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The last decade has seen many changes including the demand for more qualified, reliable tradesmen. This has in part been stimulated by the identification of leaky buildings and increased insurance obligations. 2011 continues to see the need for more emphasis on tradesmen selection especially with recent changes to the Building Act and other legislation and requirements. This also includes one of the latest changes being the introduction of Restricted Building Work (RBW) that as of March 2012 will require Licensed Building Practitioners (LBP) to undertake or supervise certain work. Now all of this "soup" contributes to a dish that changes the game for professional property management companies particularly. New qualifications and increased liability has required changes in how professional maintenance contractors and property managers operate. As professional property managers our focus has now changed from simply getting the cheapest tradesman for our clients to appointing registered, insured and reliable tradesmen. By reliable we mean proactive in completing jobs quickly, with guarantees on quality of work and respecting tenants’ rights and privacy. This now requires some serious vetting. Gone are the days when your manager will recommend the cheapest person in town. Landlords now have too much to lose by using the cheapies as they may now be liable not only for any poorly performed maintenance (or fall outs from these jobs, for example unregistered persons) but also for problems associated with tenants’ privacy and bad tradesman behaviour (as seen on Target, a New Zealand consumer advice TV show). If you request a quote from your property manager, don’t expect it to be the cheapest in town. Your property manager is not a specialist project manager and is not focused on getting the lowest price alone. Although obtaining a reasonable price is important, your property manager simply can’t afford to employ someone that doesn’t meet strict criteria. It goes without saying that if your insurance company discovers work has been completed by unqualified persons then claims may be declined or bad work ends up costing you more money. Your property manager must be focused on finding reliable qualified tradesmen that meet specific criteria and train all their staff on best practice customer service (as a tradesman is a representative of the landlord in the eyes of the tenant). Property owners have the decision making power. They have the power to choose any tradesman that they wish knowing these risks and if they choose to use an unlicensed and unqualified tradesman then they are responsible for the fallout. If your property manager organised the same person and they burnt the house down, flooded it, built an unsafe deck etc, and it turned to custard it would be no defence for your manager to say 'his price was the best' or 'we assumed he was qualified/insured' or 'we believed what he told us'. If the house burnt down or flooded, or an unsafe deck lead to an accident that paralysed a tenant and the police took a civil claim against your manager, then again it would be no defence to say 'we assumed' or 'he told us he was qualified and insured'. If the insurance company refused to pay out due to the poor quality of work then again this causes big risk. All of the above incidents have happened somewhere and will happen again. So there is now more at stake than just the cheapest deal to the landlord. Property managers, building managers and project managers just can’t afford this risk anymore. The expectation by law is that if you are a professional in some area, say "Property Management" then the expectation of the legal system including the Tenancy Tribunal and any other court, is that the manager would act professionally, in its principal’s best interest and with best practice procedures. This includes appointing licensed, insured tradesmen who guarantee their work. For these reasons Allen Realty now largely uses all trades companies for much of its work. We negotiate competitive market rates to ensure that the charges are reasonable and most importantly the all trades companies guarantee their service and hold the necessary and relevant qualifications and insurance. Your property manager is always happy to assist you with maintenance and quotes but don’t expect multiple quotes. In cases where they have a second reliable tradesman they will provide a second quote. If they don’t they simply won’t. The first job of a property manager is to protect your asset and using the right tradesman (not the cheapest) is integral to this goal. Property owners can arrange work or alternative quotes themselves where necessary and they may even save on management disbursement fees. Your property manager will happily assist by arranging access with the tenant, or arranging for the key to be available for the owner’s chosen tradesperson, and can arrange for the bill to be paid from rent received if that is what the owner requires. But remember the responsibility for work ordered by the property owner remains with the property owner. Next time your property manager arranges quotes for you please make sure you take this into consideration. If you are comparing prices, compare apples with apples. Don’t compare a one man band you found in the paper with a professional licensed operator. Some quotes will involve a gang of tradesmen that will complete a job in a week. Others may be a one man band who is cheaper but takes three weeks to complete the same job. You may be able to measure a difference in price but you may not be able to measure quality. Remember that communication is also the focus for your property manager so if requested we will never arrange work unless you authorise us to. As a note of caution to landlords: Recently a client whose property we manage completed some plumbing work on that tenanted property themselves, rather than use a qualified plumber. We had arranged a quote for the repair, but the owner decided to undertake the work themselves. Unfortunately the plumbing work failed and the property was water damaged by flooding. The owner’s insurance company has to-date refused to pay for the repair. The insurance company believes the owner should have had the work completed by a qualified tradesperson. Allen Realty Ltd invites all professional, registered and insured tradesmen to send us information about your rates with references from current and past clients. If your commitment to customer service is in line with ours and your communication is second to none then we would love to hear from you. Allen Realty is a 100% specialist Auckland Residential Property Management company with a growing network of local branches in Mt Eden, Auckland CBD, Greenlane and Manukau. Visit www.allenrealty.co.nz for information on our services or email simonallen@allenrealty.co.nz for more information. Or you can contact us today for a FREE Property Management Consultation and find out how we can structure a tailored management service to suit your requirements. You can read other recent blogs including Successful Tenancy Application claimed by Allen Realty, Unit Titles Act 2010 Explained, Rental Market Report Spring 2011, Allen Realty Wins Industry Award for Excellence, Listen To Your Tenants, Rodents in Your Rental Property?, Rent Arrears—What is the Process?, Negotiating Tenancies, The Tenant Selection Process, The Art of the Rent Review, Smoke Alarms in Rental Properties and Low Maintenance Gardens in Rental Properties.
Simon Allen
FAQs about Auckland Property Management
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In the old days of property management the focus was on finding the cheapest person to complete the job. It was not uncommon for property managers to pick up local newspapers and pick local people to complete maintenance jobs with very few reference checks and without a warranty of service.
