Whittle Knight Property Manager’s News April 2022

April 2022 and we are finally starting to see an increasing return to ‘regular’ business activity which is very encouraging. Our teams are now all back in the office and although COVID is still very much within our community, we are adapting to the changes we must make in order to work within a COVID environment. April saw the return of our regular 3 monthly inspections and if an inspection is not possible on a nominated day, we reschedule to a safer time.

This is also the time of year for heatpump servicing, chimney cleans, gas fire servicing and gutter cleaning – expect to hear from your property manager as she arranges this work. We continue to see reasonable rent increases across the board, a direct result from the fewer available properties for rent – trademe currently showing under 700 available properties.

With borders opening up, Kelly (our New Business Manager), has noticed a trend towards people making plans to leave Christchurch and head overseas. As a result, we are now seeing more fully furnished properties becoming available to the rental market.

Whilst furnished properties can take longer to rent, we are hopeful that returning New Zealanders to Christchurch will make the most of this available accommodation, until they decide what their future plans might be.

Recently in the media, a few landlords have fallen victim to including in Tenancy Agreements, ‘restrictive’ clauses – none of which are enforceable under the Residential Tenancies Act. The landlords have been fined for including clauses that cannot be enforced and therefore contradict the Residential Tenancies Act. The law is such that you can only include clauses into the Tenancy Agreement, which are enforceable under the Act. Common ‘restrictive’ clauses that we have seen written into Tenancy Agreements include the professional cleaning of carpets, ‘no parties’, cleaning of gutters etc. If questioned by tenants, and taken to the Tribunal, fines will be applicable.

Fortunately we only include clauses in our Tenancy Agreements that comply with the Act which gives everyone peace of mind.