The Let Fee Changes

As of December 12th 2018 tenants can no longer be charged letting fees.( Key or entrance money)

This is in line with Property Management practice in Australia. And if I really think about it , The Landlord is looking for tenants to pay rent in exchange for living in the property.

So from a business perspective I think it is a business cost to landlords and we have enjoyed an aberration from this for a long time.

However Landlords are getting hit with a lot of bad press, new rules and regulations, an era of perhaps 'greater tenant entitlement' and tighter building code and insulation code requirements.

There has been much bad press about the 'slum landlord'.

Contrary to this 99.9% of the landlords I work with are fair , care about their asset and the health of their tenant , and want to run a equal exchange of building comfort to rent paid.

Letting fees cover the following expenses;

• Advertising on Trade Me, Real Estate, and One Roof

• For Rent signs held in stock

• Viewing Tracker software to capture data and manage

• Travel costs and time for viewings

• Reference checking time and credit checks time and costs

• Document Preparation

So Letting fees have tangible costs associated with them.

For our existing clients we will only be charging disbursements. We will also be advising you about rent increases

For new clients we will negotiate a fee for Tenant Recruitment and reflect this in rent charges to the tenants

Please talk to your Property Manager if you have any questions or concerns