost you money.

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• Always check that rental payments have been made on the due date so you can initiate collection of arrears immediately
• Automatic rent payments deposited directly into your rent account are preferable, and it is best to set up payments to coincide with the date of your tenants personal income payments to reduce the likelihood of missed payments
• Have a zero tolerance policy to arrears and have direct and immediate contact with your tenant in the event of rent payments being missed
• Arrange immediate repayment of arrears (preferably the next day) with your tenant and if repayment is not initiated as agreed start formal proceedings (e.g. issue of 10 day notice) straight away – this way if rent remains unpaid the tenancy bond is likely to cover the arrears incurred if you have to progress to eviction
• Formalise agreements relating to repayment of arrears via a Tenancy Tribunal Mediation or Hearing and enforce Tribunal Orders when necessary to recover arrears
• Lodge Tribunal decisions and 10 day notices with tenant databases such as Tenancy Information NZ (TINZ) to help protect other landlords from suffering the same problem from repeat offenders

By following the points above, you will collect rents on time more often. Rent collection is imperative to the success of a rental property. Learn from your mistakes and improve your rent collection policies as you go. By having a solid foundation to start with you will be better prepared if the time comes when a tenant stops paying.

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Under section 62 of the Residential Tenancies Act only food and perishable goods may be discarded immediately by the landlord and all other items should be stored securely pending an application to the tenancy tribunal. The tribunal will then make an order either for the return of the goods to the tenant, or allow for the sale or disposal of the abandoned goods.

This is not ideal for the landlord as it costs time and money to go and store goods for a tenant that has left the property. Not only will you be responsible for looking after their household goods, you will also be responsible for cleaning the property and getting it ready to be tenanted again. This all adds up and ultimately will come out of your pocket until an order for claims against the tenant is processed by the Tenancy Tribunal.

The key message is that by getting a disposal order from the Tenancy Tribunal you are protected against any potential claim from an ex-tenant.

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