Regulation for property managers is overdue

They handle huge sums of money every week, deal with valuable assets – and yet anyone off the street can start up in business, calling themselves a property manager.

Property manager Jeff Brill has set out to change that, with a petition launched this week calling for training and rules around property management.

At the moment, anyone can start up a company, take letting fees and look after rent, without having to prove they know anything about what they are doing.

Brill wants more professionalism enforced so that people have to show they are experienced and trustworthy before anyone puts them in charge of their investments.

Considering the amount of money that changes hands every week, and how vital that rent money is to a lot of landlords, the fact that he even needs to make the call seems crazy. Why are the standards so lax?

Brill says the Government just doesn’t see the need for rules or official bodies to tell with managers. But as he points out, there is more money dealt with by property managers than real estate agents – and the law is very clearly set out to protect the deposits agents have to handle.

Property management isn’t covered by the REAA – what regulation there was was removed in 2008, when the act was revised.

Adequate regulation and systems would not only protect landlords but they would give added kudos to the many property managers who operate professionally and with landlords’ best interests at heart.

Australia has regulation on property management – it’s only New Zealand that is missing it.

Brill's petition already has good levels of support, with backing from the REINZ and Auckland Property Investors' Association. It will be interesting to see what response, if any, it elicits from Government.

Comments from our readers

On 11 September 2012 at 1:05 pm Claire said:

Yes definitely a long needed change, my independent property managers have years of experience, are investors themselves, are fully trustworthy and are members of the Independent Property Managers Assn. It's the one off rogue companies that are not members of the IPMA or REINZ that are the problem. They are more than often set up by people who are not investors, have no knowledge on how to treat tenants and don't invest in property themselves. These property managers give other property managers a bad name.

On 11 September 2012 at 1:49 pm Colin Howard said:

Even the Real Estate Agents can be far from perfect.testDr

On 11 September 2012 at 9:34 pm Glenn Morris said:

I can see why he would think it is a good idea.
For anyone interested in the man just go and have a search on the net.
Funny how his business interests influence his rhetoric.

On 14 September 2012 at 5:08 pm Alison said:

I agree it's needed, landlords can lose a lot of money via poor property managers. I'm having a terrible time with what appeared to be competent people, but some seem to be less than enthusiastic about any sort of work beyond accepting the rent money. Not so good when they've put in bad tenants, failed to manage/resolve the issues that arose, and now don't want to put in the required effort through the Ten Trib process either. Time to fire them, but I haven't found any other good ones yet... Back to managing myself I think.

On 17 September 2012 at 2:32 pm David said:

Caveat emptor I say. There are enough regulations around property and although the value of the investment can be high a bad property manager cannot abscond with a large amount of cash.The REINZ like to restrict competition and I have found the large name players as bad as any.

On 3 October 2012 at 12:02 pm Julia said:

.... all of which reinforces a property owner's responsibility for choosing a property manager by reputation and proven trustworthiness. No rule or membership of a professional body such as REINZ say, in any industry or service niche can eliminate those who do not give value for money. Every industry has the bad eggs. At the end of the day individual reputation is all you have.

On 9 March 2013 at 10:13 am Sonya said:

Aside from the fiscal areas of Property Management, there is also the ramifications of Property Management Companies that are Developer enforced and often in place prior to development completion and the 1st Body Corporate or Owners committee Meeting. This dis empowers the Body corporate Owners from selecting their own preferred Management company or the Owners Committee handling this role. Contracts of this nature are often binding with rights of renewal and can result in Body Corporate Owners being unable to replace the Management Company - would be interested in hearing from anyone with solutions to such a problem?

Regulation for property managers is overdue

It seems nonsensical that property managers aren’t subject to any formal regulation.

Tuesday, September 11th 2012, 12:00AM 7 Comments

Comments from our readers

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