The industry needs to lobby the new government to include private landlords in any rewrite of the Property Managers Bill, says a team leader.

The leader of a big property management team says if there is any rewriting of the Property Managers Bill, introduced to Parliament by the previous Labour government, it needs to include private landlords.

Property Brokers property management general manager, David Faulkner, says the industry does need to lobby the new government to include private landlords in any rewritten bill. “If not that, at least to have a public register of every residential landlord in New Zealand.”

However, he isn’t convinced the bill will be rewritten to any great extent or if at all. The agency made a submission to the bill and also backed the REINZ submission.

Faulkner says regulation of property managers is necessary and a good thing as it will increase professionalism inthe industry.

“There is a now a trend of more landlords using property managers. I believe more than 80 per cent of rental listings are now listed through a property management or real estate company. That’s a big change from a few years ago.”

Greater Protection

He says regulation will lead to greater protection for landlords, particularly when it comes to money held in a trust account, and helping professional conduct. “Ultimately those benefits flow through into the tenants; they know that they’re going to be treated professionally.”

Faulkner says it’s not always the case when dealing with mum and dad investors, and that is not denigrating them.

“There’s a lot of skill that goes into property management and landlords need to know what they’re doing. Mum and dad investors don’t always know their rights and responsibilities under the Residential Tenancies Act, so I think the bill will go through.”

There is a risk that it may not because ACT didn’t support Labour’s proposed bill, but Faulkner thinks it’s a small risk. “The coalition government can change the bill, proceed with it as it is, or scrap it. We think National and New Zealand First will proceed with it because they voted for it when it first came before Parliament.”

The Property Investors’ Federation has argued against private landlords being included in the bill, saying landlords are hardly going to rip themselves off and a tenant can always use the Tenancy Tribunal if they feel the landlord is not keeping the rental up to standard or breaching the Residential Tenancies Act.