Contactless solution for rental viewings

Hi I am a landlord with 8 rentals and I would like to comment on your article on contactless tenacy application. Whilst I understand there is a changing landscape due to CV19 it seems to me that these systems that are coming out of the woodwork lately are just opportunistic businesses taking advantage of the situation (and nothing wrong with that) but I think some perspective needs to be added to this argument. Taking property rental to a fully online platform using "saftey " as an argument is no more than scare mongering, you get more contact going to the supermarket than viewing or showing a property and it can be managed safely at the property, and the problem I see happening is two fold, firstly two viewings a day greatly restricts the amount of people that can view the property and if you are to go through a process of application prior to the tenant seeing the property you may pay for a lot credit checks etc and not rent the place as upon viewing they may not wish to take the property. The other thing for me is getting a personal vibe from a tenant. Based on this systen (as stated in your blurb) only "the best tenants" get to view the property. This means that any one with perhaps a minor credit glitch probably wont get past the first hurdle. I recently rented one of my properties to a young couple who were having trouble getting a property due to a past credit issue which they told me about. After a face to face discussion I decided to rent the property to them just based on their being upfront with issues. They have been fantastic tenants and have ensured their rent is paid on time. These people would not have got a look in in an on line world. I think moving forward while there s no doubt this is a changing world, There is no need for things to go to the extreme in respect to personal contact if it can work in a supermarket it can work showing a flat

Totally agree with the comment above. I am in a similar situation with 10 rentals and the most important part of the viewing process for us, is the face to face meeting and the impression the prospective tenant makes. We haven't picked a bad tenant in many years and often don't bother with credit checks...good people seem to be good at paying their rent as well. Currently there is a glut of good tenants making it easier, as opposed to 15-20 years ago. I see no need for only 2 viewings per day, as we have always spaced the viewing parties out 30 mins apart, so we can have a conversation with them, as they view the property to gain a decent impression of the people concerned. With social distancing, there should be no issues and the process should be as safe or safer than the supermarket. At level 2 it will be easier again.

Just to clarify - under alert levels three and two, Government guidelines (MBIE, Tenancy Services) specify that only two rental viewings a day are allowed.

Hi, I also totally agree with both the above, face to face meeting is king. It is more dangerous going to the supermarket or going around the walkway. Some of these things are being taken too far altogether.

The article is slightly incorrect according to what I have read the two viewings per day rule applies only if the property is presently tenanted so the existing tenant does not have to leave home more than twice a day for the viewings to take place. An unoccupied property can have as many separate viewings as time in a day allows.