Concern over property manager
Question from Michelle updated on 6th March 2020:
I live overseas and have a real estate company to manage my only property. I recently found out that the tenant hasn't paid rent for seven weeks. I was not informed of this by the rental department of the real estate company. Their only response has been "we will look into it". What are my options regarding the lack of management from this company and the lack of communication? Legally, what can I do in this situation?
Our expert Bernard Parker responded:
The Residential Tenancies Act gives a landlord the opportunity to apply to have a tenancy terminated if the rent falls into arrears by 21 days. If your property manager is unaware of the rent status you have good reason to be concerned.
You need to establish whether the person to whom you spoke has followed up and established the state of rent payments. It may be that the company’s frontline staff were handling the matter adequately.
However, there seems to be a gap in communication between the company and you. If you consider that the company has not acted in your best interests you may look to the possibility of ending the management, either by agreement with the management company or by application to the Disputes Tribunal.
Bernard is principal of Quinovic – Kapiti-Mana. Quinovic's outstanding people and systems provide the most professional, effective and reliable residential property management service in the NZ market for over 30 years.Search the Ask an Expert archive
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