Week in and week out it’s the same old narrative. A new tenancy tribunal order that condemns a landlord for making some dumb decision, people then jumping in on the comments and ridiculing Property Managers, landlords and the like grouping everybody into the same old basket. Where does it end? when will mainstream media stop pushing the same old narrative? when will people accept that the actions of one don’t dictate that of the many?
Here’s the reality… no individual person or company is perfect, especially in this industry. The laws are designed to protect both parties to a tenancy agreement, to some it seems as if the other party has all the rights, but to be fair – both parties have relatively balanced rights.
This is especially the case if you take into account the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2019 which increased a landlord’s right to claim for careless damage. Now some of you might be irate about this and have everything under the sun to say, and hey… that’s fair, everybody’s entitled to an opinion. But, in my opinion, the law is relatively balanced and it’s functioning how it should.
It’s the actions of the few that have disastrous impacts on the many. I’m not going to deny the fact that there are some bad landlords and property managers out there. Because, as a matter of fact there is, that’s just the reality of an unregulated industry, but I will stress that the majority, are good.
Now before we get arguments about how the landlord is this and the landlord is that… check out the photos below.
This is the reality of a landlord / property manager’s job. These scenes are absolutely unacceptable and it’s because of scenes like this that we take a hardened stance on all our rental property.
However, same token to the tenant, here’s a tribunal order where a landlord was unwilling to complete any maintenance work and as a result, the tenant that knew their rights was awarded a large amount of compensation. [2019] NZTT Waitakere 4195963.
Everybody is trying to make do and do the best they can, rental property is an investment for the owner, but also an emotional aspect of a tenants life as well. The tenant has to live in the property day in and day out. We can stress the point that the actions of the few shouldn’t reflect the many. Here at Haze Real Estate we’re doing our utmost best to provide an exemplary service to both landlord and tenant.
We promote the exercising of rights from both parties and we advocate for well maintained and tidy properties. That’s our job, our job is to be on the side of the law. You can be sure that if we think it’s wrong, we’ll tell you and we’ll give you advice.
What you can do in return is accept that advice. That goes for landlord and tenant.