The Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 acknowledges the importance of the marine and coastal area to all New Zealanders and provides for the recognition of the customary rights of iwi, hapū and whānau in the common marine and coastal area. Public access to the common marine and coastal area is guaranteed by the Act.

This article looks into the Regulatory Systems (Building and Housing) Amendment Act 2017 and the Unit Titles Amendment Regulations 2017, which both came into force on 30 May 2017.

There have been a number of Court decisions in recent years in which it has been found that assets of a trust can be accessed for the purposes of a relationship property division. In Vervoort v Forrest & Ors the Court of Appeal refused to recognise the existence of a constructive trust, however lessons can be learned from this decision, which is summarised in this article.

In this article, we provide an update on the development of new standards for the testing and treatment of properties contaminated by methamphetamine. 

In this article we summarise the imminent changes to the construction retentions regime.

Changes to Enduring Powers of Attorney have just come into force.

The Proposed Plan Change 1 for Waikato Regional Council has been dubbed “Healthy Rivers” and is an 80 year plan to clean up the Waikato and Waipa rivers along their entire lengths. The plan change will impact farms in the Waikato Region, of all types, as well as commercial vegetable growers and so it is important that farmers and professionals alike are up to date on what the plan means.

This article considers some of the issues to consider when contracting to ship goods from overseas.

This article summarises the potential benefits available with the KiwiSaver scheme for those in the position of “first-home buyer”.

For many years, trusts have been used as a form of asset management and/or asset protection. They are still very much a useful tool for this, however, the recent Supreme Court case of Clayton v Clayton is a warning that trusts can be “busted” in certain circumstances.

This article summarises the law on the use of electronic signatures.

Aksentijevic v Department of Internal Affairs [2016] NZHC 226 is a recent decision of the New Zealand High Court in relation to breaches of the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007.

This article considers a recent case concerning a franchisee’s restraint of trade in the context of using business networking social media.

We summarise a recent Court of Appeal decision which considered health claims relating to the honey industry and the interpretation of the Food Standards Code.

Many people may not realise that there is a separate process for dealing with retirement village disputes. This article summarises key information regarding the retirement village disputes process and also discusses some of the issues with the process.