Rental advice

[petri]

A friend just got a nice 6-page bill for his former rental apartment in Germany. The left the country a year ago and they've been trying to get the deposit back since then -- instead they got a bill for over 2000 € -- and no sign of the deposit. They have already checked that the invoice is illegal and only a few hundred euros are justified. But trying to solve the matter from a different country, with german folks that have lost their ability to speak english, it's going to be interesting ride.

Such a behaviour doesn't seem to anything special in Germany, especially with foreigners (http://www.toytowngermany.com/lofi/i...hp/t36098.html). They just try to keep the deposit money to themselves. I almost hit a similar trap in the Netherlands years ago.

So I started wondering, knowing that real estate has been the "way to get rich(er)" for kiwis, what are the traps and things to consider when renting a house in NZ? What the most common cons the landlords try to pull?

What is typically included? Water? District heating? Electricity? Gas? Municipal charges?

Obviously taking a lot of pictures before moving in is a smart thing to do, and listing / reporting all possible faults one finds during the first months.

[Familyofmonkeys]

What is typically included? Water? District heating? Electricity? Gas? Municipal charges?

Obviously taking a lot of pictures before moving in is a smart thing to do, and listing / reporting all possible faults one finds during the first months.

There is no such thing as district heating in this country.....in fact you will rarely even find central heating as we know it from Europe. Rates are included in rent, and water may or may not be, often depending upon whether the property is on a meter or gets a 'water allowance' per day, which you find in more rural areas. You would usually be responsible for all other utilities such as electricity, gas (where it exists), phone, broadband etc.

When you move into a property here, there should be a thorough inventory of the entire building including fixtures and fittings. Generally you would do a walk through with the property owner of letting agent and fill this in. Shortly afterwards this should be copied and you both get a copy. You should go through the place in very great detail and detail (plus photo if possible) every fault you find, including marks/scrapes on walls, cracked tiles in bathrooms, state of the garden, light fittings....basically everything. Check the taps all run (and don't drip), check the oven and hob top all work. Check the plug sockets all work, the light fittings all work and have working bulbs in them....you will be charged for new bulbs if you move out without leaving them all working, and yet it is common to momve into a property and find bulbs haven't been replaced yet agents have taken money for them from previous tennants. We moved into a property in Auckland and got handed 12 boxes of new light bulbs by the landlady because the previous tennant hadn't replaced them. Well, we put the new bulbs in and it turned out that the actual light fittings were broken...all 12 of them! We then had to wait 3 weeks before the agent finally arranged to get an electrician round to fix them, during which time we lived in a dimly lit house


If you find something isn't properly clean them be sure to put this in writing at the very beginning (even if you intend to clean yourself) so you don't get blamed for any dirt/sticky things at the end. For example, if an oven has not been properly cleaned and has been left to get really oily/burnt, then you may not be able to clean it enough to make it spotless....and you don't want to have money deducted from your deposit at the end of your tennancy for something that is not of your doing. If there is residual oil on a garage floor, the same would apply....get it in writing and take photos. If, when you are doing your moving in inspection and find that the place really isn't clean, you can insist upon proffessional cleaners....it is not your repsonsibility to clean up previous tennants filth. We were also caught out by this.....we moved into a previous rental in Auckland and despite the agents assurances that the place would be clean, it soon because apparent as we were walking around going through the inventory that the place was filthy and had not been cleaned to a 'reasonable standard'. We stood our ground and refused to move in unless professional cleaners were arranged.....they arrived within a couple of hours and cleaned the place, plus a carpet cleaner was hired as the one engaged by the previous tennant had clearly not done a satisfactory job.


One final thing...if a fault develops during your tennancy, you are required to report it straight away. If you don't, you become liable for any further damage caused as a result of this. So watch out for things like leaking taps or pipes, electrical fittings or items that stop working, trees/large shurbs that blow over in bad weather, loose railings on a balcony or stairs, etc etc.

[newarrival]

There are, obviously, different experiences..., we rented four different places in the first years here and never had any bad experience when we moved out.

[Familyofmonkeys]

There are, obviously, different experiences..., we rented four different places in the first years here and never had any bad experience when we moved out.

You hit the nail on the head there....different experiences, some which you just don't expect too. We're now in our 5th rental place and have had very mixed experiences.

First rental was short-term furnished, but was smooth-sailing!

With our second rental, we thought we'd got a nice reasonable landlady. She was as nice as pie...until we moved out! We did the final check-out inspection and no issues whatsoever were raised, apart from an agreed re-wallpaper of one wall where our son has ripped a bit of paper. We were even there when the decorators came round to quote for the work....about $200. In fact we left the place absolutely spotless, far cleaner than when we moved in. Then, she didn't return our full deposit and claimed two rooms needed redecorating, the oven was dirty, the windows were dirty and some curtains needed repairing. She wrote a nasty letter saying we'd left the place in a terrible state and had been living in our own filth. She held over $850 back. It took 6 months and help from the Dept of Building & Housing to get all of our deposit back. It turns out (from a database search we'd had access to) that she'd tried the same with 2 other previous tennants and they went to tribuneral...she lost both times!

Our third rental had the most wonderful helpful, efficient agent you could imagine, everything went very smoothly and they even gave us advice when we were having problems with out next rental.

Our fourth rental had an extremely lazy agent who didn't do a proper inspection when the previous tennants moved out, so didn't notice the filth, due to the missing light bulbs leaving the house barely lit, which she didn't bother to replace at the time. She tried to give us 'suspect' copies of utility bills and then claimed (every time) that her secretary had made a mistake and sent us the wrong bill, and seemed to be unable to organise repairs to faulty appliances etc in a reasonable amount of time....including the light fittings, a broken gas hob (which we discovered after moving in), a broken front door lock (she thought it was reasonable for us to go in and out of the garage for 6 weeks), a faulty burgler alarm etc etc. She took far too long to sort out the paperwork and final bills after we moved out....they are supposed to give you the final bills and bond transfer forms within 10 days of vacating, but it took over a month. We were lucky as the property came with a contract gardener who by coincidence was friends with the property owner....a quick word with the owner made the agent pull her socks up!

Our current landlord/landlady are great and have even become friends, who we entertain occasionally. They are happy with the way we are taking care of their property and we can approach them about anything and they sort it straight away.

[fye]

It turns out (from a database search we'd had access to) that she'd tried the same with 2 other previous tennants and they went to tribuneral...she lost both times!

For some reason, the old lady from the movie "Legion" came to my mine when I read this part of the post

[noodles3]

Name and shame those who you had terrible service with. It might avoid me and others making the same mistakes when we arrive in October.

[petri]

Sounds like rentals are reasonably safe in NZ as long as one follows a working & clean -policy, and everything that fails is documented & reported. Carrying a DSLR and taking 50 photos from each room should tell the landlord that one is serious ;-)

The 2000+ € bill my friend got from Germany was for costs since 2008..

[catt]

We used Quinovic when we moved into our rental after arriving here in early 2009. They did checks on us of course to the point of phoning our nephew in Auckland to ask about us and also a friend from here. They provided us with a CD of photographs of the property which showed any flaws that the property we were moving into had (very few) and we went around the house with both the agent and the owners before we took over the rental. The agent visited us after 4 weeks to complete standard checks and took any maintenance issues we had (if we had anything they got their house maintenance guy to visit) and from then on it was every 8 weeks. When we left it was in the same condition as we took it on and was thanked by the agents for leaving it in a good condition. Within 2 weeks of leaving our bond appeared back into our bank account. We cannot praise them enough for the ease of breaking our contract with them when we moved out to our own house earlier than expected.

[coyotewildwomen]

I am a landlord in the States and have been for over 5 years with over 15 properties. So I have been there and done this.

I have a nightmare situation with a landlord now in Wellington who seems to think he can do an inspection every week and comes by all the time, "forgot" to tell me there was a downstairs tenant living there full time for whom I pay utilities, which of course he leaves running constantly.

The tenant was conveniently gone when I looked at the house, and the landlord told me he personally used the small apartment basement space once in a while- like once every 2-3 months.

He did not mention this on the trademe ad or the lease, which I have a copy of- and will use in the tribunal hearing.

But if you have problems you can use the tenancy tribunal and should- they have a great site about your rights as a tenant, take a look at it. That is where we are going with this dispute. You represent yourself so no expensive attorney!

Just ask lots of questions, inspection the house carefully for mold and water damage, and try to get something that is sunny at least part of the day.

Kiwis do not believe in heat, good windows and insulation. You can freeze to death in winter, and utilities are very high. Don't dry your clothes in a dryer or your bill will be in the hundreds! Most people use heat pumps- most efficient9 ask for one) or oil filled heaters as a heat source. Trademe seems to be the best source for homes.

Good luck,

Wendy

[Bobbo]

We used Quinovic when we moved into our rental after arriving here in early 2009. They did checks on us of course to the point of phoning our nephew in Auckland to ask about us and also a friend from here. They provided us with a CD of photographs of the property which showed any flaws that the property we were moving into had (very few) and we went around the house with both the agent and the owners before we took over the rental. The agent visited us after 4 weeks to complete standard checks and took any maintenance issues we had (if we had anything they got their house maintenance guy to visit) and from then on it was every 8 weeks. When we left it was in the same condition as we took it on and was thanked by the agents for leaving it in a good condition. Within 2 weeks of leaving our bond appeared back into our bank account. We cannot praise them enough for the ease of breaking our contract with them when we moved out to our own house earlier than expected.

Oh good, we've just signed up to a rental with Quinovic! The leaving tenant warned us that they can come down on you like a ton of bricks if you don't keep the place looking immaculate! He did have 2 dogs and a cat though so perhaps he hadn't cleaned up after them when they did their inspection! Got me worried anyway!