r/LegalAdviceNZ

I'm a minor and I cannot consent to any usage of my inheritance but apparently I'm supposed to use my inheritance to pay partly for my dad's funeral, my dad's sisters spouses funeral, and give some to my brother who did not receive any inheritance, I do not want to use it on my dad's sisters spouses funeral but I do not have a say in it. this is the only financial support I'm going to ever receive from my father as he never paid child support and I don't want to spend on someone I don't know.

Just wandering if I have any legs to stand to on. Basically a fence on our property was repaired recently and it's next to were I park my car. After job was done I put my car back and got a flat tyre from nails left behind. Iv been told by our landlord it's probably not worth chasing up however I feel like I shoudnt be having to pay for the new tyre. Iv emailed property manager for next door who arranged it and she just said sorry that's happened to you. Worth chasing up or not really?

If an acting agency goes into voluntary liquidation but then starts a new company the next day, with the same sole-director and staff, what are the obligations with regards representation of the actors on their books under the previous agency?

Over the last couple of years they've tried (I believe relatively unsuccessfully) to start charging existing actors a "membership fee" ... the current line is that they won't be automatically continuing to represent past actors and are inviting actors to contact them to discuss options moving forwards. I suspect this is in an effort to force the subscription model. While not illegal (as far as I'm aware), I mention this just as an indication of the underlying motives. It's a poor model that will relegate them more to a lower tier talent agency.

There's a strong sense that they're simply trying to write off old debt that has amassed through poor business management and start afresh. That being the case, it's likely they'll simply repeat the cycle.

What would be the clever / subtle questions to ask in order to check for breach of anti-Phoenix?

Hi everyone,

I bought my first house 18 months ago, A blocked sink led to a plumber visit who advised the plumbing is not up to code.

I have got it working for now but in order to get it in code it will cost approx 20k.

The builders report didn’t raise anything about legality of plumbing but did mention that it was inaccessible due to it being under the conservatory.
What are my legal rights here in this situation?

I started a new job 2 months ago (custom framing), and thought everything had been going pretty well, I felt as though I was catching onto the work reasonably well especially in something I’ve never done before, despite only having two days of training.

One day I was at work (about a month in at this point), it was about an hour till we closed and I was working on a job that I hadn’t been trained in since I had completed everything else, so was trying to figure out how to do it. The only person available for me to ask questions was my manger who was using the saw outside, so while I waited for her to finish I asked my other coworker her opinion (she didn’t know either as this wasn’t her area of work).

I waited for about 20 minutes (still tinkering with the work) when the phone rang, I answered and it was one of my bosses. The first thing he said was ‘what the fuck are you doing?’ So I explained. ‘The longer you do nothing, the more money you are making us lose!’ He was watching me on the cameras the whole time. I knew we had cameras, but the bosses said it was due to a burglary before I started and that was the only purpose for them. I just apologised and that was that. Since that day I made sure I was doing something at all times, or at least looking like I’m doing something (there were often times where I had finished all my tasks for the day and no one had anymore work for me).

Yesterday I was pulled into their office for a chat. Apparently they are concerned about my ‘trial period’ and that I’m not where I should be. They told me they had been watching me on cameras and monitoring how quickly I complete each of my tasks, which has been too slow. He then proceeds to say I also ‘walk around too much’. He said there was a time I came off my last break at 4:15 and only finished one more task before 5 (every task is different, some take 15 some take 30 minutes). I also have been told previously to stop all work at 4:30 to clean and close up shop. I mentioned to him that knowing he is watching me all day makes me a little uncomfortable and anxious when working as I’m worried he’s watching what I’m doing and will have a problem with it.

He tells me ‘if you were doing your job properly then the cameras wouldn’t make you uncomfortable at all’ I told him that I disagreed, to which he replied ‘I have every right to watch the cameras’.

Is this true? Can my bosses watch me all day on the cameras, time my tasks, nitpick my movements around the store? I’ve never had something like this happen and feel I’m being treated unfairly. Their reasoning was that since they got the camera for security reasons it means their use of it is legal. There is nothing in my contract about CCTV or monitoring. Any advice would be amazing.

Being called into a meeting next week, to a surprise redundancy meeting that is probably going to become an unfair dismissal, as my role is still needed / can't be reallocated to anyone else, and I haven't been given any performance feedback in years. Am likely going to be too upset to articulate for myself so needing a legal support person to come with me please? Are any available on a no win no fee basis?

First-home buyer in NZ and I'm a bit confused by advice from my solicitor.

My offer currently includes:

Finance condition LIM condition Builder's report condition Solicitor approval condition

My solicitor has recommended removing the finance, LIM and builder's report conditions and relying solely on a very broad solicitor approval condition.

His reasoning is that the solicitor approval clause gives more flexibility if I need to pull out, whereas the other conditions require more justification.

What I'm struggling to understand is this:

If the solicitor approval condition is staying in the agreement regardless, what is the downside of also keeping the finance, LIM and builder's report conditions?

Wouldn't I effectively have all four protections instead of just one?

Has anyone had a solicitor recommend this before, and what was the rationale?

I'm trying to understand what I gain by removing the standard conditions rather than whether the solicitor approval clause is broad enough to cover those issues.

Hey all,

I have majority care of my daughter (12.5) and this has been in place for almost 6 years. She has a phone that her Dad pays for.

He lives 5 hours away and came to our town in the weekend demanding to have our daughter in 48 hours time. I said no as he hadn’t cleared by me before telling our daughter, it wasn’t his weekend and he has so much extra time with her in the last couple of years, it is starting to take the piss, ie turn up for mothers day for his mum and expect to have her all day.

Anyways, my daughter was at her friends house and when she came home, I went through her texts with her and found so many texts about guardianship issues, him harrassing her to message him back, putting me and other family members down. After some discussion, we decided it was a good idea to block him for a day or two as he would not stop messaging her and I could see she was overwhelmed in this situation.

He has thrown an almighty shit fit saying I am breaching our order (all it says in our order about technology is that she can video call when she likes and to be scheduled time on a Wednesday) and he’s taking me back to family court. He has not exercised facetimes on Wednesday in over a year, despite me telling him to keep this up rather than rely on texting each other. He keeps harrassing me now with messages and telling me I’m a liar and the tone often quickly esculates to more accustory and almost threatening in tone.

He was physically and emotionally abusive to me (one of the many reasons we split) and has done numerous things to me over the years. However the texts are actually stressing my daughter out and she is feeling really anxious and doesn’t want to talk to her dad. I am trying to be civil and end the conversation when I can feel it ramping up but he won’t stop messaging me accusing me of god knows what and I don’t feel like I can block him without shit really kicking off. He will not respect any boundary and keeps sending countless messages late at night goading me.

It’s wearing us both out and this has gone on repeatedly for the last 18 months over issues, but especially when he can’t get his own wah. I really want to do something to better protect ourselves from him and I am unsure if my daughter will feel comfortable going into his care next weekend.

I have ordered her a new phone with stricter rules in place for their communication but he is also losing his shit over that too and this breaches the order?? She’s a pre teen, she doesn’t want to text her parents every hour of the day

What can I do? Can I get a protection order?

I know we can go back to family court, he will fight me all the way to get what he wants, not what our daughter wants and by the time we get to a judge, he will most likely let her pick what to do..

Hi all!

in April I submitted my application for a Partner of a New Zealander residence visa. I recently got my pre-allocation check back with a request for further information, I have since submitted all requested documents.

My initial plan was to land in NZ in November, 7 months after the application was submitted.

If the visa has not been approved by this time, can I enter NZ on a visitor visa? I would be travelling on a UK passport and with a valid NZeta. I also have bought an onward flight out of NZ and have proof of funds to support my time there. My intention would be to leave NZ within the limits of the visitor visa unless my pending residence visa is approved while I am there.

*EDIT* To clarify I am a UK citizen living overseas in Australia. my Australian Visa is coming to an end in a month and I need to leave the country. I will be travelling to Asia before flying to NZ. Im really trying to avoid flying back to England to save on flights.

My dear friend has recently separated from her romantic partner after 20 years.

I know it's a long-shot but wondering if anyone has had a similar situation, and have managed to avoid splitting assets. Friend has a lawyer but I'm hoping I can share with her other experiences, be they positive or negative. She wants to take this to court if necessary but I think that may just end up costing her even more than half her assets.

The situation is that she owned the house (with a mortgage), car and all furniture etc. when the partner moved in 20 years ago. Sadly she didn't think to make any pre-nup type arrangements.

Partner came in with nothing and paid very reasonable board for some periods, but a lot of time was out of work during which time he did not pay anything.

Friend bought and upkept all items for the home throughout the relationship including whiteware, repairs etc. Partner made no contributions (other than board).

My friend has children who were primary chool aged when the relationship began. She did not expect nor asked/received any input at all regarding the children.

Effectively the relationship was romantic only. No shared finances/bank accounts nor shared care of the children.

Now the partner who came into the relationship with absolutely no assets or savings, is wanting to claim half of everything my friend has worked hard for, including her Kiwisaver.

Additionally the partner was abusive and violent toward my friend (has Police reports to back this up).

Is the Family Court likely to take account of the fact that this was a romantic relationship only, with no shared finances etc., or is the relationship law cut and dried?

Edited to add: Partner has legal aid, my friend doesn't.

Hi guys. My mum is being unfairly treated at work. She was always on 25 hours and now is only getting work for 10 hours. She has been at this company for 8 years.

This all started because someone from their company complained that they were closing their store early. After this her manager singled her out and under duress made her a sign a paper saying that they didn’t close early. She wasn’t told what else was written on it and she was blamed by her manager that she wrote that email. She is getting bullied by her manager, on her last shift she didn’t even get sent for a break while that manager asked everyone else if they went. The manager is also embarrassing her around other workers picking up things like where you name badge while no other worker had theirs on. If she is placed onto serving customers when she gets to her shift the manger changes her work so she’s working harder at a different position. We have way more information written this is just some examples.

My mum is now taking depression medications and because of all this bullying her cholesterol increased. We are scared. We have sent 2 emails to her hr department and still no response. The first email was sent on 29 July after sending that email that’s when they dropped her hours even more. The recent one yesterday.

What should we do now? Can we take this to the employment court? This also has immense financial pressure on my mum.

Any help or advice would mean the world shes Been experiencing this for a month everyday she cries.

I worked 18.5 hours this weekend (I work retail) and my salary is supposed to be received on Tuesday 11:59 but it says $0 and I received nothing. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Edit:
I'm gonna wait it out for now to see what my manager can do if he can't do anything about it then I'll post an update post asking for further help.

I’m looking for some advice regarding a building contract issue. I built my home 5 years ago with a Registered Master Builder. I was doing some routine maintenance today/looking up replacement filters and checked the serial badge on my ventilation unit. Currently installed model does not handle moisture well compared to agreed model

I went back to look at our original signed building contract and plans, and I've just discovered that the builder installed a completely different model than the specific one detailed in our contract specifications.

Even though it’s been 5 years, I literally just noticed it.

My main worry is that because it's been 5 years, a tribunal or court might just say "it works, so leave it" and order them to pay the price difference, rather than making them rip it out and install the correct model. Has anyone dealt with a contract deviation this far down the track? What's the best way to approach the builder about this without them completely ghosting me?

Builder is still in business

Cheers!

Kia ora everyone,

I have a casual contract with Company A. However, Company B has offered me a full-time contract. Company B is technically competition, and I have worked for them through Company A. What do I tell Company A in my resignation?

I recently started a new job (this is month four). At a recent catch up with my manager they brought to my attention that another manager had told them I was “leaving early” from the office. At the time I was a little stunned, as I thought I was consistently working my 8 hour days, and didn’t say anything other than I often need to leave by a certain time each day to pick up my kid from daycare. Work has a flexible schedule policy (I.e. no set start/finish times). My wife and I will alternate pick ups and drop offs, so my start times vary across a week depending on the day. It is the first in about 18 years in the public service anything like this has happened.

It’s left me feeling like there is a major lack of trust. But more importantly I want to do something about it. Beyond telling my manager to ask the other manager to mind their own business, is there anything else people would suggest? I could resign but the job is interesting and it’s a terrible job market.

There is an ongoing issue with the AT Parking App and Windcave.

From AT: "We are aware of this issue and have received several similar reports from customers who are unable to update their card payment details within the AT Park app. Our Parking Design team is currently working with Windcave, our payment service provider, to investigate why this issue is affecting some AT Park"

If I pay at the machine, they ino longer accept EFTPOS and impose a 50c fee for using my credit card. 50c x 5 days adds up since I reported the issue to AT two months ago. I'd be keen to understand if they can continue to charge that fee if that is the only payment mechanism that I can use due to a fault in their system. TIA

I was on the motorway in slow moving traffic today.

Next thing I'm being pulled over, the officer says I was using my phone while driving, I simply replied that I was not. He fined me and left, the whole ordeal was about 1 minute long.

I'm not sure really what to say here as I just don't do that, and never have - I have a clean driving record of 7 years.

My thinking is that I look extremely bored while sitting in traffic, I had my hat and sunglasses on, and my head leaning on my hand...it probably looks as though I'm looking down just kind of slouched out? I'm really not too sure, my phone sits in my cupholder and doesn't get touched - I have hands free control but at the point in time I was just daydreaming listening to my podcast.

The officer has assumed I was on my phone and quickly gave a ticket with no conversation had.

Just feeling a bit embarrassed about it all and not too sure how to solve it.

Thanks for your help.

Hi,

I am currently looking at setting up a dog daycare and kennel. I have gone through most of the process and have been given the opportunity to take a council dead of lease for a site that suits. This is in a rural/industrial area and would be taking over an existing building (as well as putting in the actual kennels - which have been approved). So noise and such isn't an issue.

It's your pretty standard council lease - i.e I pay everything, do everything, and they do nothing except come and hassle me at any time they like. I've seen a bunch of these - it's pretty typical. Better than most. But HEAVILY in their favour (they get to keep everything I put in for example).

The main question I have with it is in the description and would like an idea of how to follow up on is the allowed activity, which is listed simply as "Dog Kennel."

The issue is this doesn't seem to allow for onsite occupation - which is realistically the only way it is viable from both an animal welfare and earnings point of view is to have someone living onsite.

I was aware that there is likely zero chance of putting in any sort of actual permanent residential accommodation onsite as it is both a council lease and an ex-industrial site, and honestly don't want to put something else in that will instantly belong to the council (or I will have to pull down at the end of my lease).

We had assumed that the council understood that such a business would require this, and while perhaps technically not allowed, would mean someone onsite almost 24/7 and overnight (with no need to actually be awake most of the time), so that likely someone would effectively live there requiring suitable accommodation (given the building restriction a portable building/caravan type set-up)

The only place I can see where perhaps they have accounted for this is in a later section:

"Lessee will in undertaking the Permitted Use in accordance with industry best practice, and 

otherwise to the satisfaction of the Lessor."

And while industry best practise would certainly be for someone onsite, there is nothing in particular that actually requires this. (and I honestly don't think the council have thought that far ahead)

Obviously a bunch of questions to put to the council, but as said this really only works with someone living onsite. They have already agreed to the kennel itself, so it would be useful to be able to approach them with some arguments as to why this is acceptable under the lease they have already given me (ideally) or to have it altered so this is clear.

I have chatted with another kennel owner who has a very similar lease and situation (in another area) who has been operating and living onsite in portable buildings who claims the above (identical) best practise clause allows for this - but I suspect its more a matter of the council ignores it/does know.

Thanks for any ideas and help.