With the holidays coming up a lot of landlords will be heading overseas at this time of year. But it’s important to remember if you are a private landlord and you intend to be out of the country for more than 21 days in a row, you are legally required to appoint a rental property manager to look after your tenants. You must appoint someone before you leave the country not when you have already gone.
Once you appoint a property manager you would need to let the tenant know who the property manager is and how they can contact them including, their name, contact details and address. This is a requirement encase the tenant needs to contact someone for anything urgent or issues that arise while the landlord is away.
As a private landlord, you can appoint anyone to be responsible for the property and tenants while you are away. But we would highly recommend that they can meet the obligations, requirements (legal) and responsibilities of managing a rental property, not just a friend who can pop around and do a check that has no property management skills what so ever.
Under the NZ Tenancy Act it states:
“It’s unlawful if a landlord doesn’t appoint an agent or doesn’t provide the tenant with their agent’s details. If a landlord doesn’t do this, the tenant can give the landlord a notice to remedy. This notice gives the landlord a deadline to appoint an agent or to provide them with the agent’s details in New Zealand.
If a landlord doesn’t comply with a notice to remedy, the tenant can apply to the Tenancy Tribunal to sort the matter out.”
At the end of the day, your property is your investment, help protect and look after your tenant as they will, in turn, look after your property while you are gone.
At Inspire Property we highly recommend using our services to help you with your rental property when you are out of the country for more than 21 days in a row. We can work with you through the process and let you know all the details.
Maybe a good opportunity to try our service while you are away and feel the peace of mind that goes with it.
Give us a call or email us anytime as we help many landlords in this situation.
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