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Our first meetingof the year is being held at the Nelson Suburban Club, Tahunanui Drive on Tuesday 19th February. The meeting proper commences at 7.30 pm with the ever popular meal at 6pm when you will have the opportunity to chat to other investors. Jackie Thomas-Teague the livewire president of Wellington Property Investors is coming to speak. Jackie comes to us with12 years land-lording experience in ‘cash-flow’ areas, and 8 years as a propertymanager, 5 of which has been running her own property management company. She hears often repeated pleas for help from landlords who wish theyknew how to do the ‘hands-on’ end of property investment, dealing with tenants, better. She will talk on Choosing your Tenant and Super Adverts – Not getting the cream of the crop? Could be your ads are letting you down. This presentation includes real-life examples, so you know what to avoid, and what to do, to get a great tenant.Please remember to book your meal again for this not to be missed meeting.
THE MARKET
Well some thing strange is happening. The star performer Tasman District with just 68 TM adverts is one of the tightest markets in the country with a vacancy rate of 1.78% compared with Canterbury’s1.36%. However Nelson is slipping. Nelson’s properties advertised in Trade me is has gone from 101 inFebruary 2012 to 183 in February 2013 resulting in a vacancy rate of 3.97%. Of course we all know that the boundary between Richmond and Nelson is just a line drawn in the sand by bureaucrats and the two are one city and one market but a lot of tenants do need to live in their chosen suburb. This unexpected surge is causing some difficulties with letting certain classes of properties. The one bedroom flats have vanished but I have sticking twos and threes. So what iscausing this? Perhaps some first home buyers are leaving the rental market,perhaps some small families are joining together to rent larger homes, perhaps some people have moved towns for work, and of course some people have moved into the ever expanding retirement villages. I have certainly seen all of the above. Not, mind you, in great migratory herds, rather in ones and twos gently melting the massive iceberg that makes up our market. Who knows what this means for the winter. All I can say is watch this space. Meanwhile in the commercial market I have been jumping for joy with two good out of town firms competing with each other to lease one of my fringe CBD properties. The commercial agents say this is a sign of the times. As new firms come to town they will bring /attract new employees all of whom will need houses to live in. For most of us it can not be soon enough.The other thing in the market that is causing a few waves is a number of highly geared property investors that are trying to exit the market. I just wonder how many accountants have asked their clients to stump up a few thousand $ tax this past year. The National Government’s new tax to discourage private rental property investing is working and hurting. Hang in there members. The penny will eventually drop. The Government is bound to soon to pay a consultant a few million dollars to figure out if you do not have a robust private rental housing industry you will soon have a housing crises. Overloaded housing leads to poor social outcomes and bad results in elections. Socialist housing has not worked in Cuba and Russia.Why should it work in New Zealand?
PLUMBING PROBLEMS
I thought a strange story about a plumbing problem might be a light relief from bad tenant stories.I have some lovely refugees in a house. Good people who keep the place clean and tidy. This lot comes with a nice support person who one can have a good natter to. Well the SP rings and informs me of a leaking header tank. I carry spare ball cocks in my truck all the time and in no time flat have it changed.About a month goes by and I get a repeat call. When I arrived the overflow pipe was not leaking and the tray under the tank was bone dry. I wonder if we have a language / culture problem here I think. Who knows perhaps the first unit was faulty so I change it again this time using a different more expensive model. I tackle the SP and he also has his doubts. Then would you believe it next week another call comes in. I am getting desperate. Most people at this stage would admit defeat and call a plumber but after expending so much time on the mystery I was not about to turn back. I crawled up into the ceiling again. (just aswell I am the right size for this sort of work) and had a good look at things.I have seen them stick sometimes if installed on a funny angle but no all was well. Then I noticed the water in the header tank was hot. Funny I think.Trying to talk to the tenants in English is a mission impossible so I look here and there. No it does not have a tempering valve to go faulty. No the hot tapis turned off permanently on the washing machine. Then I get a divine inspiration. It has a mixer lever tap over the kitchen sink with a filter on the nozzle. I unscrewed the nozzel and the little filter was blocked. Every time the tenants used the tap (in their culture they wash dishes under running water) the cold supply was flowing back up the hot pipe and hot water was being pushed back via the hot water cylinder and into the header tank which over flowed occasionally. Now I wonder how many people are wasting precious hot water /electricity with blocked filters on those new fancy taps. I suggest you have alook at yours. Leaving the filter off does not seem to be a problem.
NELSON TENANCY TRIBUNALAWARDS LANDLORD INCREASED SUMS.
The 2010 amendments to the RTA provided for the first time a number of penalties against tenants for committing unlawful tenancy acts.I and other landlords have been beating our heads against the court walls trying to invoke these new laws. In most cases the court grudgingly awarded some costs where it could be shown landlords had suffered some loss. In one case of extreme noise I was able to obtain an eviction but was awarded a miserably low compensation despite even having the Council head Environmental officer give oral evidence along with ample other written evidence. The written reason given for the low award was that these penalties were still new.Well recently I presented two cases from Christchurch where awards of $1000 had been granted. ( 12/3523/CH). I pointed out to the Adjudicator that she had written on a previous order that a low award had been granted because it was new law. I asked why did Christchurch have a different opinion and surely Christchurch and Nelson are under the same law. How come Christchurch does not see it as a new law? Well after some pleasant huffing and humming and deferred rulings I got more the second time. Then at a third hearing, the Adjudicator starts saying to the tenant that these awards are not to compensate landlords for losses but are a deterrent to other tenants. My guess is someone of high standing has been consulted between cases and provided some instruction. I just popped the request for compensation into the application and did not labour on about the perils to life and property by removing alarms. Hello I got my award, now all Ihave to do is catch the offender and bring home the trophy.The particular unlawful acts that I have been awarded penalty sums on is 40(2)(ab) Interference with means of escape from fire. (removing smoke alarms) 40(3A)(d)Harassment of tenant or neighbour. (Noisy parties). Failure to quit the premises on time. RTA 40 (3A) (a).In the past Ihave failed to achieve any award for unlawful changing of locks by tenants, abandonment, unlawful use of premises and failure to grant access for thepurposes of reletting. I encourage you all to put in the claims for the various unlawful acts like abandonment, smoke alarm interference, exceeding the number of occupants specified on the tenancy agreement, not quitting the property at the end of a tenancy on the specified day of the end of a tenancy.If every landlord made these claims as a matter of course the message will get out there in the community and perhaps our life might be easier. Even if it does not get easier the money in your pocket might pay for a better quality holiday.