r/NZProperty

I recently emailed my property manager to ask about the plan for a tenant whose fixed-term lease was about to end.

To my surprise, I found out she'd already negotiated the rent and locked them into another 12-month lease — without ever running it past me for approval.

They also agreed to a new rent without my approval.

What's shocked me is that a full year was committed on my behalf without my okay.

Here's the problem: I never wanted a 12-month renewal. I'd only planned to offer 6 months, because I'm looking to sell this property to help fund the settlement on another one.

• What are my options here?

• Is it normal for a property manager to sign a new lease without the owner's sign-off?

I know we should have read the LIM thoroughly myself but I didn't :( Lesson learned.

Hi everyone, looking for realistic thoughts or experiences from anyone who has gone down, REA complaint or the Professional Indemnity (PI) insurance / legal claim route against a real estate agency or law firm in NZ.

​Our Situation:

We purchased a home back in 2024. It’s recently come to light that the property has an unconsented structural alteration, severe cladding/moisture issues, and an unresolved historical building consent from 1999. We are now trying to sell the house but the buyer lenders(our anz mortgage did not flag it for some reason) are not happy with the "ccc not issued" part of the LIM.

​We have clear, written contemporaneous evidence before we went unconditional:

- Real Estate Agent: I specifically asked the listing agent via text before going unconditional if a Code Compliance Certificate (CCC) was issued. He explicitly texted back: "This is an old property, doesn't need ccc. No structure changes was done" We relied on this.

- ​Conveyancer: We queried the LIM and consent status with our conveyancer(including the comment from the agent), but they failed to flag the open consent, didn't inspect the council property file, and let the contract go unconditional without warning us.

Has anyone successfully claimed against an agent/agency or conveyancer's PI insurance for misrepresentation or breach of duty?

​How hard do insurers usually fight clear written paper trails (like explicit WhatsApp texts stating "no structural changes were done")?

​Did you have to go all the way to court, or did they settle at mediation once a formal Letter of Demand + retrospective valuation was served?

How about raising a complaint with REA and NZLS?

Would love to hear any thoughts, perspectives, experiences, or realistic reality checks on our likelihood of winning/recovering any compensation.

Cheers!

PS: The funny thing is, we avoided a lot of properties with any sort of unconsented works but in the end ended up buying a house with plenty of those.

33 F,33M . We bought our home for $760k in 2022, but we're considering selling it, even at a loss, and renting closer to Wellington CBD where we both work. Our commute takes around two hours a day.

We've had the house on the market twice with no offers . It's a lovely 2000s-built home, but the street has a reputation that may be putting buyers off, despite us never having any issues. 8 weeks in the market. We are asking only 600K.

The financial pressure of higher rates (don't start me on water rates), a 7% mortgage (two years in the past), and rising costs has been tough. More than anything, the stress and uncertainty are taking a serious toll on my husband's mental health. We feel stuck between holding on to the house and choosing a lifestyle that gives us more time, flexibility, and wellbeing.

What would you do in our position?

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.

bought investment property in north shore quite overvalued in 2022 for 1.6m, still 700k outstanding mortgage, fixed interest rate at 4.5% till end of 2027, rental income $700pw, land size is good 600sqm but not big enough for developers to come knocking when economy is not doing well, i think the max we can get is maybe 1.4m in today’s market

i am also investing in stocks so thinking whether to sell the house and use the equity to buy US stocks during the next crash (like tariffs in 2024 or iran war 2025) to make back what i’ve lost.. i have much more conviction in value of AI than nz property at this point

any suggestions from experienced investors?

Has anyone built a container home in nz.

-How much did it cost

- Was it easy to get a mortgage

ect

Hi everyone, hope this is the right place to ask!

I have a house I bought in 2019. Unfortunately, 6 months into owning it, it was broken into and badly damaged. Fast forward to now (after issues with my bank, Covid pricing me out of my loan, builder going AWOL etc), and my house should hopefully be fully completed in the next couple of months, and will be rented out. The house is in a pretty low-income area in a small town and won’t be generating much in rental income 😅

I am going overseas at the beginning of next year (likely for the year, then returning to NZ). The country I will be living in has a dual tax agreement with NZ, so if/when I’m working over there it shouldn’t be a problem here. My only income in NZ will be the rental income (but I have a student loan and will be also paying some ongoing unrelated bills in NZ while I’m out of the country).

Who would be the best sort of person to talk to for initial tax guidance? Does anyone have any recommendations or advice based on my circumstances? I really don’t know where to start with this stuff as I hadn’t initially planned for the house to be a rental. I’m a single woman on a single (average) income so I’m also hoping to avoid forking out heaps for ongoing accounting work beyond some help getting set up initially and advice on what would be counted as tax deductible for this initial period.

Hope this all makes sense! Would appreciate any advice or recommendations 😊

What areas or changes do a seller and purchaser need to look out for on a S&P Agreement when buying or selling?

Does anyone know how the Labour capital gains tax will work?

Like if it's only CG after a certain date next year, we would have to know what the value of the house is at that date. But how do we know the value? Is there going to be another CV update on that date or something?

What renovations are worth the investment in terms of adding value to a home. Aside from the practical things like double glazing and insulation.

Is it worth the effort and cost to improve curb appeal with landscaping or creating better indoor/outdoor flow?

What upgrades under $25K do you recommend?

Trying earnestly not to make this about politics but to be frank some parties are proposing taxes knowing that it could drop property values by 10-15% or more. I feel this particular election cycle property is the focus of new taxes more so than usual.

I am just having a bit of cold feet now about buying a now house if by next year we passing laws that could leave me in negative equity. Just wondering if anyone else feels like this?

As title. Curious to know if you actually managed to not lose money, what type of property and whereabouts is it.

So I assume this situation could affect a lot of property owners in NZ due to the massive market run and drop since COVID. I hope a possible future government that implements it would take into consideration the prospect that with a likely grandfathering ruling where they set the CGT start date, that it may cause properties that have lost value since purchase to pay tax on sale.

Our situation is we had to move out of our own home and get tenants in as it was unaffordable on a single income starting a family to stay there. So it is now an "investment property" even though it is our only property, once our home. It has dropped in value since purchase near the peak. If a CGT comes into affect say next year and the grandfathering value from that date, say 200k under what we paid, it goes up 100k and we pay CGT on a 100k loss if sold. This would mean the government is taxing our equity and deposit we have spent years saving, all because we couldn't afford to live there while starting a family. I presume this would defeat the intention of a CGT..

Do you imagine the government would consider this as quite a likely scenario under the current market conditions and have a ruling around paying CGT based on purchase value vs grandfathering date whichever is lower and/or fairer?

Hi everyone, I settle on a property in a month, when is the best time to do a pre-settlement inspection? Also, any tips on what I should test/ look out for? Thanks!

About a year ago, my husband and I bought a place in Wellington for over $1M. We’d already lived here for 5 years prior, so buying felt like the natural next step, and thankfully we have no trouble managing the mortgage.

But honestly, Wellington has completely lost its charm for us. Between the lack of things to do and not having much of a social circle here, we’re really itching for a move to Auckland.

The dilemma is the housing market is dead right now. Having only owned the home for a year, we feel pretty stuck on whether to cut our losses and sell, rent it out, or just ride it out a bit longer.

Would love to hear thoughts from anyone who’s been in a similar spot.