Going overseas on a holiday?

Have rental properties and thinking of going out of the country for more than 21days? Think again!

With recent amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act 1986, Section (16A) states that ‘Landlord must have an agent if out of New Zealand for longer than 21 consecutive days’.

So thinking of taking that nice trip to the Mediterranean for 6 weeks or going on a picturesque one month cruise in the Fjords in Norway and hoping that by managing your rental properties through email while you’re away will be fine? Think again! With recent changes to the act you have to now legally appoint an agent in New Zealand to manage your property while you are away. So what is an agent? An agent is someone who the owner appoints to manage the property; it can be either a property manager or family and friends.

The risk with using family and friends would be for example if something went wrong, would they have the right contacts and know about on how to handle the situation and fix it? If the tenants were not paying rent would they know their legalities in how to deal with rent arrears? With inspections do they know that they can’t just walk inside the property without prior consent from the tenants as this could be a 3 month jail sentence?

We have recently taken on board a property where the owners are going overseas for much longer than 21 days and were going to just manage the property via email to keep in touch with their tenants and arrange any maintenance required. They were quite shocked to realise they had to legally appoint an agent in New Zealand while they were away. They quickly signed the management authority and placed the property in our hands. This is just one of the many new amendments made to the Residential Tenancies Act some private landlords are not aware of. I recommend all landlords update their knowledge on the recent changes to the Act so they know they are doing everything right in managing their properties.

Appointing a property manager takes all the hassle out of your property and keeps you stress free and gives peace of mind whilst you're overseas. So know of anyone going overseas who have rental properties? Direct them to us and we can deal with the rest!