No letting fees – For You Or The Tenant

The Residential Tenancies (Prohibiting Letting Fees) Amendment Act has now been passed, As of 12 December 2018, tenants cannot be charged letting fees. Letting fees are normally the equivalent of one week’s rent (excl. GST) and paid at the beginning of a tenancy as an upfront cost to the property manager.

As you can imagine, letting properties is a very time-consuming job – fielding inquiries; travel to the property for viewings (generally twice a week until let); signing up tenancy agreements; collecting bonds; lodging bonds with the Ministry of Business; returning to the property for the Tenant introduction to moving in. That’s many hours of work.

As a result of the legislation, overnight property managers across the country have had a significant portion of their income eliminated but are still contracted to do the work. It seems most companies are going to charge the owner the letting fee.

Our sister company Point Property will not be charging you, the owner a letting fee.   Instead, we will charge a small administration fee of $15 + GST  per month. The benefit of this approach is:

• You know what your cost is going to be.  Imagine being in a situation where a new tenant gives notice – then you are up for another letting fee in a short period of time. With the admin fee, you know with certainty what the cost will be.  Statistics show that the average tenancy is changed every two years, therefore your costs will be much reduced.
• It smooths your cash flow – when you have a change of Tenant, it usually comes with a week or so of lost rent.  If you then have to add a letting fee to that, this is an unwelcome hit to your cash flow.

The details

• This will be in effect from 1 January 2019
• The amount will simply be deducted from your monthly payout

Property management is critical to running a successful property investment portfolio. Our sister company, Point Property Management, focuses on using your property portfolio to achieve your financial goals.

https://www.erskineowen.co.nz/manage/property-management/