Property Management Update May 2020

The month of April has now passed and it will forever be remembered as the ‘month we were in lockdown’.

Here at Whittle Knight & Boatwood Ltd, we carried on as best we could, given the restrictions we had to work within, and in doing so, embraced our new working environments from home. Even Monty Knight got comfortable in his new surroundings.

We got very familiar with Zoom meetings – as did the rest of New Zealand for just about anything you could think of (e.g. Gillian for her yoga classes, and Tania with her barre classes). Kelly ‘zoomed’ with clients as they ‘walked’ her through their properties, and Anna is using ‘zoom’ to go through the lease signup process. ‘Zoom’ was also popular for Friday night drinks.

In the early days of the lockdown we all helped where we could to direct those requiring financial assistance, to the available government sites. Where it has been necessary, and with your help, we’ve managed to put rent payment plans in place, so that arrears is minimal. We’re not sure how the next few months will go, but with good communication between all involved, I’m sure we can find solutions that work for everyone.

Maintenance continues on albeit for urgent matters only and as we return to safer work environments, we will be able to continue on with non urgent maintenance as usual.

In level 3, we have been able to carry out viewings of vacant properties – ‘2 bubbles per day per property’. Whilst there is extra admin required to satisfy contact tracing requirements, we are managing to lease properties, and the interest for most properties post lockdown is promising. The sales team, are also recording good interest during level 3.

As mentioned in our emails to everyone before and during lockdown, all inspections are on hold until further notice, until the government deems it safe to do so. Some of you have responded and asked us to ‘catch up’ your inspection for this time, which we are happy to do, once we can, but for the bulk of the inspections that fell due during this COVID period, we will forward the inspection on to the next cycle. At this time, we are unsure as to whether we can inspect for May, and once we know more, we will update you.

So while the office remains closed, we are all still working hard behind the scenes, so if you do have any enquiries and questions, please feel free to contact the team on 033484149.

Great work everyone – look forward to seeing you all soon in Level 2.