News and views

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.

In the wake of Canterbury’s devastating earthquakes, the Supreme Court has handed down a decision providing building owners, councils and insurers a clear steer on seismic strengthening.

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.

Having recently clocked the big 2-0 in my legal career, I started doing a bit of a recreational, back-of-the-envelope tally of how many property transactions I’ve clocked up during that time – I got into the many thousands very quickly, felt old, and stopped.

Subcontractors owed money are to get better protection for payment for work done in changes to the Construction Contracts Act approved by Government, Building and Construction Minister Dr Nick Smith announced.

Spring, at last, has sprung and with it has come the lambs, the blooms, the longer days – and, of course, the seasonal warming up of the property market. As happens at this time of year, my desk has seen a marked increase in conveyancing files adorning it of late.

A recent High Court decision (Johnson & Ors v Auckland Council) develops the law around the extent of a buyer’s liability for failing to complete proper due diligence checks when buying a leaky home. The case shows that the compensation paid to a buyer will be reduced if the buyer does not take adequate care when deciding to buy, even if the Council has been negligent.