News and views

I know. The year’s barely started, and here am I wanting to tax those post-holiday brain cells with news about, well, tax. But, given the property season is in full swing, this is one you might just need to be across sooner rather than later, if you’re looking at trading.

It’s only a couple of weeks until the major changes around residential property taxes come into force – and we’ve been out and about on a bit of an educational blitz.

It’s great to see the increasing number of our clients taking advantage of the new KiwiSaver HomeStart package – with the Government confirming the scheme is off to the same cracking start nationally that we’re seeing in our parts.

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.

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.

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.

A residential property was being auctioned in Auckland. The auction stalled at a price of $2.5 million. The vendors had set a reserve of $2.7 million. The auctioneer halted the auction while he asked the vendors whether they would be prepared to reduce the reserve price. The vendors agreed to reduce the reserve price to $2.6 million.

The Court of Appeal recently had to decide the meaning of a condition in a sale and purchase agreement which made the purchase of a property “subject to and conditional upon … approval of directors”. This is the first time that a “subject to director’s approval” clause has been considered by a New Zealand court.