70 | Whittle Knight PROPERTY MANAGEMENT Managers push for regulation Whittle Knight is based in Riccarton, close to the University of Canterbury. “We work with a lot of the student market,” says Tania Ellis, manager Property Management Division. Established over 50 years ago Whittle Knight is one of only a few independent Canterbury owned and operated Real Estate and Property Management businesses. It’s a family affair with three generations of Knights now involved in the company that was initially established by Les Whittle, Wally Knight and Vic Boatwood back in 1966. Tania Ellis has worked in Property Management for 38 years and has been with Whittle Knight for the last 11 years. Tania was disappointed when in 2008 New Zealand’s property management industry was deregulated. “In New Zealand anyone can set up a property management company. There are no checks and balances, no requirement for money being held on behalf of landlords to go into a trust account, no regular audits, no-one checking whether the bond has been lodged. With sales you’ve got the Real Estate Authority but with Property Management it’s not regulated and there’s no governing body, which is something we’re joining the current push for. When you’re dealing with people’s money you should be accountable and it should be transparent both for an owner and a tenant,” says Tania. Tania and her vibrant team of 11 take their responsibilities seriously and operate as if regulated already. In the last 12 months Tania has seen fewer properties available to rent in the Christchurch market, and increased rents on those properties there are. Their workload is still only increasing however which she puts primarily down to the increasing legislated requirements: around Healthy Homes which Whittle Knight have always pushed for and have worked hard over the last two years to ensure all their properties meet the required standards of; the Residential Tenancies Act which is complicated with plenty of detail landlords need to be across to make sure they’re complying with; and the Privacy Act which specifies which information landlords are allowed to collect and how long they can hold it for. “The legislation around the property industry has been quite ongoing,” says Tania,” and you really do need to know what you’re doing. Virginia Wright Gone are the days of handing over the keys and that’s it. What I say to people is that it’s a little bit like getting your car ready for a rego. There are certain things you have to do before you can drive it away. When you rent out a property it’s a business.” Whittle Knight is based in Riccarton, not far from Canterbury University. “We work with a lot of the student market,” says Tania. “People say it’s all bad but it’s not. Students are really good to deal with, they understand how it works, and it’s a market we really enjoy.’ Over recent years Tania has noticed that her clients, and students are no exception, have higher expectations of their rentals than they used to. They expect nice looking properties with modern kitchens and bathrooms, dishwashers are par for the course, and ensuites too, especially if the rent is high. Another sign of the times, especially post Covid when the lines between work and leisure have become even more blurred, is that expectations around availability have changed. “If people communicate they want an answer straight away. People don’t worry about the fact that it’s Sunday at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, so it’s a matter of acknowledging that, even if it’s simply to say that it will be answered on the next business day,” says Tania. For Tania the property business is a people business and communication is the key. “99% of the time it’s about communication, especially when something’s gone wrong, and we’re a team that will always try and work something out to everyone’s satisfaction.” Given that they’re now working with owners who used to be tenants the results speak for themselves. No two days are the same and that’s the way they like it. ::: $&&2817,1* &2 1= .(1'216#$&&2817,1* &2 1= 6+2: 3/$&( _ &+5,67&+85&+ <285 $'9,625< (;3(576 ,1 7$; $&&2817,1* %86,1(66 675$7(*< 3/$11,1* &$6+)/2: 0$1$*(0(17 %86,1(66 0(1725,1* &2$&+,1* 62)7:$5( $33 ,17(*5$7,21
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