COVID-19 Pandemic Alert Levels

Pandemic Alert Levels and the effect on landlords and tenants from your property managers perspective

Who would have thought at the beginning of 2020 that we would be faced with a worldwide pandemic that is killing hundreds of thousands of people and that little old New Zealand would currently be in lockdown!

What is good to see is how compliant and accepting we have been in adopting these drastic changes to life, livelihoods, and our futures. The personal and business sacrifices that we have all had to endure and how we have all rallied together to help one another.

But let's be real, the effects of this pandemic are unknown. What I do know is that there will be changes made to the way we operate our businesses and conduct our personal lives and it will be a little strange for some time to come.

Click thankfully to date has not had too many issues with tenant’s ability to continue to pay their rent – and long may this last. Obviously, this depends on how long the lockdown continues!

All we can do as property managers for our landlords and tenants is continue to keep abreast of the ever-changing Residential Tenancies Act rules and regulations and work with everyone to ensure that the lines of communication are kept open and the risks and any issues are kept to a minimum. And to ensure that we are adhering to the appropriate COVID-19 Alert Level rules.

In saying that, how are these Alert Levels affecting us?

This week we were advised of an important update regarding property management operating rules under Alert Level 3.

From 28th April 'one on one' viewings and tenant movement between properties is permitted so long as social distancing and safety measures are in place. We must, however, vet prospective tenants, and only once they meet the appropriate criteria will they be able to view property (with certain restrictions). We have made a special COVID-19 registration form and posted this on our web page specifically for this purpose. This process along with safe viewing processes will hopefully mean we will be able to rent properties again without much further delay. Viewings on tenanted properties will however only take place with tenant agreement.

At this point, we will not be back to undertaking routine property inspections or attending to all property maintenance until we reach a safer level ie Alert Level 2.

So, like a lot of kiwis, we are gearing up and preparing for some (limited) form of "normal operation" from next week, which is very exciting!

ration" from next week.