A student has accused Cutlers Property Management of using “pressure tactics” to force them to re-sign their flat as early as June. This included advertising their flat for rent before they’d decided what they wanted to do next year, and preparing to hold flat viewings without their consent. Cutlers has since acknowledged that “it was wrong” for them to insist on an early deadline, but provided no further comment as of print time besides the claim that “there is a little more to this story.”
On June 13, Phae received an email from their property manager, Matt Petre, asking whether their flat wanted to stay and re-sign for 2023. According to the email, if nothing was confirmed by this date, Cutlers would begin advertising their flat from July 5, and begin holding viewings from July 11. “At that point, we were mostly undecided,” said Phae. “But we said we were interested in staying,” because they didn’t want to potentially lose their flat.
As the weeks rolled on, Phae noticed that almost every email exchange with Matt, from general enquiries to flat repairs, seemed to end with Matt asking about whether they would formally re-sign their flat for next year. As the group were still undecided on committing for another year, they would repeatedly avoid the question. Legally, they would only need to formally commit 28 days before the end of their fixed-term tenancy: i.e., December 3.
Things came to a head on September 9, when Matt told Phae that “you will need to let me know by next Wednesday… [as] we will be holding viewings on Friday.” When Phae asked to decline the flat viewing, saying the group still hadn’t decided on whether they were staying, Matt insisted that “I am within my right to hold viewings.” Under the Residential Tenancies Act, flat viewings can only be held with the tenants’ consent, so long as consent is not “withheld unreasonably”. He added in a later email that “We have an obligation to our owners to protect their investment… We have given [you] reasonable time to re-sign.” The only way the flat viewing could be cancelled, he said, would be if the group formally committed to re-sign the flat.
When asked for comment, Cutlers’ managing director Matt Cutler told Critic Te Ārohi that “There is a little more to this story than just a few text messages, however it was a mistake to put a deadline on the tenants and we apologize for that.” They did not respond to our requests for further comment.
“It absolutely was pressure tactics… banking on us not knowing our rights,” said Phae. Even though she knew she was entitled to stand up for herself, she said raising her concerns felt incredibly intimidating: “[The] strong language [made us] afraid to do anything… There’s a power imbalance here. They could just treat us like shit. Are they going to try and be nitpicky and withhold our bond? A lot of things could go wrong.”
At a loss with what to do, she turned to OUSA Student Support for advice. Phae’s final email, drafted with their help, re-stated their rights as tenants, threatened escalation to the Tenancy Tribunal if the flat viewing was to go ahead without their consent, and finished by noting several outstanding repairs that still had not been done in the flat, including a tap which had been leaking since June. Since that final email, Phae says that the threatened flat viewing did not go ahead, and the pressure to re-sign the flat has disappeared. However, she says it was still a “shit” experience which left her stressed and emotionally drained. “I didn’t want to go out of my way to do this… I [just] wanted a nice, cordial relationship with my property manager.” However, she added that if she didn’t insist so firmly on her rights, “They would’ve fuckin’ steamrolled over me.”
Phae advised that any students facing property manager drama should pay a visit to OUSA Student Support: “It doesn’t have to be by yourself.” If students know their rights are potentially being breached, said Phae, there’s “nothing wrong with pointing it out.” “You won’t really know [unless you try], and even if they react really fuckin’ badly, you have rights. They have to follow the law, even if they really don’t want to.”