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NELSON PROPERTY INVESTORS ASSOCIATION
APRIL 2016 NEWSLETTER
PO Box 198 Nelson
Our third meeting of the year is being held at the Nelson Suburban Club, Tahunanui Drive on Tuesday 26 April. This month we have Ron Hoy Fong speaking. Ron is perhaps the best known property investment guru / tutor in New Zealand. These days he operates http://www.ronovationz.com/ The last time Ron spoke in Nelson we filled the meeting venue to overflowing. I have invited our friends from Marlborough to join with us so I am expected another bumper turn out this time.
The meeting proper commences at 7.30 pm with the meal at 6pm. We will be eating in the Club Café. If you are coming to the meal please email Glenn by return email. The Suburban Club reserves seats on the basis of my bookings.
THE MARKET
You will have all read the latest QV news about the Nelson house prices increasing 8% over the last 12 months. This has been a long time coming compared with Auckland which is surprising considering that the properties advertised for sale in Auckland well exceeds Nelson’s when expressed as a percentage of the total number of dwellings. Would you believe they have 40% more choice than we do. Our listings have been steadily heading down now for some time yet the prices as we know have not been moving much. So what has changed, why the sudden increase this year? Some blame the introduction of the 30% deposit requirements in Auckland forcing Auckland buyers down here. Core Logic now has a clever analytical tool to show where the new buyers are coming from. They can tell if the buyers are first timers, foreign based, investors, and if the buyers already have houses out of town such as Aucklanders buying here. Their published figures do not indicate anything like the numbers for Aucklanders buying in Hamilton. So no, the recent Nelson increase is not attributable to buyers from Auckland. My guess is the penny has dropped in Canterbury. The media and even the politicians have now picked up that Canterbury has reached saturation. So my guess is the increased buyers are migrating Canterbury buyers plus first homers. Whatever and whoever it is surely is irrelevant. It is happening and we have not seen anything yet. Just watch this space. The roller coaster is just picking up speed. Meanwhile the rental market is on its predictable slide into winter trading pattern with more rentals appearing in Trade me every day.
P IN THE FLATS
The story started in the March newsletter continues. I have a seven page copy of a tribunal judgement out of Auckland. You can look it up on line. The case number is 15/06955/MK. This is what an Auckland Property Manager has written about it.
A recent (March) Tenancy Tribunal ruling has the landlord paying $7500 as compensation for tenants who unknowingly moved into a meth-contaminated property. The PM (who was also unaware) didn't do a baseline test.
The adjudicator (M Benvie, Auckland)'s final comment was "Any landlord who, in 2015 or 2016, rents out his or her premises without having it tested for methamphetamine contamination at the commencement of the tenancy is taking on a large risk in a number of respects"
It is fairly clear from this & speaking to TT staff that this is now the expected norm for landlords. Some property management companies are advising their clients to pay for this testing as 'standard' practice on a regular ongoing basis. So, not just from a Health & Safety point of view, but prudent practice it makes sense to do so.
There are choices re how these tests can be done ranging in price from $10 per time to several hundred dollars. So suddenly the criminal tenants are not being targeted any more. (If they ever were?) No the innocent ignorant unsuspecting property investors are being hammered. Note the fine was not made to punish someone who had done something bad. It was not done to reduce the use of P in properties. It was not done to push criminals out of courtroom 103 (civil) into courtroom 104 (District Court).
No it was done to make someone or anyone pay for something that should not have happened and to compensate an alleged innocent party. I use the term “alleged innocent” in the sense that neither party to the case was legally represented. So “bad law” and untested unproven facts where used to arrive at the lower court judgement. Nothing in the judgement indicates that the tenant had no convictions for drug use. Judges in the District court have available to them criminal record information about the parties appearing before them. Tenancy Adjudicators do not have access to this resource data.
The businesses that sell P test kits also sell simple saliva test kits. Clearly landlords are going to have to upskill themselves to ensure not only properties but also their tenants are squeaky clean. Employers seem to be able to get away with compulsory drug testing of their employees. I think it would make sense to do saliva testing of all tenancy applicants to ensure they too are not drug users who will walk into your property and contaminate the walls with their nasty drug laden breath.
This drama is being played out in courtrooms throughout New Zealand every week. The rules and modus operandi are rapidly changing without the guidance and detailed intellect of legal minds in higher courts. Hardly a week goes by without another Housing New Zealand horror story about more P contaminated properties. What will the media say once Housing NZ, or Nelson City Council get a $7500 fine because someone moved into one of their contaminated properties? Wouldn’t be nice if Parliament passed some laws about this that we could all understand rather than leaving it to the courts to make it up on the hoof.
Once I learn a bit more it is hoped to run a P night at Nelson PIA.
SO LONG ITS BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YOU
The Nelson Suburban Club has been sold and the Ken Ching meeting room will no longer be available to us. We are moving to the Honest Lawyer where they have a meeting room with 70 + seats available. Meals will cost not much more and I have found them to be consistently good. Our first meeting there will be on the 7th June. We will have our AGM on the same night. Watch your email in box for the annual invoice. The subs are the same price as last year. If you are keen to attend two or three committee meetings a year to throw some ideas into the pool send me an email. We need a cross section of different types of landlords on the committee to ensure we stay focused on our core function in life.
APRIL 2016 NEWSLETTER
PO Box 198 Nelson
Our third meeting of the year is being held at the Nelson Suburban Club, Tahunanui Drive on Tuesday 26 April. This month we have Ron Hoy Fong speaking. Ron is perhaps the best known property investment guru / tutor in New Zealand. These days he operates http://www.ronovationz.com/ The last time Ron spoke in Nelson we filled the meeting venue to overflowing. I have invited our friends from Marlborough to join with us so I am expected another bumper turn out this time.
The meeting proper commences at 7.30 pm with the meal at 6pm. We will be eating in the Club Café. If you are coming to the meal please email Glenn by return email. The Suburban Club reserves seats on the basis of my bookings.
THE MARKET
You will have all read the latest QV news about the Nelson house prices increasing 8% over the last 12 months. This has been a long time coming compared with Auckland which is surprising considering that the properties advertised for sale in Auckland well exceeds Nelson’s when expressed as a percentage of the total number of dwellings. Would you believe they have 40% more choice than we do. Our listings have been steadily heading down now for some time yet the prices as we know have not been moving much. So what has changed, why the sudden increase this year? Some blame the introduction of the 30% deposit requirements in Auckland forcing Auckland buyers down here. Core Logic now has a clever analytical tool to show where the new buyers are coming from. They can tell if the buyers are first timers, foreign based, investors, and if the buyers already have houses out of town such as Aucklanders buying here. Their published figures do not indicate anything like the numbers for Aucklanders buying in Hamilton. So no, the recent Nelson increase is not attributable to buyers from Auckland. My guess is the penny has dropped in Canterbury. The media and even the politicians have now picked up that Canterbury has reached saturation. So my guess is the increased buyers are migrating Canterbury buyers plus first homers. Whatever and whoever it is surely is irrelevant. It is happening and we have not seen anything yet. Just watch this space. The roller coaster is just picking up speed. Meanwhile the rental market is on its predictable slide into winter trading pattern with more rentals appearing in Trade me every day.
P IN THE FLATS
The story started in the March newsletter continues. I have a seven page copy of a tribunal judgement out of Auckland. You can look it up on line. The case number is 15/06955/MK. This is what an Auckland Property Manager has written about it.
A recent (March) Tenancy Tribunal ruling has the landlord paying $7500 as compensation for tenants who unknowingly moved into a meth-contaminated property. The PM (who was also unaware) didn't do a baseline test.
The adjudicator (M Benvie, Auckland)'s final comment was "Any landlord who, in 2015 or 2016, rents out his or her premises without having it tested for methamphetamine contamination at the commencement of the tenancy is taking on a large risk in a number of respects"
It is fairly clear from this & speaking to TT staff that this is now the expected norm for landlords. Some property management companies are advising their clients to pay for this testing as 'standard' practice on a regular ongoing basis. So, not just from a Health & Safety point of view, but prudent practice it makes sense to do so.
There are choices re how these tests can be done ranging in price from $10 per time to several hundred dollars. So suddenly the criminal tenants are not being targeted any more. (If they ever were?) No the innocent ignorant unsuspecting property investors are being hammered. Note the fine was not made to punish someone who had done something bad. It was not done to reduce the use of P in properties. It was not done to push criminals out of courtroom 103 (civil) into courtroom 104 (District Court).
No it was done to make someone or anyone pay for something that should not have happened and to compensate an alleged innocent party. I use the term “alleged innocent” in the sense that neither party to the case was legally represented. So “bad law” and untested unproven facts where used to arrive at the lower court judgement. Nothing in the judgement indicates that the tenant had no convictions for drug use. Judges in the District court have available to them criminal record information about the parties appearing before them. Tenancy Adjudicators do not have access to this resource data.
The businesses that sell P test kits also sell simple saliva test kits. Clearly landlords are going to have to upskill themselves to ensure not only properties but also their tenants are squeaky clean. Employers seem to be able to get away with compulsory drug testing of their employees. I think it would make sense to do saliva testing of all tenancy applicants to ensure they too are not drug users who will walk into your property and contaminate the walls with their nasty drug laden breath.
This drama is being played out in courtrooms throughout New Zealand every week. The rules and modus operandi are rapidly changing without the guidance and detailed intellect of legal minds in higher courts. Hardly a week goes by without another Housing New Zealand horror story about more P contaminated properties. What will the media say once Housing NZ, or Nelson City Council get a $7500 fine because someone moved into one of their contaminated properties? Wouldn’t be nice if Parliament passed some laws about this that we could all understand rather than leaving it to the courts to make it up on the hoof.
Once I learn a bit more it is hoped to run a P night at Nelson PIA.
SO LONG ITS BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YOU
The Nelson Suburban Club has been sold and the Ken Ching meeting room will no longer be available to us. We are moving to the Honest Lawyer where they have a meeting room with 70 + seats available. Meals will cost not much more and I have found them to be consistently good. Our first meeting there will be on the 7th June. We will have our AGM on the same night. Watch your email in box for the annual invoice. The subs are the same price as last year. If you are keen to attend two or three committee meetings a year to throw some ideas into the pool send me an email. We need a cross section of different types of landlords on the committee to ensure we stay focused on our core function in life.
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