16-03-2009

Have your say on Property Managers

1. News
2. 2009
3. March

The Ministry of Justice is conducting a review of Property Managers to consider if their services to property investors should be regulated in any way. The review has been instigated following changes to the real Estate Agents Act, which used to include regulations of Property Managers who were members of the Real Estate Institute.

The aim of the review is to identify any risks that consumers face and consider options for regulating Property Managers in order to address any risks.

While regulations generally improve the services that consumers receive and help to reduce the risk of problems, over regulation can be expensive and unwarranted. It is important to identify if any regulation is required and just what problems need to be solved.

Individual submissions on the Property Managers Review can be made at the Ministry of Justice website www.justice.govt.nz/property-managers-review

In order to provide an easier and faster way to have a combined say on the Review, the NZPIF has developed a survey based on the Ministry of Justice documents. We have simplified the Ministries document so it just relates to rental property owners. This is the group that the Review Team has most difficulty communicating with.

This is the last opportunity for us to express our combined views before recommendations are made to the Minister. Because of this it is highly important that as many Rental Property Owners have their say as possible. We would like to get as many replies as possible by Monday March 16th the close-off date for submissions.

You can complete the survey by clicking here. The more rental Property Owners who complete the survey, the better the information, so please participate. We have tried to make the survey faster to complete by offering as many multi-choice options as possible. However there is also an opportunity for you to write more information if you choose to.

The NZPIF has completed a considerable amount of research into the Review and have come to the following conclusions:

• That Property Management and Property Sales activities are totally unrelated and should be handled separately.
• All Property Managers should be treated equally
• Improved Property Management education would provide the most cost effective solutions to problems identified in the NZPIF survey
• Compulsory Trust Accounts, 3 monthly audits of Trust Accounts and disciplinary hearings are expensive and do not address the identified problems
• A minimum educational standard for Property Managers should be established and be made compulsory

If you would like a copy of the Ministries Review Team discussion document when it is available, email admin@NZPIF.org.nz and we will send it to you.

Thank you