Dealing with property manager dispute?

Our Experts Answer:

You are correct. The Tenancy Tribunal does not handle disputes between property owners and their agents. The contract of management is a commercial contract, and the Disputes Tribunal is the correct venue for resolving disputes such as you have described. I suggest you try to resolve the issue with the property manager, as there may be other factors which you haven’t considered. There are often two sides to a story. If you can’t resolve the issue, then the Disputes Tribunal process is available to you. It is relatively inexpensive to lodge a claim in the Disputes Tribunal. Take a look at the web site http://www.justice.govt.nz/tribunals/disputes-tribunal for further information. The main focus of the referee is to try to broker an agreement, if possible. If an agreement can’t be reached, the referee is empowered to make a binding decision.