In these trying times we are receiving a large number of calls offering help and asking for assistance.
The overwhelming support and understanding of each individual situation is much appreciated.

Please read the below information carefully so that we can try to minimise the impact of high-volume calls that we are currently receiving.

Prime Minister’s Announcement – 30 March 2020
The Prime Minister announced a wage subsidy package today which is being called the JobKeeper payment. This is available to full-time and part-time workers, sole traders and casual workers who have been with their employer for 12 months or more. This will allow businesses to keep employees on the books to distribute this payment during this downtime.

We will be providing information to all tenants regarding this including the Treasury’s Jobkeeper Payment Information, so that they have resources to review if they are eligible even if they have been stood down due to the COVID-19 pandemic response. We hope this will help ease the pressure for so many people across Australia.

During this time there may be delays of rental payments, and we will work with each individual case so we can potentially communicate payment plans as tenants who have been affected start to receive regular pay again.

Hardship Process Rollout
In the coming days, we will contact each owner who has tenants affected by financial loss due to COVID-19. We will discuss your circumstance and will walk you through the process we are implementing to manage situations where your tenants are affected.

Our office is currently working to draft a Hardship Form to provide to tenants who contact us due to financial loss as a result of COVID-19. This will provide them the opportunity to outline their circumstances so that we can work with you to determine a solution that will ease financial hardship.

Once we receive this information, we will again contact you to discuss further to determine a way forward.

Insurance Consideration
We have received some professional information that you may wish to consider before determining how you wish to approach financial hardship where it may directly impact your insurance:

• Reducing rent: if you agree to reduce rent, you may not be able claim for the difference in payments.
• Putting rent on hold: if you want to suspend rent for a couple of weeks while the tenant gets back on their feet, this may not be covered as it is a mutual agreement and not an insured event.

Please be sure to contact your insurer to discuss the details of your policy and how it may apply in this instance.

Eviction Moratorium
The Prime Minister announced yesterday, 29 March 2020, that evictions will be put on hold for 6 months and the government has asked landlords and renters to talk about short term agreements.

We have yet to understand fully how this may work post COVID-19 and will look to gain further understanding in the coming weeks to be able to provide you with more information.

Pure Real Estate Office closure to the public
Just a reminder that the office is closed to the public. Our staff commenced work from home from today, Monday, 30 March 2020. Russell remains in the office at this time as our phone services are continuing with the urgent upgrade required.

We remain prepared to continue our services to you with minimal impact when we commence work from home.

COVID-19 Impact on Open for Inspections
The Government announced that all Open for Inspections are now banned. We will still be able to host virtual property tours and private inspections for now.

We were able to secure new equipment to provide virtual inspections and are now working to roll out Virtual Tours for our rental properties to help us secure tenants as quickly as possible should your property be vacant or become vacant in this time. Check out Matterport here to see what we’ve invested in to navigate these times.

COVID-19 Impact on Routine Inspections
Routine inspections remain on hold for now. We are working on identifying the best technologies for video routines and hope to be able to recommence these as soon as we can. This will take some time for us to manage, so please be understanding in this matter.

Rental Payments
We are continuing to understand how we will manage tenancies that fall into financial hardship in this difficult time.

While we understand that it is a stressful time for many, we have asked all tenants continue to make regular payments. For those who have lost income, we have requested they communicate with us quickly so we can talk to you about their circumstances and work together through these unusual times.

We have provided them with contact information for the RTA and for Centrelink for discussing their options.

Working as a Team
Our highest priority is the health and wellbeing of our communities.

We will provide additional information when we have further direction from the Government.  We look forward to working together to support you through this time.

Kind regards

Russell Peter | Principal