News and views

A recent decision of the Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal has imposed new requirements on real estate agents. In several recent decisions, the Tribunal has mentioned that section 3 of the Real Estate Agents Act 2008 states that the emphasises of the Act is on the protection of consumers and the public, whereas in the past, agents were focussed on the interests of the vendor.

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.

When buying the property, you may be told that there is an easement registered against the title for the property. An easement is created when one land owner grants someone else (usually the owner of some other land or a services company) the right to do certain things on part of their land.

Before a buyer signs a sale and purchase agreement for a unit title property, the seller must give the buyer a “pre contract disclosure statement”. The second schedule to the regulations contains the form of pre contract disclosure statement that must be used. The disclosure statement must include the following information...

When a property is owned by more than one person, it is important to know who needs to sign the listing agreement and the sale and purchase agreement. Also, when you are having an agreement signed by a purchaser which is a trust or company, you need to know who should sign for the purchaser.

In June, the High Court awarded exemplary damages against a lessee who had breached the terms of its pastoral lease, but what are “exemplary damages”? The case involved a company owned by John and Mary Lee. The company was the lessee under a pastoral lease of land in Cardrona Valley. Next door was a freehold property (“Waiorau”) owned by John and Mary Lee, on which they operated snow related businesses.

It is important to read the terms of the listing authority so you know how long you are appointing an agent for, especially if it is a sole listing, and when the listing comes to an end.

When a party to an agreement for sale and purchase doesn’t want to be under an absolute obligation to have to do something, it is usual to add a clause which requires a party to use “best endeavours” or “reasonable endeavours” to do that thing. But what do those phrases mean?