service address for landlord question

[desertkiwi]

My first post about my first property . Great looking website BTW - very useful for us bums slumming it overseas eh?

I (hopefully) am about to get it tenanted and I'm going through all the legal documentation. Have encountered a requirement for the landlord's service address to be a street address in NZ. I was going to use a street address I have in the UK, will that work?

Would prefer to use a PO Box as suggested in one book I read on real estate (the Ollie Newland rascal one if anyone's interested). But on the form it says that's not allowed.

How do I get around that one if I'm not resident in NZ? Can I put the address of the property I own

[Glenn]

The whole point of an address for service is that the tenant needs an address that the court ballif can serve a court document onto you. This has to be handed to you or your agent in person.
It is quite normal for overseas addresses to be used for bonds.
I am a bit interested as to how you think you can show people through a house, sign them up, collect their rent, inspect the the property. and fix / clean up after them. You must surely be using an agent to do this for you. by agent I do not mean a land agent as defined the the Land agents Act but simply a person acting for you. They must live some place or operate out of some place. That address can be the address for service.
Personally because of the number of tenants that I deal with and the state of their minds I never use my home address, I use the address of an industrial property that I own. The tenants at this address contact me when I receive some mail.
The whole issue of address for service and needing a physical address is nonsense from a by gone age. The system does not handle rural adresses that do not have NZ Post deliveries to the door. Nor has it taken into account the fact that people now live on boats and in appartments that do not have access to the door.
With regards to trying to manage your property from away. I assure you that you will soon find out real quick why you need a local agent to act on your behalf. As a property manger I often come across horrific stories of tenants who seem to have just dropped in from heaven when they are going in. but like all heavenly bodies they can tell when the landlord is away and like the mice when the cats away they will have a right royal holiday at your expense. You will then dicover they really came from hell and not heaven. What it costs you in property mangement fees will soon be lost by trying to do it yourself.
I suggest you move on and try another line of business like teach yourself open heart surgery. After you have this figured out being a landlord will be a natural downward progression.
Glenn

[desertkiwi]

I suppose I could give heart surgery a crack, I graduated in nuclear physics - that's close enough isn't it?

Thanks for taking the time to answer, appreciate some of your advice.

I am a bit interested as to how you think you can show people through a house, sign them up, collect their rent, inspect the the property. and fix / clean up after them.

I don't think I can and never intended to. Someone else does that for me. Currently it's a property manager and I assume their office is the service address. But I'm investigating other options.

I suggest you move on and try another line of business like teach yourself open heart surgery. After you have this figured out being a landlord will be a natural downward progression.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not sure if you think I'm an imbecile or you're making a crack at the landlord profession. I thought this website was for overseas landlords as well as NZ based and I was simply asking about one point which I couldn't find an answer to elsewhere at the time.

[Glenn]

With the daily grind of being a property manager and dealing with what the world drops onto my plate one has to take things not so seriously at times. Goodness sounds like you ae well qualified to be a landlord.
Mine was was in radio technology and engineering.
So yes you do have a property manager. your PM can, well at least should be able to, fill you in on such things as address for service and so forth. the trouble is lots of PM'sare just paper tigers. All huff and puff but nothing to back up what they are selling.