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Read our news to keep up-to-date with current legal issues.

Fineprint - Summer 2018

In this issue:

  • Retirement village life
  • New Zealand has the perfect business environment to develop blockchain technology
  • Make sure you have a will
  • Enforceable undertakings
  • Postscript: Welcome to our new lawyers, International Food Night 2018

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Trust eSpeaking - Spring 2018

In this issue:

  • Do I still need a trust?
  • How do I bring my trust to an end?
  • Validating imperfect wills

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Property eSpeaking - Spring 2018

In this issue:

  • Guiding your offspring into flatting
  • The great lawyers' fee debate
  • Warmer homes for Kiwis
  • Meth contamination - update
  • Foreign residential investment

To view all articles, click here



Rural eSpeaking - Spring 2018

In this issue:

  • Biosecurity in New Zealand: Who is liable for an outbreak of plant disease?
  • Private land with public access: How is access granted?
  • Over the fence: Anti-money laundering compliance - The Animal Welfare (Care and Procedures) Regulations 2018 - Farm Debt Mediation Bill and the Zero Carbon Bill

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Property eSpeaking - Autumn 2018

In this issue:

  • Is your rental safe and healthy? Penalties for landlords dragging the chain
  • Bright-line test period extended - the Minister of Revenue recently announced an extension to the bright-line test period from two to five years
  • Keeping New Zealand safe from money launderers - more on AML and what it means for you
  • Pre-purchase inspections - what you can object to and what you can't
  • Purchasing from a developer who isn't a builder - what are the pitfalls?

To view all articles, click here



Fineprint - Autumn 2018

In this issue:

  • What is a 'social enterprise' and why does it matter?
  • Economic disparity at the end of a relationship
  • Preventing money laundering in New Zealand: a law firm's role
  • Regulating stock movements duringMycoplasma bovis outbreak
  • Postscript: Kawarau Falls case: an update - Food Act 2014: rolling deadlines to register your food business - Minimum wage increased on 1 April

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Rural eSpeaking - Autumn 2018

In this issue:

  • Having your own terms of sale 
  • Easements - get them right first time 
  • Over the Fence: Minimum wge rates rise on 1 April - Stock movements: Gypsy Day approaching and Mycoplasma bovis -New milk cooling regulations - Employment Relations Amendment Bill 2018: Changes afoot

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Trust eSpeaking - Autumn 2018

In this issue:

  • Option A or Option B? That is the question. When your spouse or partner dies you will need to make a very important decision between your entitlements under their will and potential claims against their estate
  • When Grandma comes to live with us. As parents age, their children often find they need to take an increasing role in looking after them. Unpalatable as it seems, it's important to think about the legal difficulites that can arise when one member of the family has assumed responsibility
  • Trustees' personal liability for litigation costs: It can be an unpleasant surprise.Trustees and executors are not always entitled to reimbursement for their litigation costs. While most trustees and executors will assume that costs incurred in the course of their trustee or executorship will be paid from the estate or trust, a recent decision illustates the perils that trustees or executors can face when they go to court.

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Trust eSpeaking - Spring 2017

In this issue:

  • Trusts Bill: Deals with practical issues
  • Retiring as a Trustee? There's a process that should avoid any problems down the line
  • Ageing trustees: Know when to walk away

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Trust eSpeaking - Autumn 2017

In this issue:

  • Trusts Bill: Some key proposals
  • Will Your Business Survive if You Don't? Planning is key
  • Looking After Your Inheritance: Keep it protected

To view all articles, click here



Property eSpeaking - Summer 2017

In this issue:

  • Speak With Us Before you Sign the Agreement: Don't be like John
  • Being an Airbnb Host: You have significant obligations to a number of parties
  • Property Briefs: Current tenants selling their business - what it means for a landlord; Ticking the boxes on Agreements for Sale and Purchase - be careful; 'Joint tenants' or 'tenants in common' when buying?

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Fineprint - Summer 2017

In this issue:

  • Privacy in the Workplace: What's yours is mine?
  • Blended Families - Wills and Trusts: Can it be fair for everyone?
  • Stay Safe this Summer: Driving, swimming pools and drinking
  • Recent Workplace Health and Safety Sentencing: Legislation is showing its teeth
  • Postscript: New provisional tax option for small businesses - Catch fish and come home this summer (a special message forFineprint readers from Water Safety New Zealand).

To view all articles, click here



Rural eSpeaking - Summer 2017

In this issue:

  • Farm Management Plans: a new (uncertain) dawn for farmers 
  • Loan Documents: Read the fine print, there could be some surprises 
  • Over the Fence: New government-endorsed health and safety toolkit now available - Casual or fixed term employment agreements - Hefty penalties in first decision of new health and safety regime (there's a full commentary in our Summer edition ofFineprint)

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Rural eSpeaking - Spring 2017

In this issue:

  • ‘Nuptial Settlements’: Have I made one?
  • Fire Hazards: Look after your property
  • Over the Fence: Health and safety legislation sentencing expected - Judgments of rural interest - Bobby calf regulations

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Property Speaking - Spring 2017

In this issue:

  • Health and Safety, and Personal Trusteeships - Not a good mix these days
  • Due Diligence - Check the primary documents
  • Post-earthquake property settlement considerations
  • Employment obligations in times of natural disasters
  • Review of the Property (Relationships) Act 1976

To view all articles, click here



Fineprint - Winter 2017

In this issue:

  • A Helping Hand for First Home Buyers: Options for parents to help
  • Up in the Air: Using your drone
  • Time to Update your Ts and Cs
  • Getting your Enduring Powers of Attorney Sorted Out
  • Postscript: Enforceable undertaking accepted by WorkSafe after two students hurt in St Kentigern's Sweeney Todd production - Comparing KiwiSaver providers

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Property Speaking - Autumn/Winter 2017

In this issue:

  • Sharing a Driveway: Know your rights and obligations
  • Airbnb: Key tax considerations
  • Property Briefs: Your KiwiSaver funds - more flexible than you might think   -  More on multi offers   -   Grants available to insulate rental properties

To view all articles, click here



Rural eSpeaking - Autumn 2017

In this issue:

  • Clean Water Package 2017: What does this mean for farmers?
  • Good Husbandry: Give it some thought when buying and selling
  • Over the Fence: Minimum wage review 2017 - Further implementation of bobby calf regulations - Tenant damage ruling overturned in the District Court

To view all articles, click here



Rural eSpeaking - Summer 2016

In this issue:

  • Health and Safety, and Personal Trusteeships - Not a good mix these days
  • Due Diligence - Check the primary documents
  • Post-earthquake property settlement considerations
  • Employment obligations in times of natural disasters
  • Review of the Property (Relationships) Act 1976

To view all articles, click here



Fineprint – Summer 2016

In this issue:

  • Do all your Employees have Employment Agreements? And do they comply?
  • Letting your Holiday House: Make sure you know the rules
  • Why is there Name Suppression in Court?
  • Holiday Care Disputes Involving Children

To view all articles, click here



Property Speaking – Summer 2016

In this issue:

  • Property owners should get all their ducks in a row: make sure you have a Will and EPAs
  • Don't rush into signing an agreement for sale and purchase
  • Meth testing in a property - from a vendor's perspective
  • Multi-offers on a property
  • Terminating a commercial lease for unpaid rent

To view all articles, click here



Trust eSpeaking Spring 2016

In this issue:

  • Beneficiaries' entitlement to trust information: A frustration for trustees
  • Trusts under attack by former spouses and partners: Trustees need to be cautious
  • Foreign trusts: Tightening up the rules

To view all articles, click here



Rural eSpeaking – Winter/Spring 2016

In this issue:

  • Obligations of working dog owners
  • Providing accommodation to your farm staff?
  • New regulations for bobby calves
  • Employment: staff must be paid the minimum wage
  • Rural fires and insurance

To view all articles, click here



Property Speaking – Winter 2016

In this issue:

  • P-contamination in residential property
  • Buying your first home? Look into KiwiSaver
  • The oven doesn't work - what to do?
  • Commercial CPI rent reviews
  • Sections without connections

To view all articles, click here



Fineprint - Winter 2016

In this issue:

  • Protecting the elderly: Using an enduring power of attorney
  • Easements: You want to do what on my land?
  • Ni Hao: Doing business with Chinese investors
  • Drinking and driving - don't do it
  • Proposed business tax changes
  • Smoke alarms and insulation now required for rental properties

To view all articles, click here



If you'd like to talk with us about any of these topics, please contact us.

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Read our practical legal guides

On the Move - a practical guide for
buying and selling your home

To Trust or not to Trust -
an introduction to family trusts

The Closing Chapter – useful advice to help deal with
the death and estate of close family or friends