Pukeko Rental Managers

I have heard many stories of tenants causing undue stress to landlords, so I went out and hired a professional 'Boutique' property management company (Pukeko Rental Managers) to look after the property and all matters associated with the rental property. The reason I went with this Company was because they claimed to maintain the property to a high standard and never have any rent arrears....in fact they are so confident of this they they make a promise on the web-site that talks about reimbursing you for any lost rent. So, I thought I was getting into a position where I was going to have a stress free time as a property owner. How wrong was I !!

I am really sorry to say that the level of professionalism I saw from this Company was far from what I would typically expect to see from any business professional. The property was poorly managed. The checks done on prospective tenants was sub-standard, thereby getting the wrong tenants to occupy the house. Tenants that had previously been taken to the tribunal for intentional damage to a previous property that they occupied.

Some examples of the incompetence from this particular property Management Company include Property Inspection reports that stated things were in 'excellent' condition, yet when I recently checked the property myself after a tenant had just departed, I found the house to be in a very poor state of maintenance and hygiene. Gas range and light fittings in the Kitchen were not working, Light fittings in other rooms were not functioning, Taps were leaking, Carpets were damaged with wine stains. Cockroaches all over the kitchen and living room, Keys not taken back from the tenants after the end of the tenancy, etc etc.

Whats worse that the rent for over 8 weeks was not collected from the tenants and this has not been reimbursed to me, even though the Tribunal ruled in our favour. I have also been charged ridiculous amounts of money - e.g $525 for removing a Council recycle bin that was full of rubbish and another $100 for clearing another similar sized bin, which was never removed. I had to do this myself later. A number of concerns were raised with the property Manager however, he just ignored all text messages, emails and phone calls. How unprofessional !

I am writing this review to let other prospective Landlords know what they could be getting into if they engage the services of this particular Property Management company. Landlords beware !!

We used the Hawkes Bay branch of this Rental Agency to rent two properties whilst working overseas. We were very disappointed in them and ended up terminating the relationship after just a few months.Problems included completing "repairs" and "improvements" at exorbitant costs without prior approval. (They have their own "man" apparently.) We only found out about the repairs when no rent was deposited through into mortgage accounts. None of the repairs were urgent repairs. Another problem was we were convinced to get rid of our long standing tenant in one house because we were told the rent was too low and he couldn't afford to pay more. We were assured there were many prospective tenants on the books ready to move in and pay a much higher "market" price. Sadly the property then sat empty for three months. Finally a tenant was put forward that would pay the same rental as the previous tenant and also came with a dog and 6 children. We sacked the agency and asked our previous tenant to move back in. Luckily he did. We fault that it seemed to be a personal mission of the agent that they spent all the rent. Please beware of this agency,