Property Management Update – October

The first of the changes to the property management industry as promised by the government, has of course been the abolition of the letting fee being able to be charged to tenants. From 12^th December 2018 letting fees can no longer be charged to tenants. As you know, from my earlier email, we have made the decision to pass this cost on to owners (just as has always been the case in most other countries, especially Australia). Of course for most of you, nothing will actually change come 13^th December. This new charge for landlords will only come in to effect when we need to re tenant your property. So if you have a long term tenant and they choose to renew their tenancy each time, then there will be no cost to you. We do expect to see rents start to increase again in Christchurch over the next 12 months – so that’s actually good news:)

Some of you may have gone on to the Tenancy Services website and participated in the online surveys that they conducted regarding the overhaul of the Residential Tenancies Act, and the Healthy Homes Bill. These were ‘discussion’ surveys, the results of which, and whether any of the ideas mooted may become law, we are yet to learn of. Once we do hear about the direction of where these ‘discussion’ surveys may take us, we will let you know.

Insulation – yes we have emailed/mailed reminders to all those owners that are yet to bring their properties up to the required levels of insulation as per the MBIE requirements by 1 July 2019. As we mentioned in our letters – there will be no grace period and fines will be applied for non-compliance. We do not want you to be fined, so please speak to your property manager about this so that we can arrange to get you compliant.