Mar 18, 2022 | What you need to know
Do you ever get to the end of the day and wonder where all the hours have gone? We do too, so we thought we’d look into it a bit. Here’s a little glimpse into the work we do day-to-day to manage our properties.
- Negotiating lease renewal between owners and tenants – this can mean several email exchanges, and often upward of two hours in total time spent just on one property – and we manage more than 200! That’s a lot of emails and hours.
- Chasing rent arrears and negotiating payment plans for tenants who may have fallen on harder times can easily take more than one hour, for one property. We do pride ourselves on having low rates of rent arrears though.
- Completing thorough online rental appraisals for prospective owners can take us around an hour, and that’s with all our experience and access to the right tools.
- Letting a property takes on average four to five viewings, and of course there is travel time involved, not to mention all the behind the scenes work with advertising, organising photography, and managing submissions.
- Completing a thorough property inspection report, including travel to and from the property takes on average between two and three hours.
- A move-in/move out negotiation can take us a whopping six hours on average!
- Diagnosing and arranging maintenance requests from acquiring quotes, to receiving owner approval, through to assigning the work and invoicing can take at least an hour and a half for even the smallest job.
If you add in tribunals and mediations, owners selling, fielding general enquiries, counselling, and the mammoth task that Healthy Homes compliance added to the mix, there’s no wonder our days here go so fast.
Why are we pointing all of this out? Sometimes, it can be easy to underestimate the work involved in managing a rental property, as many first-time property investors find out very quickly. If you know anyone struggling to manage this while holding down a full-time job give us a call and let our award-winning team ease the load!
Dec 7, 2021 | What you need to know
Here is a brief summary of the proposed changes;
For properties that already meet the 2008 Building Regulations such as new build properties or properties that have been renovated to meet this regulation specifically for glazing and insulation,
- Heating standard deadline extended. The 90-day compliance requirement will not start until 6 months after this change comes into effect. If the change was in effect now and a new tenancy agreement signed, the compliance date would be 6 months plus 90 days.
- Top-up heating requirement. Currently, if your heat source installed before July 2019 falls short of the requirement of 1.5Kw or less, you can top-up with an electric heater. This has changed to allow up to a 2.4Kw top-up shortfall.
- Tolerance for existing heating. Currently, if your heat source was installed before July 2019 and is within 90% of the requirement then you comply until the heating needs to be replaced. This has changed to 80%.
- Ventilation. Currently, kitchen and bathroom extractor fans that passed the building consent process after 1st November 2019 may not be compliant with Healthy Homes Regulations regarding capacity and ducting diameters. This change allows compliance for Healthy Homes where the consent process has signed this off. In summary, the processes are now aligned.
For more information, please see the following link;
https://www.hud.govt.nz/about-us/news/updating-the-healthy-homes-standards-heating-regulations/?utm_source=Tenancy+Services&utm_campaign=58afff64fc-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_03_25_03_28_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ce11ad1ef2-58afff64fc-59637389
Nov 25, 2021 | What you need to know
We’re leading the way in Healthy Homes Compliance. We have 90% of our clients either fully compliant or awaiting jobs to be completed to be compliant. We are committed to achieve 92% compliance by March 31st
This means our tenant clients are feeling the full benefit of this legislation early. It also means our owners are not at risk of non-compliance. It means that our properties are of a higher standard and more desirable when in becomes time to re-tenant them. We think all of this hard work is paying off and it’s another WIN-WIN-WIN for us!
Sep 29, 2021 | What you need to know
(1) Bright-line test timeframe to double from five years to ten years. In a nutshell, the current bright-line rules currently provide that a sale of residential property is taxable if sold within five years of acquisition and the property is not your main home. (Other exemptions can apply). The bright-line test will move to 10 years for residential property acquired on or after 27 March 2021. Property acquired before 27 March 2021 (and after 29 March 2018) remains subject to the five-year bright-line test. “New builds”, will continue to be subject to the five-year bright-line test.
(2) No deductions for interest on residential property held for newly purchased investment properties. For residential property acquired on or after 27 March 2021, from 1 October 2021 no deduction will be available for interest on loans used to acquire them. The premise is that tax should not provide a shelter to reduce the cost of ownership for investors.
(3) Progressive 25% reduction each year on deductions for interest on residential investment purchased pre-March 27th 2021 (starting Oct 21) For residential property acquired before 27 March 2021 interest on loans remains deductible initially, however on a reducing basis over the next four years. This will be a progressive 25% reduction each year, with a final outcome of no deductions (for any residential property acquired at any time) for interest from the 2025/26 and later income years.“New builds” are excluded from the above ruling. With respect to deductibility (or non-deductibility of interest), this appears to have been modelled on a similar change presented in the UK.
(4) New build exemption The exemption applies to ‘new builds’. This is defined as properties that received the final code of compliance (CCC) on or after March 27, 2020, and the exemption applies to both the initial purchaser of the new build and any subsequent owner within the 20-year period. The ‘new build’ definition includes prefabricated houses and the conversion of existing dwellings into multiples where a final CCC has been obtained post march 27, 2020.
