A notice in the Herald on Sunday warned that a key deadline for leaky homeowners happens on 27 June 2016 when applications for the Financial Assistance Package (FAP) close. 

The Court of Appeal recently dismissed an attempt by the solicitors for an issuer of securities to strike out a claim against them for losses suffered by the investors in those securities on the basis that the law firm could not owe duties of care to the investors who were not its clients.

In a recent decision (Minister of Education & Ors v Carter Holt Harvey Limited [2014] NZHC 681 (4 April 2014) the High Court allowed leaky building claims against a manufacturer of a cladding system to continue to trial even though the claims related to buildings constructed ten years before the issue of proceedings. (PDF)

When one thinks of lawyers working from the imposing ridge of The Terrace in Wellington, or the teeming metropolis of Auckland’s Queen Street, sole practitioners are possibly not the type that immediately spring to mind. (PDF)

Late last year, the Supreme Court bought some Christmas cheer to the thousands of leaky home owners when it dismissed appeals by North Shore City Council against the decisions in Sunset Terraces/Byron Avenue in the High Court and Court of Appeal. 

The Department of Building and Housing recently provided additional information about the proposed government assistance package for leaky home owners (see attached). While the scheme will not be finalised until 2011, the announcement does clarify certain aspects of the scheme which impacts upon eligibility for it.

The Court of Appeal has emphatically rejected an attempt by territorial authorities to limit or reduce their ongoing exposure to leaky building claims.