strawbie

HI, as we have Pickfords moving in on the 8th Feb I am like a woman possessed!! Anyway, we plan to find a long term rental on arrival and just wondered what agents require from us to rent a house??? thanks

Am Loolah

How exciting!

If you have previously rented then obviously Landlord's references - with email addresses for contact. A personal referee in NZ is a big help. Your employer in NZ if you have one, at the very least a previous employer in the UK. A solicitor or Accountant can be useful if you've been self-employed and not previously rented?

That should help.

Ahh, just re-read title, ID?! Driver's license, passport, anything with photo ID basically. Later down the line utilities bills as proof of current addresses etc.

strawbie

thanks Am Loolah, no, we've not rented before and no we have no jobs!! So, does that mean we should bring a written reference with us or just have for example an accountants email address to hand when applying

Am Loolah

It maybe tricky with nothing to back up your application. We would copy a written reference for our files but also verify it by email or phone. So I'd suggest both.

mickey_d

The Estate Agent E-Mailed my ex Employer in the UK, that was enough

strawbie

Thanks!! We could pay upfront for 6 months or so, surely that would help!

Am Loolah

If you were to do that, all that would probably happen is the rental agency would keep the money and pay it out fortnightly or monthly to the landlord. Technically you can only be charged a week's rent in advance if the rent is to be paid weekly, or 2 week's rent in advance if it is to be paid fortnightly.

Have a look at the Department of Building and Housing's website.

educateer

Good luck when you come to finding a rental. We are desperately trying to find one now.

I am a very easy going person but the local rental agents have made my blood boil due to their lack of basic customer service. We are in despair that we will never find anything if we have to rely on these people.

One example from yesterday morning:

We walked into an estate agent and stood there while the lady did some really mundane task - we felt ignored. When she eventually looked up we told her exactly what we need and she ran her finger down her rental list and said "No, there isn't anything on here like that".

So, we asked if we could give her our phone number and that she might give us a ring if something becomes available in the next week or two. The reply - "Sorry, I don't have a pen and my computer is switched off!". Unbelievable.

We left knowing that she isn't really going to call us. There is no relationship formed between us and the agent despite our polite efforts. Deep down I know we are going to have to go to her to ask every few days.

Our experience with some of the other agents isn't a lot better.

zoglet

Wow Educateer, that sounds awful!

Our experience has been that we were shown a lot of inappropriate places estate agents had had on their books for ever and could not fill. I was not overly impressed, but then I am seldom impressed by estate agents!

Eventually, I found the place we rent on Trade-me. The agent that represents the owner is perfectly friendly and though 'relaxed' (tis the Kiwi way) was on the ball when we needed her to get things done such as repairing the dishwasher.


As for ID, all we needed was our bank accounts and our passports. If you tell them your situation, people here are more likely to be understanding than they would in the UK. They know you are new to the country and will respond accordingly. Good luck with your search.

mickey_d

Sounds like the "Computer Say's No" Character from Little Britain
We had that kind of treatment when looking for a rental in the North Shore!!!
That was the final straw for us & we left the area altogether!!
Good Luck!!

Psychopandy

My OH sorted ours out before we left the UK - a bit of a leap of faith - but he'd been looking long and hard and knew what we wanted (what i expected ) and was aware months before we left the UK that finding something decent was going to be tricky. But we managed to get a deal where we arent fixed on term which means if we hated it we could move out with a couple of weeks notice, but its ok.

We rent our house from an estate agent who actually owns this house and if i'm honest he's the only person i have met since being here that i just dont like -cant put my finger on it - probably making something out of nothing - but i just dont like the man!!!

The house, however, is only 6 months old, its clean, tidy, insulated, has air con/heat pump in 1 room and a decent size garage. which means that, so long as he stays out of my face, i will be fine

Just got to wait for the furniture to fill it now

Good luck with your search educateer - hope everything else is falling into place for you.

educateer

Thanks for the replies. Everything else seems to be working out. We now have cars, my job is very good and the lifestyle around where we are staying makes us feel right at home (although a little hotter than home).

The whole accomodation thing is hanging over us though and knowing that we only have a few more weeks where we are staying it feels like a time bomb ticking away.

Our latest thought is to buy something inexpensive where the mortgage repayments are roughly equal to what we would pay in rent but are not sure as it isn't what we want long term. We know that once our house sells back home and the exchange rate recovers we will be looking for something a lot nicer and probably on the outskirts of town.

Does anyone else have an opinion on if this is a good idea or not? Anyone else done this? I don't know what the hidden costs would be if we were to sell it again in 12 to 18 months.

Decisions, decisions!!!!

Psychopandy

Whilst i can see the potential in this for it making everything good - i doubt that you could be in in time if you only have a couple of weeks to sort it out.

And be aware that agent fees over here are a shit load of $$$$ - thats if you could sell it on - if not you are stuck with it where you are -and that may make things even worse in the long run.

Dont forget the old phrase - 'buy in haste, repent at leisure' - make sure you are very sure of all the what, where, who, why shit before committing to something that big, that soon.

My god - now i sound like the forteller of doom, sorry

mudblood21

OOOO eck!

the whole rental things sounds pretty awful

can anyone suggest a GOOD rental agency in Auckland?

Steve1977

When my wife and I came across back in October 2008, we had no problems renting out a place whilst only showing a passport for ID (although i do recall them insisting on us having a NZ bank account. That can be done on the spot with most banks. We used Harvey's then and i can thorughly recommend them, 2nd time around was pretty much the same, moved down to Auckland city and rented with Crockers, again just passprt needed to secure it, no references required etc.