Response to Phil Twyford - property maintenance data

Sent by Network Communication on behalf of Barfoot & Thompson in response to Mr Twyford’s statement, “Kiwi renters subjected to damp and mouldy homes”, published on Scoop on March 30.

Mr. Phil Twyford

Freepost PO Box 18 888

Parliament Buildings

Wellington 6160

April 3, 2017

Dear Mr Twyford,

We note that your statement on March 30, “Kiwi renters subjected to damp and mouldy homes”, refers to and draws on property maintenance data released by our company in a statement on March 29.

I write to advise that the Barfoot & Thompson data you referred to was taken out of context and misrepresented to support your proposed ‘healthy homes guarantee’.

The reality is that the data provided in the statement cannot be fairly or accurately compared with Statistics NZ data.

As our statement made absolutely clear our analysis included only maintenance undertaken through our property management services. It excluded maintenance that landlords may choose to do themselves; our experience is that these jobs tend to be the larger and more costly ones that landlords decide to manage directly, in order to save on property management fees.

On this basis, comparing the numbers provided by our statement with those of the Statistics NZ Household Economic Survey is inaccurate and misleading.

Our data in no way provided evidence that rental properties managed by Barfoot & Thompson are damp, cold, mouldy or dangerous.

While we welcome conversations around improving rental property standards and encouraging landlords to keep on top of maintenance, it is entirely unreasonable to the use data provided in our statement for political purposes.

It would be appreciated if you could withdraw the claims made in your statement that are not supported by the attempted data comparison.

We work with landlords of around 15,000 properties in Auckland and Northland. The advantage of property management services is that maintenance is taken care of quickly and efficiently. Both tenants and landlords appreciate this approach, because tenants are more likely to treat a property with care if it is maintained, and landlords benefit from reliable tenants.

Kind regards,

Kiri Barfoot

Director Barfoot & Thompson

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