The Court of Appeal held recently that the powers provided to a body corporate (under the Unit Titles Act 2010 (“the Act”)) to carry out repairs to a complex to the benefit of all owners, trump individual owners’ rights to choose how, when and whether they repair and maintain their units.

In Body Corporate 204299 & Sayer v Whyte & Ors [2016] NZHC 1164 the High Court held that where the division of property between private and common property in a body corporate complex are ‘skewed’ in favour of some owners, the court will not intervene to ameliorate its effect on other owners when the complex is being repaired, as to do so would disturb the contractual rights which the owners acquired when buying into a unit title development.

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.