Advice you wish you'd been given (Property Rentals)

[Kanga]

So true, forget the moisture reader (remember it's quite a humid island), just make sure that at least the living areas are north facing, ideally the bedrooms too.

[Duncan74]

When you see soemwhere you want then don't just tell the agent you'll take it. Write a letter explaining why you're the best tenants they will ever find, and get begging.

[aziramai]

crikey - it can't be that competitive surely?

always wanted an excuse to own a compass

[Duncan74]

crikey - it can't be that competitive surely?

always wanted an excuse to own a compass

Depends where you are, but yes, it can be. Auckland especially, but ChCh for obvious resaons, Tauranga was like that in February, not sure baout now. Hamilton was 2 weeks ago in the upper end of the market.

[juxtajenny]

Definitely get one in the uk, they are not that readily available here and are quite expensive! I find local people have quite a laid back attitude to damp and mould and do not understand simple things they can do to minimise!

Hehe, I would have been one of those people no doubt

Think I may see if i can get a cheap air moisture meter before I fly. Hubby is asthmatic and really struggles with damp and mould spores.

[shelscrape]

Wait until you arrive in NZ before you agree to renbt a property. You need to look around the house yourself. As people have said above unfortuantely a fair number of landlords are a bit too ladi back on property maintenance. yes, get a North facing house, the sun really helps to warm the rooms and cut back on heating bills.

Also, make sure you take some references with you. Easy if you are renting now, but if you own your own house now take some photos to show you keep your house tidy and get a neighbour to write a letter to say something along the lines of you maintaining your house well and being a good neighbour.

[KatieBen]

If you have the money, book your first week or two into a motel or furnished holiday let rather than try and arrange a rental before you get here.

Once you're here, it gives you a base from which to explore and means you can view before you sign.

Before you get here, register with agents that look like they manage the sort of property you are interested in and give them a list of your requirements (number of rooms/bathrooms, size, style, budget, location, etc) - often the good properties go before they even get to the marketing stage - and then chase them up for viewings when you land. Expect to lose a couple of days looking around houses before you find a good one.

[Sun777]

What are the things you wish you had looked for in a rental before you first signed on the dotted line? What are the give away signs of a dodgy deal in NZ?

I wish I could have judged insulation of the house better than walking around the property with measurement tape . Bus stop was just across the street but frequency of bus at peak hours is "one for 20 minutes" and "one for an hour" during off-peak hours. Great South road is about 10 minute walk ( trust me this distance feels longer than 30 minutes due to excessive sweating ).

All of a sudden, the drainage was blocked, same weekend hot water started leaking off the roof (I wonder what kind of system was used - one fine morning I noticed a hot water spring from roof top). I guess 2-3 days of non-stop hot water leakage gave us $370 monthly bill (which usually used to be $130).

Maintenance of garden. Initially we were charged up to look after the garden and within 2-3 weeks started noticing some weird kind of weeds all over the so called green paradise, once I manually plucked out all the weeds which left a brown garden for 4 weeks before the weeds started growing again....we maintained it same way thus far

The house is still spacious but the drawback is that electricity consumption is too high to warm up the space, I'm back to my thermals, quilts and could relate to poor bin-laden's video recently released.
(just in good humor please)

[Trevor Joe]

Recommend you book a motel for the first 2 weeks on your arrival, this will give you chance to see the areas you are interested in, they are not always as they seem on the internet! Good Luck with your search

[Familyofmonkeys]

If you have asthmatics in the family, be careful! You are unlikely to find NZ housing as warm and dry as a typical UK house.

North facing is very good, but just as important is a house that has good airflow round it, but not so much that it is very drafty. If the outside air in immediate vicinity of the house is less damp, you will have less issues with damp and mould inside.

Firstly, I would recommend a modern house as there will some insulation and there will be less likelihood of ingrained mould spores, that are all but impossible to eradicate once present in the environment. If you are lucky enough to find a house with double glazing, I would snap it up quickly as double glazed rentals are pretty rare, especially at the lower end of the budget. Look for extractor fans in bathrooms (uncommon in anything much over 10 years old), and DVS or HRV are good for keeping the damp/condensation at bay...although not that many rental have these in my experience. A lot of rentals have no heating of any kind, but a heat pump can be an acceptable solution if it's big enough for the house. Woodburners are fab, give out a much nicer dryer warmth and are far cheaper to run!

Other things I would look out for as an asthmatic would be as much solid flooring (in a modern house) as possible, or if there is carpet, check when it was last cleaned and whether it will have sufficient time to dry out properly before you move in. Have a good look at curtains, blinds and wardrobes....give them a good sniff. If they smell musty then there is a mould problem. Look out for recently repainted bathrooms, wardrobes etc....again this can be a sign of covering up mould problems. And similarly, anywhere that has a powerful smell of bleach might indicate that some mould removal has been done before people people were shown around a property. Some bleaching is necessary to keep mould under control, but widescale use of the stuff can sometimes indicate problems.