Property Brokers is working with its clients and tenants during the Covid-19 lockdown to ensure that all cases are dealt with in a compassionate way.
A RNZ story yesterday claiming that Property Brokers advised landlords not to offer rent holidays is untrue.
When approached for comment on a landlord's claim that she had been discouraged from offering a four-week rent holiday to a tenant, Property Brokers responded by recognising that these are trying and difficult circumstances for all.
Property Brokers has worked to adapt our internal business processes to adhere to the new guidelines imposed by the government. The level-4 restrictions in some cases have resulted in hardships, and as a result, some of our clients will require financial support from the government. We have hundreds of landlords around the country currently generously granting rent holidays and discounts.
As with all New Zealanders, we feel this is a time to come together as a nation, to support each other, and to look for ways to work through the coming weeks and months.
Our property managers have reached out to all our tenants and owners, encouraging to talk to us if they require support.
We are trying to maintain continuity with rental payments while providing guidance and support for tenants to seek financial support from the government.
We appreciate every case is unique, so we are looking at all options to reduce financial stress for both landlords and tenants. This includes providing food vouchers, contribution to power bills, rent holidays and discounts.
No matter who we are working with, our number one priority is, and always will remain, our clients, staff and safety.
We are proud of our property managers; they are thoughtful and hardworking people; they do their best to protect both owners and tenants. We've had tenants tell us about instances where they've had their property manager cook them a birthday meal, delivering it to their home, after hearing that they'd been in hospital and have no family around them. An owner offered their tenant a reduction of $100 per week off of their rent, even though the tenant is still working from home. The owner didn’t ask if the tenant was working through, or how she made her income, they just offered the assistance.
We've also heard about one of our property manager's going above and beyond the call of duty to buy essential groceries for people who were returning to NZ from London to take up residence in their own property that had previously been tenanted and managed by Property Brokers - knowing that they would have been travelling for many hours with delays at checkpoints.
Along with all Kiwis, we are proud to do our part in helping to ensure that New Zealand beats this virus and are looking forward to being able to get back to our normal lives as soon as possible.
