July 18, 2026 • 40 mins
Renting out property can come with a lot of risks for landlords from faulty buildings and dodgy tenants.
Mike Atkinson from Aspire Property Management joins Tim Beveridge for the One Roof Radio Show to discuss some of the red flags that might go unnoticed by the average landlord.
And, how to avoid being a red flag tenant, what can you do to overcome previous renting mistakes to get into the property you want?
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News talks'b.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good Stuff. Welcome back to the Weekend Collective. I'm Tim
Beverage and this is the One Roof Radio show. And look,
I just remind you that for the next two hours
we'd love you to call up and join the conversation.
You don't have to have the answer to the meaning
of life or the final word on things. It's just
an as with most of these topics that we cover
and the One Roof Radio Show, and also the Parents
(00:33):
Squad which is after that, it's you know, these are
evolving conversations that always have a new angle to be taken.
Stuff you'd like to join the conversation, we'd love to
hear from you. All you need to do is pick
up that phone. Eight hundred and eighty ten eighty and
just before we introduce our first guest, although the subject
matter will be a clue as to who it is,
we're gonna have a chat about basically the risks. You know,
(00:56):
renting out a property can come with a lot of
risks for landlords from faulty buildings and dodgy tenants, and
we're going to have look at some of the red
flags that might actually go unnoticed by the average landlord.
But also we want to flip it both ways because
we don't like to say, you know, one of my
pet peeves I think about politics and don't want I'm
not going to bang on about politics is when it
(01:17):
comes to you know, everyone wants someone to live, and
a huge number of people in New Zealand rent, and
so that a lot of people who are landlords. And
I hate the idea that one side is seen as
the baddies and the other as the goodies, because the
fact is that people come in all shapes and sizes.
There are great landlords, there are crap landlords, there are
great tenants, there are crap tenants. And there's no waiting
(01:40):
either way there in terms of W E I, G
H T. There's no waiting that one is populated by
the more by misreputable personalities than the other. There are
faults on all side because we're all human. So that's
a long winded way of saying we're not just going
to talk about finding a bad tenant. But also, if
(02:02):
you're a tenant, what are the red flags that make
you think, oh, I love the property, but god, I
haven't had good things about the management company, or it's
a private landlord. I mean, would you, as a tenant,
would you rent just as comfortably from a landlord that
was managing their own property as you would from an agency?
(02:23):
Or do you hate the idea it's an agency. I'm
just going to be a number of the unplug and player.
I like to have a personal relationship with the landlord
because I can charm the socks off us to give
us a new washing machine when the one that they
promised us breaks down. I don't know, it's been a
while since I rented. The times I've rented, i've the
majority have been private landlords. In fact, when I was
in Australia, the landlord I had lived downstairs, which was
(02:47):
really convenient when I forgot to plug the washing machine
outlet into the shower because it was all manual, and
I flooded his house and he came up stairs very
quickly and was quite forgiving. He probably had second thoughts
about how he'd done the plumbing. Probably. Anyway, we want
your calls on eight hundred and eighty ten eighty half
to choose a tenant, but also how to choose a
(03:08):
landlord and what does the entity that is managing the property.
What does it mean to you if it's private or
it's a company anyway joining me to answer and discuss
those questions, among others. He is managing director of a
SPA property management. His name is Mike Atkinson, and Mike howdy,
how are you going good?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Thank you? How are you doing good?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
To see you've got the brand on today?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well you go, you're not going to the rugby hop
and the camera is going to hit on you and
it'll s a SPA property Management free advertising.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
I'm not I would be going to the Warriors if
I was going to either one of the two games.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Actually, it's not funny. We were having a chat on
the panel and one of my panelists is passionate about
the all Blacks and the others sort of take it
or leave really, and it's in the football and here
you are. You'd be like, oh, Warriors, yes, all Blacks.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Eh, well they shouldn't be on at the same time.
That would have been good planning not to have them on. Then.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I don't know how much talk there is. What sorry,
what time of the Warrior episode?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
The Warriors? I think you're at like seven forty or
seven thirty and they're basically overlapping directly. What about we're
both playing in Auckland.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Oh I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
So it's a nightmare for the transport and everything like that.
So you would think someone would be able to ring
someone else and we could have had a five thirty
seven thirty double hitter.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Are you going to the Warriors?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I'm not?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Oh, okay anyway, Hey, obviously, I mean you're a rental company,
a rental management company, and you look after properties on
behalf of private landlords. Let's talk about the red flags
because I know you're coming at it from a point
of view, you're constantly well, you're dealing with both sides,
but mostly with tenants, I imagine once you've got the
(04:37):
property on your box. Because the other side I forgot
to mention as I was doing the introduction, was you
know tenants who come? I mean, how did tenants get
back on the rental ladder if they have had a
bad a bad time, or a bad reputation or a
bad report previously, does that rule them out of ever
(05:00):
getting a house because everyone's got to have somewhere to live.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I don't think it rules them out completely, but it
can make it very difficult. If you have got a
tendancy tribunal ruling against you that says that you trashed
a property and we're evicted, it's going to be very
difficult to get a property. They do actually take those
off the online register after about two years, so you
kind of get a fresh start automatically, which I don't.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Or reveal that is a sorry hang on, So if
you've had a tenancy tribunal ruling, so how do I
find out if someone's got a tendency tribunal ruling?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
You can you can go to the website and you
can search for it on the tenancy tribunal rulings or online.
They don't go back very far. So one of the
benefits of property management companies is we have access to
some private databases that keep them for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Longer than that.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Ah, but I think that is designed for you know,
if you were twenty one years old and you've got
evicted from a rental property the way that most people
look after their rentals, now, you might not be able
to get a property when you're thirty one, and that
might not be fair so well.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Because you're also I mean, you know there are plenty
of people. Let's think a Tiger university, there'd be plenty
of people who probably get caught up with They're probably
plenty of people who get caught up with bad behavior
when they're you know, eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old, who
are completely different people by the time they've actually got
some responsibility in their life exactly.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
And if you rent a property with someone else and
they do all of the damage, you are still named
on the tendency agreement, so you can go down with
your shipmates, so to speak.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I'm not sure how you pronounced that word. I thought
you said it in a naughty way. It's probably be
more accurate, yes, it would be. Hey, Actually, just on
the mechanics of it. What are the identification requirements, Because
if I've if I've been involved in a flatting relationship
and somehow one of my flatmates has trashed the place,
oh my god, I just think of what we got
(06:53):
up to a students. We did sort of, I mean
the place was untrashable because it was we had water
fight inside once. It started with syringes and ended up
with bucket. It's from either outside or inside, and we
had to squeegee the hallway out. But to be honest,
the carpet would have seen worse in its time, I imagine.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Was that Dunedin, was it?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yes, it was Dunedin.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I mean, well, the thing is with that as an example,
as the landlords are actually doing very well down there
because they were renting out basically properties like you said
that had already had a water fight in it many
times over, and they were getting really good rent off you.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
If you if you're one of those people had of
Castle Street flat and the family and you're renting it out,
I mean these days, those they almost get a premium
because they're the trendy, the trendy you know locations.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah, so that's almost like its own little market in itself,
and I'm sure they're actually doing just fine.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Do you guys manage anything down there.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
No, we only manage properties in Auckland, Hamilton and Towering
are at the stage.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Okay, that's just basically because of the location of literally
you need physical people on the spot, don't you.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Just so getting back to that question identification, if I've
got a dodgy record because you know, let's face it,
one of my flat maybe it was me, could I
just change my name or just use use a different
version of my name. Guess I'll go with my middle
name as my surname. Would that or how does that work?
Speaker 3 (08:16):
That actually can be quite effective because if you look
up court records, they often don't have much other than
just the person's name. So you can have a tenant
that might have a fairly common name, and there will
be other people that have been taken to the tribunal
with their name, so it's not a very good sustain
If you're.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Dave Smith and you've had a bad you've had a
ruling against you, you just say I'm not that Dave Smith, yes, yeah,
oh okay, But if you happen to be Tarquin Farquha
sort of the trouble.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yeah. One thing that stops at though, is the property
manager will do a credit check on you as well,
and that will that will list your know and addresses
according to like any water bills you've had or sorry
not water bills, but you know, mobile phone bills, anything
like that. So you can look at a tribunal order
and if it's for one example street, and you've also
got that address on your credit check, then it's going
to be very hard to say that you were not
(09:07):
that person living there with that exact same name. So
there is a few things that can make it easier
for landlord's So.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
If you had a tenant who came to you he said, look,
I've well, here's the other question. If you've got a
bad if you've got something negative in your rental history,
you should be upfront about that first up Really shouldn't it?
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Should you or should I Absolutely definitely be upfront. Your
landlord tenant relationship is just like any other interpersonal relationship.
It's better to be honest and to communicate. And you know,
an unpaid phone bill from five years ago that you
were paying off is a lot better to be upfront
about than it is to Actually, you're not going to
get found out because any reputable property manager is going
(09:48):
to do a credit check and your unpaid court orders
are going to be found So better to be upfront
and address it head.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
So if I came to you as as a young
person and I said, listen, look, I'd really love to
rent this property, but I have to be upfront with you.
I've got one I've got a ton of from my
reputation when I was a young guy, and together with
my mates we trashed a flat and we got in
big trouble for it. We paid it off. But this
is the change I've made in my life. How see,
(10:16):
I still be thinking I'm on a losing streak there,
because if you've you know, you've got a responsibility to
your you're going to be looking for somebody who hasn't
got a record.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
But somebody who hasn't got a record can still be
a deck Oh absolutely. And you as long as you
can demonstrate that you have basically done some things to
actually change that so that you know you were this
and now you're something else. And then you provide all
the examples of the good things that you've done, whether
it's like the evidence from your current landlord that you've
paid off all your rent, anything that you've paid off
(10:46):
all your old debts, or the fact that you've got
a new job and you've been employed somewhere somewhere for
a year. Use all of those, you know, points of
evidence to strengthen your case.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
What about references? Do they mean much? Because some anyone
can get a reference from from someone who will give
them a friendly one without really a friend of the family.
Might think always a lovely young man and without realizing that,
well you're you know, for two or three years, we're
a complete peg.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Yeah, I mean, personal references don't carry a ton of weight.
But if you can get a good landlord reference that
has where we can verify that they own the property
or another property manager's reference is actually quite strong. But yeah,
if you haven't had a rental reference yet, then character
references are still a good place to start.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Okay, so how do you what are the ways that
people can rule themselves out of being a tenant for you,
as someone who's vetting it for.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Bad bad credit, you know, not not disclosing things. Basically,
some of the warning signs that we might spot that
might seem good to a private landlord to someone who's
really really urgent, really want this property asap? Sounds great
if it's vacant, but why does someone need to move
into a house in one day's time? That seems unusual.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So okay, how need it urgently? That will get at less?
Need it urgently? That that's first red flag? Okay.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Willing to pay more than what it's listed for. Of course,
that can be great if there's competition, But if it
seems like it's too good to be true. It often is,
so you've always got to trust and verify.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Okay, Well, because the other thing. I don't know how
much of a story this is headline wise, but you
know people who trash houses through illegal activity and cooking
meth and all sorts of things. How big an issue
is that these.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Days it can still be a big issue. There was
a story recently about in west Auckland where there was
a gang of overseas criminals that came down and they
were growing marijuana and all the properties in west Auckland.
We believed that we had a group of them try
to rent a property from us, and once we started
asking them all the questions, they just disappeared. So they
were looking for private landlords who weren't going to do
(12:53):
inspections or property management companies that were not diligent, and
they I think they rented about forty houses and they
were growing marijuana all through the ceilings and parties.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Oh, because when you were saying growing marijuana, I sort
of think, I guess, yeah, that's all an internal sort
of setup. Does that actually, by the way, because we
know that we know meth ruins a property, what is
marijuana if you have somebody's growing.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Well, they actually they use a lot of humidity in
the property, so it does actually cause a bit of
a problem. So because I was actually thinking, could they
be great tenants?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
No, You're like, oh, they'll be paying their rent on
time and cash cash business cash is king.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
No, No, definitely not but yet. So they use a
lot of humidity in the property, they use a lot
of power. They often actually try to do stuff to
the power switchboard so that the meter gets cut out
of the equation, so they can do damage and stuff
like things like that to the property. So it's definitely
not a great situation for a landlord.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Well are they warning signs that you guys would notice
that are private? So you know a lot of there
are a lot of people in New Zealand who are
just private landlords who decide they're going to manage the
property themselves. I guess one reason they might do it
is if they have a physical proximity to the property
and they feel they can keep an eye on it.
But still that's not going to save them from a
(14:07):
tenant who's determined to be allows e tenant. Well, are
there particular warning signs that you have learnt through the
course of what you do that you think, oh boy,
this is this would be a danger for a private landlord.
They wouldn't know on that know about that.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
I think so. I mean, a private landlord might do
one or two tenancies a year if they've got like
three properties. We do one and a half tenancies every day,
So four hundred and eighty d a year. If that
maths works out, which I don't think it does.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I wells fact check that. Yeah, Olivia, one and a
half times three hundred and sixty five. Oh, let's do
business working. Yeah, okay, that's right.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
But yeah, so we do see a lot, and so
we stop instead of getting sucked up into personal relationships.
Of course, we still maintain a personal relationship with the
tenant and the landlord, but we are looking at patterns.
We're looking at data, We're looking for any sort of
tell that we think doesn't stack up, and we have
so much activity coming in we can sort of spot
the the tails a lot earlier than a private landlord could.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Five hundred and forty seven point five is one and
a half per day, but that's if you're working seven
days a week.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Actually I was counting seven days oh.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
You were Yeah, okay, Well, what are the things that
you've learned as a property manager? Are there any lessons,
because I'm sure, I mean, most people, if they've had
a career in any particular, there'll be certain lessons they've
learned along the way. Is there anything to you that
you learned that you look back and go, gosh, there's
(15:35):
two or three things that really stand out to me
are things that I've learned. Becurse, I do this a
lot now rather than you know, just dabbling.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Yeah, I mean, there's there's actually so much that I've learned,
you know, like not you know, judging a don't judge
a book by its cover, but you still sort of
pay attention to those things. So if you see something,
investigate it and actually make sure that there's something behind it.
So if you get a bad feeling about someone, you
have to go and look into it and actually get
(16:05):
something to support your decision. And there are plenty of
sort of markers out there for people doing. Don't ever
take any shortcuts when it comes to background checking is
basically one of the big lessons.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Do what I mean, you wouldn't know about how private
landlords go about their business, but you'd have a few
who've come to you because they've done the private landlord
thing and they've decided, right, it's not for me. What
I mean that they're obvious tales of woe that stand
out from the mistakes they've made.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Ah so many, and they don't often, you know, they
won't even have things like the persons. They don't have
a copy of the idea or they've never seen ideas,
so they just have a piece of paper with this
person's name on it, but we have no idea if
it's actually that person. You know. Not collecting the full
bond is one that private landlords often don't do. Not
even having a tendency agreement written down is another thing.
So a lot of people when they rent it privately,
(16:54):
they're very trusting. You meet someone at the first meeting,
they're often lovely. Everything seems to be going so well,
and you just think this person's going to be great,
and then as soon as you sign the piece of paper,
everything can change. And so for those people that don't
even sign the piece of paper, it can be a
real the handover the keys and it can be a
nightmare after that.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Hey, look, we'd love to have your calls on this
as gosh, time's flying US twenty twenty four plus four.
We'll go to breaking just to take but this is
your chance to join The conversation from a couple of
angles is if you are a tenant, would you prefer
is it all about the property for you? If you're
when you were looking for a place to call home,
(17:33):
did you make a did you care about who the
letting agency was or whether it was a private landlord?
And did you prefer one or the other? I've had a
few texts on that one saying private landlords by far, well,
this person's encounters have been good. Private landlords by far
are absolute gems turned out to be great friends. See
that's sort of the luck of the drawer, really, isn't it.
(17:53):
But what's your approach to it if you are a renter?
But likewise, if you are a landlord, what are the
warning signs you would look for if you're doing the
job yourself when it comes to choosing a tenant eight
hundred and eighty ten eighty text nine to nine two.
This is one Ruth Radio Sha. I'm Tim Beverage. My
guest is Mike Atkinson from Aspire Property Management. We'll be
(18:16):
back in just to tech give us a call. News
Talks the'd be this is the one rufradio sham. My
guest is Mike Atkinson of a Spire Property Management, talking
about just the different relationships and how you does it
matter if you're a renter, for instance, do you want
to deal with a private landlord? Do you do you
prefer dealing with a rental company? Of course, Mike, while
(18:36):
people you're obviously with a SPA Property management. We have
you on here because we you know, we've probably as
certained that you guys are a pretty good bunch of operators.
But there would be so are this if you were
a renter? Oh, this is a tricky question for you, Mike.
If you were a renter, how would you know if
the rental property company, you know, so you have to
(18:58):
go through you're not dealing with a private landlord, which
would be you know for some people they'd be like
they would see some companies as like will be the
luck of the drawers to who the agent as I'm
dealing with them, whether they're going to treat me like
a number, and et cetera. How would you would it
matter to you who you were dealing with.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
It would definitely matter to me who I was dealing with,
and I would start by looking at Google reviews and
then secondly I would do it. You could do a
tendency tribunal search on the property management company as well,
because if they are respondents in any tribunal cases, their
names will be on there.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
What could you learn? But I mean, that's that doesn't
tell you.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
I mean it does if you get the whole you
can get the whole case and you can see some
of them will be legitimate times when they were acting
completely fairly and they just happened to go to the tribunal.
There will be other times where they've been taken to
the tribunal because they were not doing their jobs.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Probably, how many tenants would ever think of that if
I'm looking around for a place to live. I mean, look,
I did know who the rental agent was that I
dealt with when we found our flat which we ended
up buying. It was word of mouth. In fact, it
was just there's a name around the Eastern Bays where
(20:08):
everyone goes with the same person all the time. You
probably would know the name without even being prompted. Probably,
but how many people would actually really be aware of
or do you think there was a bit of chatter
amongst the renters it's like or don't go to that
place that dodgy.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
I think that there is, and I think the Google
reviews would have been a big part of it today.
To be fair, over the last ten years, a lot
of the property management companies have really picked up their
game and how they deal with the tenants. When I
first got into the industry sort of fifteen twenty years ago,
the tenants were just completely ignored like they are in
(20:43):
Australia today. So yeah, I think the Google reviews get
looked at and it's good to have a balance of
reviews from landlords and from tenants.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Do you see because a Google review? I mean the
problem that this is where it's difficult for a private landlord,
I guess. But for a rental company, if you generally
do a good job, you'll have it'll be the weight
of all the reviews that outweigh the crappy one star review.
And no matter how good a company is, there's always
someone who's not happy, who's gone and trashed you. I'm
(21:14):
sure you've got a one star review, not because a
comment on your performance, but if you've had to throw
someone out, Yeah, then they'll go and give you a
one star review and put their own side of the story.
But I guess you rely on the bulk of the
evidence to you.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Yeah, we do, and you will see some companies will
have still have quite high scores. I mean we're a
four point nine. There's plenty of other ones out there
that are four point eight four point nine as well,
and that means they're probably working very hard to make
sure that they're satisfying their tenants and their landlords because
they will be wearing the odd one star review like
we have. Because if you evict someone from their home
(21:47):
when they haven't paid the rent for two months, they
can still give you a one star review.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Do you go into the Google reviews and reply to
a negative review saying just with a link to the
tenancy tribunal decision? That would be passive aggressive, wouldn't it.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Yeah, we haven't done it, haven't We haven't done that,
but we do. If anyone does give us a one
star Google review, we always engage with them, try to
find out what the issue was and see how we
can address it and see if we can make it right.
Some of them you know, it can be just a
defering of opinion over something. Others can be genuine, and
we do everything we can to address them because we
never want anyone to feel like they get a one
(22:21):
star Google review.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Actually, so what happens as a result if somebody is
just really annoyed and they haven't felt listened to. And
we don't want to drill into this too much, but
if have you ever engaged with someone where they've gone, OK,
fair enough, I'll take it down. Actually, but thanks for
talking to me and reaching out or is it a
thankless job?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
No, We've had I've had people take down Google one
star or two star or three star Google reviews before.
Once you've reached out and speak to them, gone out
to people's houses and had meetings with them and had
had coffee with them and gotten to find out what
the problem was, addressed it resolved it.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
I didn't get into this business to get to have
people give me one star Google reviews. I want. I
wanted to deliver a five star service.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Wow. So if you want a cup of coffee with
a spar property management. Sorry, that's been interesting. You mentioned
three stars. Three stars is a funny one isn't it?
Because that to actually, I would imagine why you get
engaged with that, because someone who's just got a bone
to pick. They're the one star reviewer, but the three
star reviewer is they've thought about it, haven't they? And
(23:22):
they're not necessarily out to trash you, but they're just
indicating I just wasn't happy with a couple of things.
That'd be the ones worth engaging with, wouldn't they?
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Oh, we engage with anyone that's not a four. Basically,
the way that the Google review model works is it's
either a five or it's effectively zero, because a four
will still bring you down from five, and a three
will bring you way down from five. Because it's either
five is great and anything other than a five is bad.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Basically, it's okay, I'm gonna have to start googling just
to have a look at how many not just for fun. Hey,
So when it comes to private landlords, who don't you know,
I mean, Chris, I don't know what the fees are?
Five to six seven? What are the fees again?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Seven point five percent plus GST?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Can do people ever hire you just to find a
tenant and they say, look, I'll take it from here,
But we'd like you to find a new charge of
fee for finding a tenant, because that does sound like
a fairly well not the worst way of spending your money, is.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
That, No, I mean we do that for some of
our customers that have got properties that we manage and
they come back to us after some time and they
say they've got another property. We try not to do
it because it kind of creates a bit of a
liability issue where we find a tenant, they sign an
aspire tenancy agreement, but it's with a different landlord, and
then three months later you find out the landlord's been
you know, breaking the law. Who's liable? Are we liable?
(24:47):
It's our tenancy. We found the tenant, so we get this.
A property manager ends up with this sort of implied
liability in all in exchange for one week's rent find
a tenant. So it's often not worth it anymore.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
So if somebody was a private landlord and wanted to
find their own tenants and they just talking to you
as a mate, so not from a spy property management,
and you know they were absolutely determined to manage it themselves,
what advice would you give them on on finding on
getting it underway.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Ah, I would definitely just make sure that they use
some They keep very accurate records of people's applications. So
get an application done, make sure you check everything, pay
find someone to do the background check for you, and
make sure you do a credit check as well. And
don't just rush into the first person that comes through
the door. Someone who really needs to move in right
(25:39):
away and is very charming doesn't isn't always the best
fit for the rental property.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
But I think that's how we got our place, actually,
because I was just so cha. I don't recall filling
out a form or anything. I think I did. I
must have emailed, and well I think I just phoned.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
And I remember filling out some paper forms earlier when
I've got my first couple of rental properties. But my
very first one in New Zealand was a private landlord
and there was nothing. He never did a He did
one routine inspect. After two years, you could see through
the floor to the outside. It was cold, moldy. It
was great.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Were you happy? Yeah? God, I remember that. Yeah. Anyway,
we went doing reminiscence says Okay, what about this text
you says, finding a rental is so difficult you'd take
what you can get. Is that I thought the rental
market was turned on its heels a bit, hadn't it.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
If they're in Queenstown or the Lakes district, that might
be true. But the rental market has really sort of
flipped and it's at a supply and demand are about
equal at the moment, so prices have sort of stopped dropping.
So for the last eleven months the national media stayed
about the same. Wellington still down a little bit, Auckland
and everything else pretty flat, So it shouldn't be super
(26:50):
hard to find a rental property at the moment. And
that sort of circles back to our thing about if
you have a red mark on your record, bring it up,
address it because the property managers and the landwards they
do actually want to rent the property to you, So
give them a reason to present you in a favorable
light to the landlord, to show that you have made
an effort to address the issue and that you've got
(27:11):
some other strings to you both.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
If you have got a bad record, see would see
i'd be suspicious of someone what I would would somebody.
You're saying, look, I've got a bad record, But as
a you know, I've I've grown up, I've changed, But
as a gesture of faith, I'm willing to offer a
higher bond.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
You can only legally accept a four week bond at
the moment. So if you were offering, if the landlord
was only after two and they offered more, as if
I was the private landlord, that wouldn't put me off.
I would respect someone you know, willing to address the issues,
but you can't take the money. If it's under four,
you can, but you can't take anything more than four
weeks bond.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
If some if somebody said, look, you know, you're not
going to take me unless you feel safe. I want
to cover I don't.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Know, and people have a six week bond or something.
You know, that's the thing. So the tenant can't even
offer that anymore. So that's the problem with laws like that.
Is designed to protect people, but there is a bit of.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
What did you think of it? What do you think
of the law where it's out at the moment.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I think it's I think it's good where it is.
In terms of the four week bond, a bigger bond
would be better, but it would be easier if tenants
could have like insurance or something like that. That would be
a better way to do it, so they're not tying
up so much cash. If you have a four week
bond and property number one and now you want to
go rent somewhere else and property number two is asking
you for four weeks bond, who's got eight weeks of
(28:31):
rent lying around to be tied up in bonds because
you're going to have to have two bonds. It's tough.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Yeah. No, I mean it was just a fictitious question really,
but it probably wasn't really grounded in reality too much.
What about this text here from Ben? And I wonder
if Ben's it'd be interesting to see what if there's
a backstory to this? He says, is looking at a
prospective tenants Facebook of them having weekly parties at their
current property. Is that enough to just say no? Well,
(28:56):
I would imagine yeah, if they look like they were
party animals. Can you check out people's Facebook and Instagram?
Speaker 3 (29:02):
And the privacy officer says no, can't. What which is
I don't agree with that. If you've got a public
Facebook profile and you're posting stuff publicly on Facebook, why
wouldn't someone else look at it? Ah, it's a recommendation,
not a law.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Oh it's so, hang on, the Privacy commissioner recommends.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Yes, not that it's like a breach of seven principles
of privacy of something along this.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Oh, what a lot of bollocks. It's public.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Yeah it is, it is. So, I mean they did it.
They got in touch with every property manager about five
years ago I think now, and they just basically said
that you couldn't take the information that you got from
a tenant. So if a tenant applies or couldn't, no,
you can't hand it onto the landlord or the owner
of the property. They were saying, don't tell the owner
of the property who's living in their rental property. And
it was like, there's no way we're not going to
(29:49):
do that.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Oh, so they were telling you, but they it had
no legal binding effect. Yes see, I would have thought
that that's a treasure trove of if somebody shows them,
you know, doing the yard glass and chundering in the
garden and trashing a place on Facebook, more for them
for stif picking the photos up for one.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Yeah, I mean that sort of stuff is a bit
less common nowadays because people have sort of stopped using
Facebook for publishing things like that. Yeah, but yes, there
was a time when we definitely were we were disqualifying
tenants based off what they were posting on Facebook.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
I'm going to dig into that a bit more. Actually,
I think it's quite fascinating. You can give your thoughts
on that. By the way, I mean, do you think
that it's legitimate for a landlord or a rental company
to go check out someone's Facebook a history? I would
have thought it's entirely reasonable. If you're dumb enough to
stick something stupid up there, then where you go? Eight
hundred eighty ten eighty.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Bit.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
We'll be back with mirk Atkinson from a SPA Property
Management in just a moment. It is in nineteen minutes
to five news talks. That'd be welcome back to the
one roof radio show. We're talking about, well, choosing a landlord,
choosing a rental company, or choosing a tenant. Eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty Charlie gooda, here you go. Good? Thanks?
How you doing?
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Yeah's your bed? I'm a bit disappointed you haven't done
any research about what the rules are because you don't
seem to know match.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Who you're talking about, me or Mike you. Well, that's
why we have an expert on Charlie. I mean, if
I was hosting the property the show on my own,
then fair enough. But I mean, come on.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
I rented properties for years and I split with my
wife and I kept one of them. I only had
one property left and I couldn't rent it because the
renting rules are so strict. But I can live in
it myself, but I can't rent it to someone, which
I think is absurd.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
I think I agree with you. I agree with you,
I think up to a point, unless you're living in
a tent.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
Of course, Well, my son went to move to Center.
He went to Central Tago to work, and he lived
in the tent because he couldn't get accommodation like at
the camping ground. So but people do that if you
want to work and you want to earn a crust,
and people want to do things. But what I'm saying
is like, the reason I can't couldn't rent it because
it doesn't have a heat pump and it doesn't have
(32:03):
an expel ear above the range. Well what on a
load of nonsense? You can you can live in the
house and the house is lovely and warm, and I
live in it myself now until I and but the
problem I used to have was I used to rent
it to people and and that agree to things like
I used to get them to dry clean or get
(32:26):
we get the carpet cleaners and to clean it between tenants,
so that everybody started off with a nice clean house.
And I usually went in and give it away to
slap up paint and make sure it was all looking good.
But the tenants don't. They don't look after the house.
Like I'm renting my house, my house. It's not that
it's not the government's house. It's my house. And I
(32:48):
don't think the government should be able to tell me
how what I can do with my rental property. I
think it's a load of Rabbish.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
So you don't think there should be any any minimum
standards at all.
Speaker 5 (32:57):
You think market would just look it should be a
minimum stands like I was a plumber, and you worked
on a lot of flats back and I'm under meaning
and I worked on a lot of student flats. But
Jesus that the students used to wreck them.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Well, yes, okay, can I.
Speaker 5 (33:16):
Bring went to one of the properties, and they were
the people, the people who was they were having a barbecue,
and I was in a service and we went there
because they had this big bonfire and they were ripping
all the fence palings off and taking the house and
(33:37):
putting on the.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Charlie, can I bring can bring? Can I bring Mike
in on this conversation anyway, just so that's not just
you and complaining.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
But but like when we tried to get a name
of the person who was actually renting there, the people
that were throwing all the stuff on the fire weren't
actually the people that were renting the house.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
That's there's a problem, Mike.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Anything that Charlie said you want to pick up on, well,
I mean I assume he's you know, the Healthy Home
Standard did come in to try to you know, lower
the raise the bar for the lowest properties, and I
think it has actually done a good job of that.
But it is kind of unusual that you can live
in a house with no heat pump, but you couldn't
rent it out, and often, you know, people are living
in those houses just fine.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I guess that the problem is, Charlie, is that that
it would be very difficult for the government to say
to people about their own houses, you must do this
before you can live in your own house. But whereas
it's easier for them to say it to protect a tenant,
doesn't it.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
It's okay, but the government should have been telling anyone
what to do anyways, well, telling us what to do. Okay,
what a mess they're making of a look a labor government,
for God's sake, because of them.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I guess you won't be voting for labor. That would
be a rough guess.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
But I used to vote for labor. I don't anymore.
I think they're just a waste of breast and the
waste of time.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Good on you, Charlie, Hey, thanks for corn mate. I mean, look,
to be honest, the government would have a hard cell
telling people how they can live in their own homes.
But that's why it applies to tenants, because it's just
a different cup of tea, isn't it mine.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
Yeah, And it's basically, you want to go into business,
and your business is renting out a house for someone
else to live in, and they're just saying, in order
to be in this business, you need to meet these standards.
And that's the same in all sorts of industries.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Yeah, yeah, anyway, we'll take some more calls or texts.
In just a moment news talks here b eleven and
a half minutes to five right news talks there'd be
with Mike Atkinson. I'm Tim Beverage talking about rental and
tenants and all that sort of thing. Taking your calls
Andrew Hello.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
Yeah, hi, Look other both South Ireland and North Island
and whether actually got a rental property but also live
an old home? But those want like a comment, I
mean healthy homes and our homes which had how much
to be sealed? Was no ventilation. That's particularly what the
government's created. And people need to know that spirituy virus
(35:58):
is like as to influence and COVID will speed by aerosol.
So a place which is well insulated with closed doors windows,
you get wrapped up carbon dioxide and that in case
how tanlationer is and people will get these diseases.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
So that that's one way you don't get them unless
you've got something in there already. I guess do you?
But I like to right in the windows. I must
say yeah, okay, I just.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Tell this as a fact. I know that's because I
don't believe me I occupation. So that's one aspect the
aspect of sort of with the glazing. Now, double glazing
simply isn't needed in or from homes unless people needed
to sid installation the rest of the time. If you're
going to pop insulate the homes and will pop the
insulated let's say.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Then means.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
No it seeing was yah saying it was each stone
neither few times. I mean, it's just play something in
the mine and it's got. I just opened the window.
I'm seven years old. I opened the window and all
the thing goes up there. One dow that was extremely well.
I mean, having an extractor fan is not nearly effective.
It's just something opening the window.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Yeah, I mean I think it's I think it's it's
a one size to try and fit all, probably because
some places don't ventilate as well as other. But yeah,
I like to open the windows.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
That's right. But then they could eave to make it.
They could easily make a decision around that, saying that
you know, there has to be an open window path,
you know, close to the stove or whatever, or a
bathroom either that or you have to have an event.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
By the way, by the way, Andrew, I've got to
say we've got double brainsing. In our place, we used
to have no insulation in the ceiling until we replace
the roof, and then we got double glazing and we've insulated.
And I tell you what, I love it, even though.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
You know, no, that's right, I can't argue with that.
I personally, I just I just think it's all out
of the chop. I think the south fire and certainly
reason why they have double glazed, and they've got brothers
and blend them. And it's unbelievable's in the new home
and they're closed to doing one of the bedrooms. It's
like dead quite It's like it really is quite suffocating.
And so I think they need to actually sort of
look through a careful at that, because a healthy home
(37:55):
cantill be full of mold. This is the other problem.
I've had people show me the kitchens and so on
and bathrooms the land and they're fit really for new homes,
and they've have mold all around the showers, on the
walls and so on, despite they've got the heat pump. Wow,
because it isn't done properly.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
You've got to open the windows as well. I mean,
you know, I think people think that the building does
it all for them, don't they sometimes? Mike just on
that aspect, don't they? Well, hang on, I switch a
microphone on.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Yes, And that's why they went with the range hoods
having to extract and the extractor fans, because the you
just can't rely on a tenant to open a window,
so but you can hopefully get them to turn on
an extractor fan.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
And isn't that funny? What actually I was thinking, what
would I do more easily? I just open the bloody window,
I guess, unless it's a really cold day. But even
on a cold day, even and again it's like, you know,
I think we need to get some fresh air in here,
because everyone's been standing in front of the sitting in
front of the TV.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
I think there's a level of sort of understanding of
how a property works that you have that the average
tenant actually doesn't have anymore. So they don't open a
window because it's cold outside, so why would you open
the window? So we're where the extractors and that come in.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
I was reading I'm reading a historical novel which reflects
some of the attitudes of the time, and it was
the time when they didn't believe that they thought that
that's how the pestilence got in, that you should keep
the windows shut as opposed to a ventilating because all
the pestilents and foul pests and diseases came in through
on the wind. But we do know better now, don't we.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Yeah, anyway, by the way, sorry, we've only got about
a minute to go, so I think we've probably stretched
the conversation as far as we can go for the
time being. But just quickly, if people are wanting to,
you know, get a property manager. Look, we know you're
ASPI Property Management, but how what would your advice be
(39:43):
to someone if you guys didn't exist.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
I would go and look up who the local property
managers are, find someone that's within a reasonable driving time
of my property, and have a look at their Google
reviews and maybe even searching at the tendency tribunal and
see if they are taking people to the tribunal or
if they're getting taken to the tribunal.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Good advice, actually Google reviews. It's funny. I was trying
to think how often I over rely on those. But
you know, if you're looking for a property agency, then
go to Google reviews, or you can go to a sprite.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
What is Aspire Property Management Aspire Property dot cod z.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
I just realized we forgot to the one who is
Property of the week, which is a shame because it's
a magnificent looking as tech sorry Arizona type property in
whites Are Are. You can go and google it yourself,
but anyway, there we go. We'll save it for next week.
Thanks Mike, Thank you, Get your soon.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to News
Talk SEDB weekends from three pm, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News talks'b.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good Stuff. Welcome back to the Weekend Collective. I'm Tim
Beverage and this is the One Roof Radio show. And look,
I just remind you that for the next two hours
we'd love you to call up and join the conversation.
You don't have to have the answer to the meaning
of life or the final word on things. It's just
an as with most of these topics that we cover
and the One Roof Radio Show, and also the Parents
(00:33):
Squad which is after that, it's you know, these are
evolving conversations that always have a new angle to be taken.
Stuff you'd like to join the conversation, we'd love to
hear from you. All you need to do is pick
up that phone. Eight hundred and eighty ten eighty and
just before we introduce our first guest, although the subject
matter will be a clue as to who it is,
we're gonna have a chat about basically the risks. You know,
(00:56):
renting out a property can come with a lot of
risks for landlords from faulty buildings and dodgy tenants, and
we're going to have look at some of the red
flags that might actually go unnoticed by the average landlord.
But also we want to flip it both ways because
we don't like to say, you know, one of my
pet peeves I think about politics and don't want I'm
not going to bang on about politics is when it
(01:17):
comes to you know, everyone wants someone to live, and
a huge number of people in New Zealand rent, and
so that a lot of people who are landlords. And
I hate the idea that one side is seen as
the baddies and the other as the goodies, because the
fact is that people come in all shapes and sizes.
There are great landlords, there are crap landlords, there are
great tenants, there are crap tenants. And there's no waiting
(01:40):
either way there in terms of W E I, G
H T. There's no waiting that one is populated by
the more by misreputable personalities than the other. There are
faults on all side because we're all human. So that's
a long winded way of saying we're not just going
to talk about finding a bad tenant. But also, if
(02:02):
you're a tenant, what are the red flags that make
you think, oh, I love the property, but god, I
haven't had good things about the management company, or it's
a private landlord. I mean, would you, as a tenant,
would you rent just as comfortably from a landlord that
was managing their own property as you would from an agency?
(02:23):
Or do you hate the idea it's an agency. I'm
just going to be a number of the unplug and player.
I like to have a personal relationship with the landlord
because I can charm the socks off us to give
us a new washing machine when the one that they
promised us breaks down. I don't know, it's been a
while since I rented. The times I've rented, i've the
majority have been private landlords. In fact, when I was
in Australia, the landlord I had lived downstairs, which was
(02:47):
really convenient when I forgot to plug the washing machine
outlet into the shower because it was all manual, and
I flooded his house and he came up stairs very
quickly and was quite forgiving. He probably had second thoughts
about how he'd done the plumbing. Probably. Anyway, we want
your calls on eight hundred and eighty ten eighty half
to choose a tenant, but also how to choose a
(03:08):
landlord and what does the entity that is managing the property.
What does it mean to you if it's private or
it's a company anyway joining me to answer and discuss
those questions, among others. He is managing director of a
SPA property management. His name is Mike Atkinson, and Mike howdy,
how are you going good?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Thank you? How are you doing good?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
To see you've got the brand on today?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well you go, you're not going to the rugby hop
and the camera is going to hit on you and
it'll s a SPA property Management free advertising.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
I'm not I would be going to the Warriors if
I was going to either one of the two games.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Actually, it's not funny. We were having a chat on
the panel and one of my panelists is passionate about
the all Blacks and the others sort of take it
or leave really, and it's in the football and here
you are. You'd be like, oh, Warriors, yes, all Blacks.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Eh, well they shouldn't be on at the same time.
That would have been good planning not to have them on. Then.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I don't know how much talk there is. What sorry,
what time of the Warrior episode?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
The Warriors? I think you're at like seven forty or
seven thirty and they're basically overlapping directly. What about we're
both playing in Auckland.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Oh I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
So it's a nightmare for the transport and everything like that.
So you would think someone would be able to ring
someone else and we could have had a five thirty
seven thirty double hitter.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Are you going to the Warriors?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I'm not?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Oh, okay anyway, Hey, obviously, I mean you're a rental company,
a rental management company, and you look after properties on
behalf of private landlords. Let's talk about the red flags
because I know you're coming at it from a point
of view, you're constantly well, you're dealing with both sides,
but mostly with tenants, I imagine once you've got the
(04:37):
property on your box. Because the other side I forgot
to mention as I was doing the introduction, was you
know tenants who come? I mean, how did tenants get
back on the rental ladder if they have had a
bad a bad time, or a bad reputation or a
bad report previously, does that rule them out of ever
(05:00):
getting a house because everyone's got to have somewhere to live.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I don't think it rules them out completely, but it
can make it very difficult. If you have got a
tendancy tribunal ruling against you that says that you trashed
a property and we're evicted, it's going to be very
difficult to get a property. They do actually take those
off the online register after about two years, so you
kind of get a fresh start automatically, which I don't.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Or reveal that is a sorry hang on, So if
you've had a tenancy tribunal ruling, so how do I
find out if someone's got a tendency tribunal ruling?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
You can you can go to the website and you
can search for it on the tenancy tribunal rulings or online.
They don't go back very far. So one of the
benefits of property management companies is we have access to
some private databases that keep them for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Longer than that.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Ah, but I think that is designed for you know,
if you were twenty one years old and you've got
evicted from a rental property the way that most people
look after their rentals, now, you might not be able
to get a property when you're thirty one, and that
might not be fair so well.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Because you're also I mean, you know there are plenty
of people. Let's think a Tiger university, there'd be plenty
of people who probably get caught up with They're probably
plenty of people who get caught up with bad behavior
when they're you know, eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old, who
are completely different people by the time they've actually got
some responsibility in their life exactly.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
And if you rent a property with someone else and
they do all of the damage, you are still named
on the tendency agreement, so you can go down with
your shipmates, so to speak.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I'm not sure how you pronounced that word. I thought
you said it in a naughty way. It's probably be
more accurate, yes, it would be. Hey, Actually, just on
the mechanics of it. What are the identification requirements, Because
if I've if I've been involved in a flatting relationship
and somehow one of my flatmates has trashed the place,
oh my god, I just think of what we got
(06:53):
up to a students. We did sort of, I mean
the place was untrashable because it was we had water
fight inside once. It started with syringes and ended up
with bucket. It's from either outside or inside, and we
had to squeegee the hallway out. But to be honest,
the carpet would have seen worse in its time, I imagine.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Was that Dunedin, was it?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yes, it was Dunedin.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I mean, well, the thing is with that as an example,
as the landlords are actually doing very well down there
because they were renting out basically properties like you said
that had already had a water fight in it many
times over, and they were getting really good rent off you.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
If you if you're one of those people had of
Castle Street flat and the family and you're renting it out,
I mean these days, those they almost get a premium
because they're the trendy, the trendy you know locations.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah, so that's almost like its own little market in itself,
and I'm sure they're actually doing just fine.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Do you guys manage anything down there.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
No, we only manage properties in Auckland, Hamilton and Towering
are at the stage.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Okay, that's just basically because of the location of literally
you need physical people on the spot, don't you.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Just so getting back to that question identification, if I've
got a dodgy record because you know, let's face it,
one of my flat maybe it was me, could I
just change my name or just use use a different
version of my name. Guess I'll go with my middle
name as my surname. Would that or how does that work?
Speaker 3 (08:16):
That actually can be quite effective because if you look
up court records, they often don't have much other than
just the person's name. So you can have a tenant
that might have a fairly common name, and there will
be other people that have been taken to the tribunal
with their name, so it's not a very good sustain
If you're.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Dave Smith and you've had a bad you've had a
ruling against you, you just say I'm not that Dave Smith, yes, yeah,
oh okay, But if you happen to be Tarquin Farquha
sort of the trouble.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yeah. One thing that stops at though, is the property
manager will do a credit check on you as well,
and that will that will list your know and addresses
according to like any water bills you've had or sorry
not water bills, but you know, mobile phone bills, anything
like that. So you can look at a tribunal order
and if it's for one example street, and you've also
got that address on your credit check, then it's going
to be very hard to say that you were not
(09:07):
that person living there with that exact same name. So
there is a few things that can make it easier
for landlord's So.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
If you had a tenant who came to you he said, look,
I've well, here's the other question. If you've got a
bad if you've got something negative in your rental history,
you should be upfront about that first up Really shouldn't it?
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Should you or should I Absolutely definitely be upfront. Your
landlord tenant relationship is just like any other interpersonal relationship.
It's better to be honest and to communicate. And you know,
an unpaid phone bill from five years ago that you
were paying off is a lot better to be upfront
about than it is to Actually, you're not going to
get found out because any reputable property manager is going
(09:48):
to do a credit check and your unpaid court orders
are going to be found So better to be upfront
and address it head.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
So if I came to you as as a young
person and I said, listen, look, I'd really love to
rent this property, but I have to be upfront with you.
I've got one I've got a ton of from my
reputation when I was a young guy, and together with
my mates we trashed a flat and we got in
big trouble for it. We paid it off. But this
is the change I've made in my life. How see,
(10:16):
I still be thinking I'm on a losing streak there,
because if you've you know, you've got a responsibility to
your you're going to be looking for somebody who hasn't
got a record.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
But somebody who hasn't got a record can still be
a deck Oh absolutely. And you as long as you
can demonstrate that you have basically done some things to
actually change that so that you know you were this
and now you're something else. And then you provide all
the examples of the good things that you've done, whether
it's like the evidence from your current landlord that you've
paid off all your rent, anything that you've paid off
(10:46):
all your old debts, or the fact that you've got
a new job and you've been employed somewhere somewhere for
a year. Use all of those, you know, points of
evidence to strengthen your case.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
What about references? Do they mean much? Because some anyone
can get a reference from from someone who will give
them a friendly one without really a friend of the family.
Might think always a lovely young man and without realizing that,
well you're you know, for two or three years, we're
a complete peg.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Yeah, I mean, personal references don't carry a ton of weight.
But if you can get a good landlord reference that
has where we can verify that they own the property
or another property manager's reference is actually quite strong. But yeah,
if you haven't had a rental reference yet, then character
references are still a good place to start.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Okay, so how do you what are the ways that
people can rule themselves out of being a tenant for you,
as someone who's vetting it for.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Bad bad credit, you know, not not disclosing things. Basically,
some of the warning signs that we might spot that
might seem good to a private landlord to someone who's
really really urgent, really want this property asap? Sounds great
if it's vacant, but why does someone need to move
into a house in one day's time? That seems unusual.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So okay, how need it urgently? That will get at less?
Need it urgently? That that's first red flag? Okay.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Willing to pay more than what it's listed for. Of course,
that can be great if there's competition, But if it
seems like it's too good to be true. It often is,
so you've always got to trust and verify.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Okay, Well, because the other thing. I don't know how
much of a story this is headline wise, but you
know people who trash houses through illegal activity and cooking
meth and all sorts of things. How big an issue
is that these.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Days it can still be a big issue. There was
a story recently about in west Auckland where there was
a gang of overseas criminals that came down and they
were growing marijuana and all the properties in west Auckland.
We believed that we had a group of them try
to rent a property from us, and once we started
asking them all the questions, they just disappeared. So they
were looking for private landlords who weren't going to do
(12:53):
inspections or property management companies that were not diligent, and
they I think they rented about forty houses and they
were growing marijuana all through the ceilings and parties.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Oh, because when you were saying growing marijuana, I sort
of think, I guess, yeah, that's all an internal sort
of setup. Does that actually, by the way, because we
know that we know meth ruins a property, what is
marijuana if you have somebody's growing.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Well, they actually they use a lot of humidity in
the property, so it does actually cause a bit of
a problem. So because I was actually thinking, could they
be great tenants?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
No, You're like, oh, they'll be paying their rent on
time and cash cash business cash is king.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
No, No, definitely not but yet. So they use a
lot of humidity in the property, they use a lot
of power. They often actually try to do stuff to
the power switchboard so that the meter gets cut out
of the equation, so they can do damage and stuff
like things like that to the property. So it's definitely
not a great situation for a landlord.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Well are they warning signs that you guys would notice
that are private? So you know a lot of there
are a lot of people in New Zealand who are
just private landlords who decide they're going to manage the
property themselves. I guess one reason they might do it
is if they have a physical proximity to the property
and they feel they can keep an eye on it.
But still that's not going to save them from a
(14:07):
tenant who's determined to be allows e tenant. Well, are
there particular warning signs that you have learnt through the
course of what you do that you think, oh boy,
this is this would be a danger for a private landlord.
They wouldn't know on that know about that.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
I think so. I mean, a private landlord might do
one or two tenancies a year if they've got like
three properties. We do one and a half tenancies every day,
So four hundred and eighty d a year. If that
maths works out, which I don't think it does.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I wells fact check that. Yeah, Olivia, one and a
half times three hundred and sixty five. Oh, let's do
business working. Yeah, okay, that's right.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
But yeah, so we do see a lot, and so
we stop instead of getting sucked up into personal relationships.
Of course, we still maintain a personal relationship with the
tenant and the landlord, but we are looking at patterns.
We're looking at data, We're looking for any sort of
tell that we think doesn't stack up, and we have
so much activity coming in we can sort of spot
the the tails a lot earlier than a private landlord could.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Five hundred and forty seven point five is one and
a half per day, but that's if you're working seven
days a week.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Actually I was counting seven days oh.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
You were Yeah, okay, Well, what are the things that
you've learned as a property manager? Are there any lessons,
because I'm sure, I mean, most people, if they've had
a career in any particular, there'll be certain lessons they've
learned along the way. Is there anything to you that
you learned that you look back and go, gosh, there's
(15:35):
two or three things that really stand out to me
are things that I've learned. Becurse, I do this a
lot now rather than you know, just dabbling.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Yeah, I mean, there's there's actually so much that I've learned,
you know, like not you know, judging a don't judge
a book by its cover, but you still sort of
pay attention to those things. So if you see something,
investigate it and actually make sure that there's something behind it.
So if you get a bad feeling about someone, you
have to go and look into it and actually get
(16:05):
something to support your decision. And there are plenty of
sort of markers out there for people doing. Don't ever
take any shortcuts when it comes to background checking is
basically one of the big lessons.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Do what I mean, you wouldn't know about how private
landlords go about their business, but you'd have a few
who've come to you because they've done the private landlord
thing and they've decided, right, it's not for me. What
I mean that they're obvious tales of woe that stand
out from the mistakes they've made.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Ah so many, and they don't often, you know, they
won't even have things like the persons. They don't have
a copy of the idea or they've never seen ideas,
so they just have a piece of paper with this
person's name on it, but we have no idea if
it's actually that person. You know. Not collecting the full
bond is one that private landlords often don't do. Not
even having a tendency agreement written down is another thing.
So a lot of people when they rent it privately,
(16:54):
they're very trusting. You meet someone at the first meeting,
they're often lovely. Everything seems to be going so well,
and you just think this person's going to be great,
and then as soon as you sign the piece of paper,
everything can change. And so for those people that don't
even sign the piece of paper, it can be a
real the handover the keys and it can be a
nightmare after that.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Hey, look, we'd love to have your calls on this
as gosh, time's flying US twenty twenty four plus four.
We'll go to breaking just to take but this is
your chance to join The conversation from a couple of
angles is if you are a tenant, would you prefer
is it all about the property for you? If you're
when you were looking for a place to call home,
(17:33):
did you make a did you care about who the
letting agency was or whether it was a private landlord?
And did you prefer one or the other? I've had a
few texts on that one saying private landlords by far, well,
this person's encounters have been good. Private landlords by far
are absolute gems turned out to be great friends. See
that's sort of the luck of the drawer, really, isn't it.
(17:53):
But what's your approach to it if you are a renter?
But likewise, if you are a landlord, what are the
warning signs you would look for if you're doing the
job yourself when it comes to choosing a tenant eight
hundred and eighty ten eighty text nine to nine two.
This is one Ruth Radio Sha. I'm Tim Beverage. My
guest is Mike Atkinson from Aspire Property Management. We'll be
(18:16):
back in just to tech give us a call. News
Talks the'd be this is the one rufradio sham. My
guest is Mike Atkinson of a Spire Property Management, talking
about just the different relationships and how you does it
matter if you're a renter, for instance, do you want
to deal with a private landlord? Do you do you
prefer dealing with a rental company? Of course, Mike, while
(18:36):
people you're obviously with a SPA Property management. We have
you on here because we you know, we've probably as
certained that you guys are a pretty good bunch of operators.
But there would be so are this if you were
a renter? Oh, this is a tricky question for you, Mike.
If you were a renter, how would you know if
the rental property company, you know, so you have to
(18:58):
go through you're not dealing with a private landlord, which
would be you know for some people they'd be like
they would see some companies as like will be the
luck of the drawers to who the agent as I'm
dealing with them, whether they're going to treat me like
a number, and et cetera. How would you would it
matter to you who you were dealing with.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
It would definitely matter to me who I was dealing with,
and I would start by looking at Google reviews and
then secondly I would do it. You could do a
tendency tribunal search on the property management company as well,
because if they are respondents in any tribunal cases, their
names will be on there.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
What could you learn? But I mean, that's that doesn't
tell you.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
I mean it does if you get the whole you
can get the whole case and you can see some
of them will be legitimate times when they were acting
completely fairly and they just happened to go to the tribunal.
There will be other times where they've been taken to
the tribunal because they were not doing their jobs.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Probably, how many tenants would ever think of that if
I'm looking around for a place to live. I mean, look,
I did know who the rental agent was that I
dealt with when we found our flat which we ended
up buying. It was word of mouth. In fact, it
was just there's a name around the Eastern Bays where
(20:08):
everyone goes with the same person all the time. You
probably would know the name without even being prompted. Probably,
but how many people would actually really be aware of
or do you think there was a bit of chatter
amongst the renters it's like or don't go to that
place that dodgy.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
I think that there is, and I think the Google
reviews would have been a big part of it today.
To be fair, over the last ten years, a lot
of the property management companies have really picked up their
game and how they deal with the tenants. When I
first got into the industry sort of fifteen twenty years ago,
the tenants were just completely ignored like they are in
(20:43):
Australia today. So yeah, I think the Google reviews get
looked at and it's good to have a balance of
reviews from landlords and from tenants.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Do you see because a Google review? I mean the
problem that this is where it's difficult for a private landlord,
I guess. But for a rental company, if you generally
do a good job, you'll have it'll be the weight
of all the reviews that outweigh the crappy one star review.
And no matter how good a company is, there's always
someone who's not happy, who's gone and trashed you. I'm
(21:14):
sure you've got a one star review, not because a
comment on your performance, but if you've had to throw
someone out, Yeah, then they'll go and give you a
one star review and put their own side of the story.
But I guess you rely on the bulk of the
evidence to you.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Yeah, we do, and you will see some companies will
have still have quite high scores. I mean we're a
four point nine. There's plenty of other ones out there
that are four point eight four point nine as well,
and that means they're probably working very hard to make
sure that they're satisfying their tenants and their landlords because
they will be wearing the odd one star review like
we have. Because if you evict someone from their home
(21:47):
when they haven't paid the rent for two months, they
can still give you a one star review.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Do you go into the Google reviews and reply to
a negative review saying just with a link to the
tenancy tribunal decision? That would be passive aggressive, wouldn't it.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Yeah, we haven't done it, haven't We haven't done that,
but we do. If anyone does give us a one
star Google review, we always engage with them, try to
find out what the issue was and see how we
can address it and see if we can make it right.
Some of them you know, it can be just a
defering of opinion over something. Others can be genuine, and
we do everything we can to address them because we
never want anyone to feel like they get a one
(22:21):
star Google review.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Actually, so what happens as a result if somebody is
just really annoyed and they haven't felt listened to. And
we don't want to drill into this too much, but
if have you ever engaged with someone where they've gone, OK,
fair enough, I'll take it down. Actually, but thanks for
talking to me and reaching out or is it a
thankless job?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
No, We've had I've had people take down Google one
star or two star or three star Google reviews before.
Once you've reached out and speak to them, gone out
to people's houses and had meetings with them and had
had coffee with them and gotten to find out what
the problem was, addressed it resolved it.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
I didn't get into this business to get to have
people give me one star Google reviews. I want. I
wanted to deliver a five star service.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Wow. So if you want a cup of coffee with
a spar property management. Sorry, that's been interesting. You mentioned
three stars. Three stars is a funny one isn't it?
Because that to actually, I would imagine why you get
engaged with that, because someone who's just got a bone
to pick. They're the one star reviewer, but the three
star reviewer is they've thought about it, haven't they? And
(23:22):
they're not necessarily out to trash you, but they're just
indicating I just wasn't happy with a couple of things.
That'd be the ones worth engaging with, wouldn't they?
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Oh, we engage with anyone that's not a four. Basically,
the way that the Google review model works is it's
either a five or it's effectively zero, because a four
will still bring you down from five, and a three
will bring you way down from five. Because it's either
five is great and anything other than a five is bad.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Basically, it's okay, I'm gonna have to start googling just
to have a look at how many not just for fun. Hey,
So when it comes to private landlords, who don't you know,
I mean, Chris, I don't know what the fees are?
Five to six seven? What are the fees again?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Seven point five percent plus GST?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Can do people ever hire you just to find a
tenant and they say, look, I'll take it from here,
But we'd like you to find a new charge of
fee for finding a tenant, because that does sound like
a fairly well not the worst way of spending your money, is.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
That, No, I mean we do that for some of
our customers that have got properties that we manage and
they come back to us after some time and they
say they've got another property. We try not to do
it because it kind of creates a bit of a
liability issue where we find a tenant, they sign an
aspire tenancy agreement, but it's with a different landlord, and
then three months later you find out the landlord's been
you know, breaking the law. Who's liable? Are we liable?
(24:47):
It's our tenancy. We found the tenant, so we get this.
A property manager ends up with this sort of implied
liability in all in exchange for one week's rent find
a tenant. So it's often not worth it anymore.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
So if somebody was a private landlord and wanted to
find their own tenants and they just talking to you
as a mate, so not from a spy property management,
and you know they were absolutely determined to manage it themselves,
what advice would you give them on on finding on
getting it underway.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Ah, I would definitely just make sure that they use
some They keep very accurate records of people's applications. So
get an application done, make sure you check everything, pay
find someone to do the background check for you, and
make sure you do a credit check as well. And
don't just rush into the first person that comes through
the door. Someone who really needs to move in right
(25:39):
away and is very charming doesn't isn't always the best
fit for the rental property.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
But I think that's how we got our place, actually,
because I was just so cha. I don't recall filling
out a form or anything. I think I did. I
must have emailed, and well I think I just phoned.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
And I remember filling out some paper forms earlier when
I've got my first couple of rental properties. But my
very first one in New Zealand was a private landlord
and there was nothing. He never did a He did
one routine inspect. After two years, you could see through
the floor to the outside. It was cold, moldy. It
was great.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Were you happy? Yeah? God, I remember that. Yeah. Anyway,
we went doing reminiscence says Okay, what about this text
you says, finding a rental is so difficult you'd take
what you can get. Is that I thought the rental
market was turned on its heels a bit, hadn't it.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
If they're in Queenstown or the Lakes district, that might
be true. But the rental market has really sort of
flipped and it's at a supply and demand are about
equal at the moment, so prices have sort of stopped dropping.
So for the last eleven months the national media stayed
about the same. Wellington still down a little bit, Auckland
and everything else pretty flat, So it shouldn't be super
(26:50):
hard to find a rental property at the moment. And
that sort of circles back to our thing about if
you have a red mark on your record, bring it up,
address it because the property managers and the landwards they
do actually want to rent the property to you, So
give them a reason to present you in a favorable
light to the landlord, to show that you have made
an effort to address the issue and that you've got
(27:11):
some other strings to you both.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
If you have got a bad record, see would see
i'd be suspicious of someone what I would would somebody.
You're saying, look, I've got a bad record, But as
a you know, I've I've grown up, I've changed, But
as a gesture of faith, I'm willing to offer a
higher bond.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
You can only legally accept a four week bond at
the moment. So if you were offering, if the landlord
was only after two and they offered more, as if
I was the private landlord, that wouldn't put me off.
I would respect someone you know, willing to address the issues,
but you can't take the money. If it's under four,
you can, but you can't take anything more than four
weeks bond.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
If some if somebody said, look, you know, you're not
going to take me unless you feel safe. I want
to cover I don't.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Know, and people have a six week bond or something.
You know, that's the thing. So the tenant can't even
offer that anymore. So that's the problem with laws like that.
Is designed to protect people, but there is a bit of.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
What did you think of it? What do you think
of the law where it's out at the moment.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I think it's I think it's good where it is.
In terms of the four week bond, a bigger bond
would be better, but it would be easier if tenants
could have like insurance or something like that. That would be
a better way to do it, so they're not tying
up so much cash. If you have a four week
bond and property number one and now you want to
go rent somewhere else and property number two is asking
you for four weeks bond, who's got eight weeks of
(28:31):
rent lying around to be tied up in bonds because
you're going to have to have two bonds. It's tough.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Yeah. No, I mean it was just a fictitious question really,
but it probably wasn't really grounded in reality too much.
What about this text here from Ben? And I wonder
if Ben's it'd be interesting to see what if there's
a backstory to this? He says, is looking at a
prospective tenants Facebook of them having weekly parties at their
current property. Is that enough to just say no? Well,
(28:56):
I would imagine yeah, if they look like they were
party animals. Can you check out people's Facebook and Instagram?
Speaker 3 (29:02):
And the privacy officer says no, can't. What which is
I don't agree with that. If you've got a public
Facebook profile and you're posting stuff publicly on Facebook, why
wouldn't someone else look at it? Ah, it's a recommendation,
not a law.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Oh it's so, hang on, the Privacy commissioner recommends.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Yes, not that it's like a breach of seven principles
of privacy of something along this.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Oh, what a lot of bollocks. It's public.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Yeah it is, it is. So, I mean they did it.
They got in touch with every property manager about five
years ago I think now, and they just basically said
that you couldn't take the information that you got from
a tenant. So if a tenant applies or couldn't, no,
you can't hand it onto the landlord or the owner
of the property. They were saying, don't tell the owner
of the property who's living in their rental property. And
it was like, there's no way we're not going to
(29:49):
do that.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Oh, so they were telling you, but they it had
no legal binding effect. Yes see, I would have thought
that that's a treasure trove of if somebody shows them,
you know, doing the yard glass and chundering in the
garden and trashing a place on Facebook, more for them
for stif picking the photos up for one.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Yeah, I mean that sort of stuff is a bit
less common nowadays because people have sort of stopped using
Facebook for publishing things like that. Yeah, but yes, there
was a time when we definitely were we were disqualifying
tenants based off what they were posting on Facebook.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
I'm going to dig into that a bit more. Actually,
I think it's quite fascinating. You can give your thoughts
on that. By the way, I mean, do you think
that it's legitimate for a landlord or a rental company
to go check out someone's Facebook a history? I would
have thought it's entirely reasonable. If you're dumb enough to
stick something stupid up there, then where you go? Eight
hundred eighty ten eighty.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Bit.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
We'll be back with mirk Atkinson from a SPA Property
Management in just a moment. It is in nineteen minutes
to five news talks. That'd be welcome back to the
one roof radio show. We're talking about, well, choosing a landlord,
choosing a rental company, or choosing a tenant. Eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty Charlie gooda, here you go. Good? Thanks?
How you doing?
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Yeah's your bed? I'm a bit disappointed you haven't done
any research about what the rules are because you don't
seem to know match.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Who you're talking about, me or Mike you. Well, that's
why we have an expert on Charlie. I mean, if
I was hosting the property the show on my own,
then fair enough. But I mean, come on.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
I rented properties for years and I split with my
wife and I kept one of them. I only had
one property left and I couldn't rent it because the
renting rules are so strict. But I can live in
it myself, but I can't rent it to someone, which
I think is absurd.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
I think I agree with you. I agree with you,
I think up to a point, unless you're living in
a tent.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
Of course, Well, my son went to move to Center.
He went to Central Tago to work, and he lived
in the tent because he couldn't get accommodation like at
the camping ground. So but people do that if you
want to work and you want to earn a crust,
and people want to do things. But what I'm saying
is like, the reason I can't couldn't rent it because
it doesn't have a heat pump and it doesn't have
(32:03):
an expel ear above the range. Well what on a
load of nonsense? You can you can live in the
house and the house is lovely and warm, and I
live in it myself now until I and but the
problem I used to have was I used to rent
it to people and and that agree to things like
I used to get them to dry clean or get
(32:26):
we get the carpet cleaners and to clean it between tenants,
so that everybody started off with a nice clean house.
And I usually went in and give it away to
slap up paint and make sure it was all looking good.
But the tenants don't. They don't look after the house.
Like I'm renting my house, my house. It's not that
it's not the government's house. It's my house. And I
(32:48):
don't think the government should be able to tell me
how what I can do with my rental property. I
think it's a load of Rabbish.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
So you don't think there should be any any minimum
standards at all.
Speaker 5 (32:57):
You think market would just look it should be a
minimum stands like I was a plumber, and you worked
on a lot of flats back and I'm under meaning
and I worked on a lot of student flats. But
Jesus that the students used to wreck them.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Well, yes, okay, can I.
Speaker 5 (33:16):
Bring went to one of the properties, and they were
the people, the people who was they were having a barbecue,
and I was in a service and we went there
because they had this big bonfire and they were ripping
all the fence palings off and taking the house and
(33:37):
putting on the.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Charlie, can I bring can bring? Can I bring Mike
in on this conversation anyway, just so that's not just
you and complaining.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
But but like when we tried to get a name
of the person who was actually renting there, the people
that were throwing all the stuff on the fire weren't
actually the people that were renting the house.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
That's there's a problem, Mike.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Anything that Charlie said you want to pick up on, well,
I mean I assume he's you know, the Healthy Home
Standard did come in to try to you know, lower
the raise the bar for the lowest properties, and I
think it has actually done a good job of that.
But it is kind of unusual that you can live
in a house with no heat pump, but you couldn't
rent it out, and often, you know, people are living
in those houses just fine.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I guess that the problem is, Charlie, is that that
it would be very difficult for the government to say
to people about their own houses, you must do this
before you can live in your own house. But whereas
it's easier for them to say it to protect a tenant,
doesn't it.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
It's okay, but the government should have been telling anyone
what to do anyways, well, telling us what to do. Okay,
what a mess they're making of a look a labor government,
for God's sake, because of them.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I guess you won't be voting for labor. That would
be a rough guess.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
But I used to vote for labor. I don't anymore.
I think they're just a waste of breast and the
waste of time.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Good on you, Charlie, Hey, thanks for corn mate. I mean, look,
to be honest, the government would have a hard cell
telling people how they can live in their own homes.
But that's why it applies to tenants, because it's just
a different cup of tea, isn't it mine.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
Yeah, And it's basically, you want to go into business,
and your business is renting out a house for someone
else to live in, and they're just saying, in order
to be in this business, you need to meet these standards.
And that's the same in all sorts of industries.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Yeah, yeah, anyway, we'll take some more calls or texts.
In just a moment news talks here b eleven and
a half minutes to five right news talks there'd be
with Mike Atkinson. I'm Tim Beverage talking about rental and
tenants and all that sort of thing. Taking your calls
Andrew Hello.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
Yeah, hi, Look other both South Ireland and North Island
and whether actually got a rental property but also live
an old home? But those want like a comment, I
mean healthy homes and our homes which had how much
to be sealed? Was no ventilation. That's particularly what the
government's created. And people need to know that spirituy virus
(35:58):
is like as to influence and COVID will speed by aerosol.
So a place which is well insulated with closed doors windows,
you get wrapped up carbon dioxide and that in case
how tanlationer is and people will get these diseases.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
So that that's one way you don't get them unless
you've got something in there already. I guess do you?
But I like to right in the windows. I must
say yeah, okay, I just.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Tell this as a fact. I know that's because I
don't believe me I occupation. So that's one aspect the
aspect of sort of with the glazing. Now, double glazing
simply isn't needed in or from homes unless people needed
to sid installation the rest of the time. If you're
going to pop insulate the homes and will pop the
insulated let's say.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Then means.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
No it seeing was yah saying it was each stone
neither few times. I mean, it's just play something in
the mine and it's got. I just opened the window.
I'm seven years old. I opened the window and all
the thing goes up there. One dow that was extremely well.
I mean, having an extractor fan is not nearly effective.
It's just something opening the window.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Yeah, I mean I think it's I think it's it's
a one size to try and fit all, probably because
some places don't ventilate as well as other. But yeah,
I like to open the windows.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
That's right. But then they could eave to make it.
They could easily make a decision around that, saying that
you know, there has to be an open window path,
you know, close to the stove or whatever, or a
bathroom either that or you have to have an event.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
By the way, by the way, Andrew, I've got to
say we've got double brainsing. In our place, we used
to have no insulation in the ceiling until we replace
the roof, and then we got double glazing and we've insulated.
And I tell you what, I love it, even though.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
You know, no, that's right, I can't argue with that.
I personally, I just I just think it's all out
of the chop. I think the south fire and certainly
reason why they have double glazed, and they've got brothers
and blend them. And it's unbelievable's in the new home
and they're closed to doing one of the bedrooms. It's
like dead quite It's like it really is quite suffocating.
And so I think they need to actually sort of
look through a careful at that, because a healthy home
(37:55):
cantill be full of mold. This is the other problem.
I've had people show me the kitchens and so on
and bathrooms the land and they're fit really for new homes,
and they've have mold all around the showers, on the
walls and so on, despite they've got the heat pump. Wow,
because it isn't done properly.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
You've got to open the windows as well. I mean,
you know, I think people think that the building does
it all for them, don't they sometimes? Mike just on
that aspect, don't they? Well, hang on, I switch a
microphone on.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Yes, And that's why they went with the range hoods
having to extract and the extractor fans, because the you
just can't rely on a tenant to open a window,
so but you can hopefully get them to turn on
an extractor fan.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
And isn't that funny? What actually I was thinking, what
would I do more easily? I just open the bloody window,
I guess, unless it's a really cold day. But even
on a cold day, even and again it's like, you know,
I think we need to get some fresh air in here,
because everyone's been standing in front of the sitting in
front of the TV.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
I think there's a level of sort of understanding of
how a property works that you have that the average
tenant actually doesn't have anymore. So they don't open a
window because it's cold outside, so why would you open
the window? So we're where the extractors and that come in.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
I was reading I'm reading a historical novel which reflects
some of the attitudes of the time, and it was
the time when they didn't believe that they thought that
that's how the pestilence got in, that you should keep
the windows shut as opposed to a ventilating because all
the pestilents and foul pests and diseases came in through
on the wind. But we do know better now, don't we.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Yeah, anyway, by the way, sorry, we've only got about
a minute to go, so I think we've probably stretched
the conversation as far as we can go for the
time being. But just quickly, if people are wanting to,
you know, get a property manager. Look, we know you're
ASPI Property Management, but how what would your advice be
(39:43):
to someone if you guys didn't exist.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
I would go and look up who the local property
managers are, find someone that's within a reasonable driving time
of my property, and have a look at their Google
reviews and maybe even searching at the tendency tribunal and
see if they are taking people to the tribunal or
if they're getting taken to the tribunal.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Good advice, actually Google reviews. It's funny. I was trying
to think how often I over rely on those. But
you know, if you're looking for a property agency, then
go to Google reviews, or you can go to a sprite.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
What is Aspire Property Management Aspire Property dot cod z.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
I just realized we forgot to the one who is
Property of the week, which is a shame because it's
a magnificent looking as tech sorry Arizona type property in
whites Are Are. You can go and google it yourself,
but anyway, there we go. We'll save it for next week.
Thanks Mike, Thank you, Get your soon.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to News
Talk SEDB weekends from three pm, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!