The Commerce Commission has long been the watchdog for consumers purchasing goods and services in New Zealand. Part of their role is to protect consumers from traders or sellers who engage in unfair or deceptive conduct. Historically this has involved monitoring activity such as collusion between firms and price fixing, which leads to a hike…
DetailsChanges to the Building Act came into force on 1 January 2015. All builders who carry out residential work, whether demolition, new build or renovations, building a new fence or retaining wall (or doing any other "building work") need to ensure they are meeting these new requirements. Written contracts are now required for residential building…
DetailsIn August last year the law relating to development contributions changed. They were aimed at making the regime easier to navigate and the costs easier to predict. A New Zealand Law Society seminar outlined the changes. Here are some pointers to take from the presentation: • the purpose of the development contributions is to enable…
DetailsWhen a unit title development is created a valuer must assess the ownership interest for each unit, which is essentially the relative market value of that unit compared with all of the other units. It’s possible for the body corporate to also establish a separate utility interest for each unit. That utility interest is then used to…
DetailsControl Period and Turnover Disclosure The Unit Titles Act 2010 (UTA) treats a developer as being in control of a unit title development from the date the unit plan deposits until the date the developer or its associates owns or controls less than 75% of the votes in the body corporate. Associates are defined widely and include the developer’s agents, trustees or…
DetailsWhen a unit title development is created a valuer must assess the ownership interest for each unit, which is essentially the relative market value of that unit compared with all of the other units. It’s possible for the body corporate to also establish a separate utility interest for each unit. That utility interest is then used to…
DetailsControl Period and Turnover Disclosure The Unit Titles Act 2010 (UTA) treats a developer as being in control of a unit title development from the date the unit plan deposits until the date the developer or its associates owns or controls less than 75% of the votes in the body corporate. Associates are defined widely and include the developer’s agents, trustees or…
DetailsWhen a unit title development is created a valuer must assess the ownership interest for each unit, which is essentially the relative market value of that unit compared with all of the other units. It’s possible for the body corporate to also establish a separate utility interest for each unit. That utility interest is then used to…
DetailsControl Period and Turnover Disclosure The Unit Titles Act 2010 (UTA) treats a developer as being in control of a unit title development from the date the unit plan deposits until the date the developer (or its associates) owns or controls less than 75% of the votes in the body corporate. Associates are defined widely and include the developer’s agents, trustees or…
DetailsWhat are the proposed changes? Changes are being mooted to retention arrangements. The Government has announced that a "deemed trust" arrangement is their proposed solution to protect subcontractors from circmustances like those that followed Mainzeal’s collapse. Retention funds won’t need to be held in a separate bank account though so whether the funds are truly…
DetailsCommunal land in residential developments is a common and useful way to expand space available to homeowners, giving them the benefits of land ownership without the same burden. It’s common place both in rural areas and increasingly in the urban setting where space is at a premium. The arrangement has some legal difficulties. Historically this…
DetailsThe legal set-up of a new subdivision or unit title development should be treated with as much care as the physical design. It’s very easy to leave a mess – one that is difficult and expensive to resolve. The rights, rules and restrictions that a developer puts in place for the new neighbourhood are generally…
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