Reasonable flooding care
Question from nicky updated on 7th February 2018:
As landlords we employed the services of a property management company. At the end of a tenancy the house became flooded, but as landlords we were not aware of it until three days later when we got access to the property. When the property management company was contacted regarding the flooding, they said that they had followed procedure and left a message on my phone. My question is - was there enough reasonable care taken by the property management company?
Our expert Bernard Parker responded:
To answer this question it would be useful to know what your ongoing instructions to your property management company are. Some property owners are very particular about the authority that they wish to give to a property manager, while others are quite relaxed about leaving all maintenance decisions to the property manager. Other property managers want to be contacted in every instance.
I cannot presume what your instructions were to your property manager, nor can I speculate as to why the message never got to you. In summary, the level of care required of a property manager will depend on your management agreement or the understanding that you both have between you.
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.
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