Tenant Information
- What do I do if things go wrong?
- What if it is an emergency and it is outside business hours?
- How do I make rent payments?
- What does paying "weekly in advance" mean?
- What happens if I miss a rent payment?
- What is the Bond for?
- What if I want to move out?
- How often do you inspect the property?
- What happens if I change my contact details?
- Tenant Information Packs
- How to avoid unnecessary maintenance callouts
If you are concerned about something in the property, please contact
your Property Manager. It is important to advise us as soon as possible
if you think repairs are necessary as failure to do so could leave you
responsible for paying damages if you do not report a problem.
Emergency repairs such as broken water pipes and leaking internal
pipes will be accepted over the phone. All other repairs are required
to be in writing and these can be requested using the Maintenance Request Form online, or may be faxed or posted to us (click here for our Contact Details).
Before submitting your maintenance request please read through our How to avoid unnecessary maintenance callouts to see if there is anything that you can do to solve the issue without the need for a tradesperson to come out.
Should an emergency arise in the property after hours, during weekends or public holidays, then please phone emergency cellphone number, 027 473 4094. This will connect you directly with one of our Property Managers and they will be able to help with your emergency.
If, for some reason, you are unable to reach the emergency contact
person, you may contact a tradesperson directly to arrange for them to
carry out the repairs. Please note that you should only do this if the
maintenance issue is a genuine emergency, where the property is in
danger if repairs are not carried out urgently. If an emergency callout is made for a non-essential repair, you will be responsible for the callout fee.
We prefer rental payments to be made by direct debit into our
bank account, as per the direct debit form provided when you sign
the tenancy agreement. Please note that on this form is written your
unique tenant code - please use this for all payments into our account
so that your payments can be identified.
Please note that paying rent into our account by going into a National Bank branch is not
recommended. This is because the staff at the bank are unable to put a
reference on the payment and we will be unable to identify your
payment. This may result in you receiving arrears texts, emails or
letters, and you will be required to provide proof (in the form of a
bank receipt) that the payment did come from you. Rather than pay at
the bank, please pay direct to our office.
You can make rent payments at our office at 838 Colombo Street, Christchurch. We accept EFTPOS or cash, but please note that we do not accept personal cheques or credit cards. In the event that you intend making a manual payment at our offices we strongly recommend that you use EFTPOS, rather than carrying large amounts of cash on your person.
When you pay your rent with us, you will always be paying "in
advance". This often confuses people, so below is an explanation of
what paying "in advance" means.
Say your Tenancy Agreement starts on Saturday the 1st. This will be
the first day that you are due to pay rent. Paying one week's rent on
that Saturday will pay you one week in advance. In other words, it will
cover 7 days, from Saturday the 1st through to Friday the 7th. This
date is referred to as your "paid-to" date. Your rent is then due again
on the next Saturday, the 8th. It may help to see the below diagram:
| One week's rent paid |
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Nextweek's rent due |
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| Saturday 1 |
Sunday 2 |
Monday 3 |
Tuesday 4 |
Wednesday 5 |
Thursday 6 |
Friday 7 |
Saturday 8 |
Sunday 9 |
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Note that the same rule applies when paying fortnightly or monthly
i.e. if you pay on the 1st of the month, this will pay you in advance
to the 31st of the month, and your rent will be due again on the 1st of
the next month.
In accordance with your Tenancy Agreement, rent is due and payable
on or before the due date. Failure to pay rent by the due date may
result in proceedings being taken to terminate your tenancy. Our
company has a zero tolerance to rent arrears. If you are experiencing
problems in paying your rent it is imperative that you make contact
with your Property Manager immediately.
Your bond is held by Tenancy Services as security against rent
arrears, damage or undue wear and tear. We will collect the bond before
you collect the keys for the property, and this will be lodged with
Tenancy Services in Wellington. The bond will be refunded to you once
we have completed an outgoing property inspection and are happy with
the state of the property, and all rent has been paid up to date. Allow
up to 5 working days for the bond to be refunded into your account by
Tenancy Services.
Please note that in the event of rent arrears or property damage
some or all of your bond may be taken to cover these costs. The
Property Manager would be in contact to discuss anything that needs to
come out of your bond. In cases such as this the refund of your
remaining bond can be significantly delayed as we wait for invoices
etc. to come through.
If you are on a Periodic Tenancy you must give at least 21 days
notice in writing to terminate the tenancy. Please note that the 21
days starts from when we receive the notice, so it is best if you drop
the notice in to our office directly.
However, the majority of our tenancies are Fixed Term Tenancies, and cannot be terminated by notice.
If you wish to end your tenancy early (called "breaking your lease")
then you will need to complete a Breaking Lease Form. This form gives
us authority to find tenants to replace you on the existing lease.
Please note that you will be responsible for paying rent until the
property is re-let or the end of the fixed term agreement - which ever
eventuates first. Please contact your Property Manager promptly if you
decide you want to end your tenancy early and they will talk you
through the process.
Upon ending your tenancy please return to us all keys, pass cards
and remote controlled door openers for the property. You are required
to return these items to our office by 12.00 midday the day after the
tenancy is terminated. If these items are not returned on time we will
be forced to change the locks etc. and the cost of this will be
deducted from your bond.
All bonds are held by Tenancy Services and refunds are subject to
the agreement of both landlord and tenant. To facilitate a quick bond
refund, the property should be left in a clean and tidy condition and
rent should be paid up to vacate date. An outgoing inspection of the
property will take place after you have vacated.
Please note that, in the event you pay by automatic payment, it is your responsibility to cancel your automatic
payment authority at the end of your tenancy, we are unable to do this
for you.
We carry out periodic inspections four-monthly (i.e. three times per
year). You will be sent a letter the week prior to your inspection
giving notice of the date and time of our visit. If this time does not
suit please contact the Inspection Co-ordinator (contact details will
be on the letter) but please note that, given the number of inspections
we do, we are not always able to accommodate requests to change
inspection times.
From time to time other inspections may need to be carried out, for
instance, if the owner wishes a valuer to come through to value the
property. You will always be given sufficient notice of these visits
and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.
Please endeavour to keep us up to date with your contact details at
all times. This ensures that we can have clear lines of communication
for any issues that arise, such as maintenance issues or missed rent
payments.
If your contact details change, please use the change of details form on this site or contact your Property Manager.
These Tenant Info Packs are given out to all our new tenants when
they sign up for a property. They contain a great deal of information,
covering a range of topics including the differences between fixed and
periodic tenancies, how our inspections process works, what you need to
do to set up your phone and power when you move in, and what you need
to do when you eventually move out of the property. These packs are
currently available in 3 languages, as below.
Please click on the buttons above to download, view and/or print the info packs. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, click here to be directed to their free download site.
Before proceeding with logging your Maintenance Request, please read through this guide to avoid any unnecessary callouts and costs that could be charged to you.
- Have you contacted your Power Company? There may be a fault in the street.
Contact Energy 0800 809 000
Empower 0800 340 000
Genesis 0800 436 3747
Mercury Energy 0800 101 810
Trust Power 0800 878 787
- Have you checked with a neighbour? The problem may be affecting more than just your unit.
- Have you checked your fuse box? There may have been an overload and
the safety switch has been activated and needs resetting. In older
properties you may need to purchase and replace the fuse wire. Your
Property Manager is happy to talk you through this easy job.
- Is it the whole house or just one socket? And are you sure it's not just because you have a faulty appliance?
- Have you tried pouring hot water down the sink or using a drain cleaner such as "Draino" to try and free the blockage?
- Have you cleared hairs, soap, food etc from the waste and pipe?
- Have you removed old food from the kitchen waste & poured boiling water down the drain.
- Have you checked that the hot water switch is turned on?
- Have you checked the fuse in the meter box. Has someone turned off the fuse by mistake, or has the fuse blown?
- Have you checked that the water tap on the hot water system itself is turned on?
- Are the washing machine taps turned on at the wall?
- Have you checked to make sure that the appliance is turned on at the wall?
- Have you checked that the lid is closing properly?
- If the machine has stopped half way through a cycle it is likely
that the drum is overloaded or out of balance - try taking some clothes
out or rearranging the laundry in the drum to be more evenly
distributed around the drum.
- Have you replaced the light bulb?
- Have you checked to see if the filter needs cleaning out? Dryers
can automatically shut down due to overload of lint in the filter.
- Have you checked your fuse box? If there has been an overload the safety switch may need resetting
- Have you checked the connections to make sure they are not loose or dirty?
- Has the oven switch be turned off my mistake?
- Is the oven timer on? If the timer is on the oven will appear not
to be working, but simply turning off the timer solves the problem.
- Have you checked to see if the batteries have not gone flat?
- Have you checked that there is power to the automatic door opener
- Have you checked that the lever inside the garage is on "auto". The
lever is generally next to the control box inside the garage. You can
either choose "manual" to operate the door with the key or "auto" to
operate the door with the remote control.
- Is it turned on at the switch?
- Have you attempted to reset the safety switch? This is normally a
little red or black button underneath the bottom of the garbage
disposal unit You may have to get on their hands and knees to find the
switch. This switch can be activated by an overload and simply needs to
be reset.
- Is there a blockage in the sink/blades?
- IMPORTANT - Before putting hands down the sink to check for blockages - make sure unit is turned off at the wall and unplugged
- Please note that if you have caused the blockage you are responsible for the cost.
Please note that if you make an appointment with one of our
tradespeople to come out to your property and then do not have the
courtesy of keeping the appointment, you may be responsible for paying
the wasted callout fee. Obviously having any maintenance issues or
improvements carried out in a timely fashion benefits you directly, so
we do not anticipate having this problem often.
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