Commercial property debt recovery in New Zealand
When problems occur, we're focussed on restoring your returns
Selecting the right tenant can be challenging, and it doesn't always work out as planned. Our specialist team handles everything from tenant credit checks and payment negotiations to guarantor pursuit and court proceedings.
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Forewarned is forearmed — Find out who your tenants are
Finding a new tenant can be exciting, even a relief — but are they really what you were hoping for? A new tenancy can come with many costs: agent fees, building alterations, fit-out contributions, and professional fees for solicitors, architects, engineers, and planners. Your property investment is expensive, but the costs you should be considering are the ones that help you get a better return. At a minimum, you should be running a credit check on your new investment partner and reviewing their financials and guarantors — contact us and we can help.
Repair the relationship or leave them behind?
Sometimes any business hits a rough patch. Helping you deal with difficult tenant arrears is our specialty. You've likely invested money in getting your tenant in. So when there's still goodwill, helping the tenant get back on their feet is often in everyone's best interest. We know leases inside out and are skilled negotiators. We work with commercial agents to help find replacement tenants when needed, and we pursue guarantors to recover what you're owed. If you decide to recover the property, we'll do everything we can to help you achieve that outcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long will it take to recover my debt?
It very much depends on the situation. Sometimes the mere involvement of a collection agency is enough to get prompt payment from your tenant, and we can recover the debt in weeks or days. Standard commercial property matters like rent arrears or breach-of-lease claims often resolve within one to two months when there's a clear paper trail. If issues become more serious and more formal legal approaches are required, the process takes longer. For highly complex matters, this may stretch to many months or more before recovery is achieved. Very few matters are highly complex.
How much do you charge?
Our commission is 30% of what we recover for you. If your lease is properly structured, we can usually recover most of this commission from your tenant too, so the net cost to your business is much lower than the headline rate.
Are there other costs involved?
There can be third-party costs in some matters, but we don't charge anything without talking to you first. Our commission is the only fee we charge for our own work, with no separate setup fees, document preparation fees, or monthly retainers on top. Any costs that come up are external ones like court filing fees, process server costs, and solicitor fees if your matter needs legal proceedings. We agree any of these with you in advance, and with a properly drafted lease most if not all can be recovered from the tenant as part of the recovery.
How do your fees compare with other debt recovery agencies?
Our commission reflects what we deliver: full-service recovery with deep specialist expertise in commercial property debt. Lower-commission agencies tend to be generalists running the same process on every case. Their headline rate looks cheaper but is often offset by fees charged at each step, including debt loading fees, document preparation fees, and sometimes fixed monthly retainers you pay whether or not your money is recovered. We don't add any of those on top of our commission. With a properly drafted lease in place, we can usually recover most of our commission from your tenant, so your net cost often ends up the same, or even less. The real difference: we don't charge you unless we're actually putting money back in your pocket.