Property managers slam reform proposals

One in five complaints to the Real Estate Institute concerns letting, leasing and property management, says institute president Murray Cleland. Yet the government is not currently proposing to bring property managers, letting and leasing agents into the new regulatory changes to the Real Estate Agents Act on the same basis as real estate agents and salespeople.

Wednesday, July 18th 2007, 6:03AM

by The Landlord

Paul Slatin, director of First National Real Estate, says the effect of the proposals is that property managers will no longer have to be regulated. “Basically anyone, irrelevant of experience or qualification, will be able to take on the role of a property manager.”

Rotorua Rentals director Richard Evans says, “Any convicted child molester, house breaker, drug money launderer etc, can simply hang up their shingle and call themselves a property manager”.

Currently, licensed property managers have to be REINZ members, which entails being vetted by the police and getting a certificate from the Real Estate Agents Licensing Board annually. There is, however, no legal requirement for property managers to be licensed.

Says Evans: “We are constantly getting complaints from the public about unlicensed property managers and of course nobody can do anything about it and there is no redress at all. At least with REINZ members there is a complaints and punishment regime – well due for an overhaul – but its better than nothing, and most people have no idea that there is a difference.”

Patricia Bowden, principal of Harcourts Accommodation Centre, says the only recourse landlords have against unlicensed property managers is through the courts. As well, says Bowden, licensed managers are backed by a fidelity fund if the licensing board disciplinary committee finds there has been a misappropriation of funds.

Bowden, a REINZ special interest group committee member organising the licensed property managers’ annual conference to be held in Christchurch in October, says that licensed managers’ accounts are audited via the institute but unlicensed managers are not subject to this requirement.

Fellow committee member Diane Nelson says property managers should be regulated because they handle trust accounts worth, in some cases, millions of dollars of other peoples’ money.

“It’s essentially to ensure that you have people who’ve been educated at least partially in the law and what it entails,” says Nelson, also director of Real Landlord Insurance (NZ) Limited. “If there’s no regulation for those people then anyone and everyone could be hired as a property manager without having to undergo police checks.”

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