Articles

Looking at buying or selling a cross lease property? One of the most common issues plaguing cross lease properties throughout New Zealand is the likelihood the flats plan (which is meant to show the boundary lines of the house, garage etc) is out-of-date and has not been updated following structural additions or improvements. The reason: it's not, strictly speaking, necessary from Council's perspective, and building consent may be granted without any reference or requirement to update the property's flats plan. The flow-on effect from this is the flats plan (which is attached to the certificate of title) is "defective", arguably giving a purchaser the right to pull out of an otherwise unconditional sale and purchase agreement.  Read more

The minimum contribution rate for employers and employees has increased from 2% to 3% of gross salary or wages from the first pay period commencing on or after 1 April 2013.  Read more

KiwiSaver has almost two million members. As at 1 May 2012, approximately 340,000 of those members were aged between 25 and 34. One of the advantages of KiwiSaver for this age group and others who are in the first home market is the schemes to assist first home buyers. Members can apply for a first-home deposit subsidy of up to $5,000.00 and can withdraw all or part of their savings to put towards their deposit.  Read more

Purchasers of commercial property should undertake an exhaustive review of each potential purchase before declaring an agreement unconditional. This review should be undertaken in consultation with your lawyer, accountant, property manager, building inspector, lender, and otherwise as appropriate. Read more

Gift duty was abolished from 1 October 2011 and while the legislative change itself is simple, it has surprisingly complex consequences. The abolition of gift duty has made it possible for individuals to gift assets directly to a trust and it is likely this practice will supplant the former method of selling property to a trust with a gift back. Read more

The Property Law Act 2007 ("PLA") codifies – very strictly – the process and means by which a commercial tenant may be evicted for non-payment of rent or some other breach of its lease obligations. Whether you are the landlord or the tenant,it is critical you understand your rights and obligations in an eviction scenario.  Read more

As you may be aware from recent media reports, changes to the Employment Relations Act 2000 (ERA) and Holidays Act 2004 (HA) have now been passed into law and, for the most part, came into effect on 1 April 2011.  Read more

All too often an employer may claim it had fair grounds for the actions it took to dismiss or discipline an employee, but did so too quickly or used a one sided process, and in doing faces a difficultly in justifying its actions before an Employment Relations Authority.  In this article James D Turner, Partner, McVeagh Fleming lawyers, looks at the opportunity for an employer to consider bringing a counterclaim and two recent cases holding employees responsible for their conduct. Read more

The Unit Titles Act 2010 will replace the Unit Titles Act 1972 in late 2010. The old Act has been unable to properly provide and cater for the myriad of significant multi-story unit title developments built in the last two decades, and the new Act seeks to address the shortcomings of the current regime. Read more