News and views

The rules around lending in New Zealand are changing about as fast as homes are flying off the market. Here, our Solicitor, Sophie Diedrichs, answers some of the most common questions surrounding developments.

After years of leaky home horror stories, leaky shower nightmares have recently sprung up in the media. According to reports, as older-style acrylic and stainless steel trays have given way to on-trend, fully-tiled showers, some homeowners are facing huge water damage and significant repair bills due to poor waterproofing.

Tiled showers have the potential to become the new “leaky” issue for unsuspecting vendors and purchasers.

By all accounts, rental properties have dried up as quickly as the vegetation around Wanaka of late - and the accommodation drought has brought with it both out-of-luck prospective tenants and steep rent increases to boot.

The Building Amendment Act 2013 was passed by Parliament on 27 November 2013. It is the result of a comprehensive review into the Building Act 2004.

About two years ago, the Queenstown Lakes District Council started trying to track down the descendants of 17 sections in the Cardrona Valley which had been abandoned. This was triggered by an incident in 2008, when a couple of people tried to claim ownership of two sections opposite the Cardrona Hotel by fencing them off and putting signs on the fences claiming the land was private property.

Most developers in recent years have placed land covenants (also called restrictive covenants) on the titles to the lots in new subdivisions. These are intended to restrict what can be built on the property, and in some cases what the property can be used for. The recent High Court case of Whittiker v Jericevich looked at the extent of a restrictive covenant.

From 1 March 2012, most design and building work on residential buildings can only be carried out or supervised by people licensed under the Building Act 2004. This means that the standard vendor’s warranties in a sale and purchase agreement may have to be amended.