Megathread: Legal resources

I recently bought this place. I want to do something about this God awful wall, visually, but don’t want to get in trouble for putting trelisses up / painting etc.

Is this something I ask my lawyer to look into?
Easy to find out myself?

The building is a maintenance block / bin store I think, so I highly doubt anyone would ever complain I had attached a trelise to the other side.

Thoughts?

It does seem to be right on the boundary, or my garden extends onto theirs I guess could be possible 🤔

I like and trust my lawyer who is very through, so I highly doubt she missed anything in the LIM etc.

EDIT: I have a Crosslease property, their’s is a Unit Title.

I’ve just seen a fb post where a woman was asked if she was pregnant in a job interview because her socials were stalked.

They cannot ask but they do. I’m betting there are better responses than:

Interviewer “Do you have kids?”
Me “Do you often flout employment law?”

Can you lie and say no?

What are some good responses that won’t torpedo the interview?

Yes it should be bullet dodged but it is tough out there.

Kia ora Koutou

Checking to see what would happen in this instance.

Go out to a restaurant for dinner, nothing over the top, mains and a few drinks.

We go to the counter to pay and they ask for a card. We say "paywave thank you" to which they reply "we dont accept paywave, you have to insert"

This is where the dilemma lies: we dont have our physical card.

They say that they are going to call the police as this is theft of services (since we already ate), we offered to come back later but they refused.

Whats the legal backing here - its not like we are not paying, they just dont accept paywave.

I can see someone saying "Well you cant pay with Australian dollars and say its not theft as its not a legal currency" but paywave is.

Any advice welcomed!

I sold a 1999 car on marketplace I have had it for 4 months and I sold it one week ago for 2100 dollars. It has 180,000ks and I had just serviced the engine (oil and filter) serviced the manual gearbox (drained and filled oil) put on new tires and put a warrent and reg on it. He called me a week later saying the gearbox has died he is demanding his money back. He reckons he’s taken it to the garage and the cvs and manual gearbox are broken. What should I do I sold the car as I’m moving away for study cheers.

Hi everyone,

I am employed on a Casual contract. My contract explicitly states that I have no minimum or guaranteed hours, and I'm usually sent shifts which I can either apply for/claim, or decline. Recently, I've had some issues with my manager's method of rostering.

About three weeks ago (18th August) my manager rostered me on for three shifts, totaling 24 hours, across three days this weekend (Fri/Sat/Sun). He didn't offer these shifts, ask if I could/willing to work them, or communicate in any whatsoever about them. They were simply added into my roster.

I've spent the last three weeks planning around these three shifts, and so I was surprised when I was removed from them out of the blue, without any communication or reason, this morning. My manager has not contacted me, nor have I contacted them yet.

The most important part of this situation is that the shifts are still being filled by someone else. I work alone on a site where there's been staffing everyday for the last five years. It's not possible that these shifts have entirely disappeared. Next week, I have these same shifts (currently not cancelled).

I'm wondering a) is this legal? I've been told it's bad faith to cancel three shifts/24 hours of work without actually directly speaking to me. B) Do I have any action I can take to either get these shifts back, or receive compensation for them? I've denied other work as I was rostered, and now that other work is no longer available.

I'm happy to answer any questions as I know this is complex and may not make much sense in the way I've written it. Thanks so much in advance for any advice or pointers!

A testamentary trust was created under my grandparents Will and is managed by the Public Trust. The Will allows the trustee (Public Trust) to bring the final distribution date forward (which is 80 years from their death).

The three current adult beneficiaries all support winding up the trust. The two other beneficiaries have a higher priority than me (secondary, I am third) during the life of the trust. The Will says that “the beneficiaries need not be treated evenly” and that the needs of the higher-priority beneficiaries “take precedence over the remaining beneficiaries.” I would receive the resultant fund at the final distribution date.

I have received assistance from the trust previously, including loans for housing and discretionary distributions for medical expenses.

The beneficiaries have submitted a unanimous proposal to wind up the trust and distribute the assets evenly between the three beneficiaries. Public Trust refused, on the basis that they believe the Will intended the trust to provide long-term support across generations, and that our proposed distribution didn’t sufficiently reflect the priority structure in the Will.

Public Trust has said we can submit another wind-up proposal, but they won’t give us any indication of what type of split, or structure they would actually consider acceptable, they did say even if the secondary beneficiaries wanted to split 50/50 they may not approve that either. It is very difficult to get any clear answers from them.

I’ve had an initial conversation with a trust lawyer who thought an early distribution was worth exploring, but the cost of getting a full opinion and engaging them will quickly run into several thousand dollars, so I’m trying to understand whether this is realistically worth pursuing first.

Any tips from anyone who has gone through this before? Any lawyers here who can help with some ideas on what they could be looking for in a proposal?

Kia ora,

I am a salaried employee, it’s possible I will need to be on call over Christmas but I’m wanting to prepare for what that may look like. Last year I was on call but supposedly that job was “generous” because I was able to charge for any rostered hours regardless of whether the work went ahead or not whereas usually we would have to top up with annual leave when we are not called out. I’m a bit worried since this next piece of work I’m likely to cover is very strict on only charging hours that are actually worked, not just rostered.

I’ve been browsing a few threads here and it looks like employees should not be using annual leave if on call since we can’t say no? Am I able to just say I won’t be available for the work since it’s during the shut down? I don’t want to use my annual leave waiting around for work that may not even go ahead, that sounds like a waste of my leave. It may also mean being on a call out from 2pm to 4pm (total 2 hours) and having to top up the remaining 6 hours of the work day with leave.

I’ve read through my contract, there’s nothing that discusses the above. The conversation over Christmas shutdown hasn’t happened yet but I want to walk into the discussion prepared to negotiate a fair situation for myself, because as it is, this would not be fair.

Edited: am I required to be able to work over the shut down or can I simply decline? It may be a slight issue as not many of us have security clearance for this base (if that context is necessary)

Thanks in advance

Has anyone in NZ successfully negotiated down a large legal bill?

I have an ongoing Family Court matter, and my legal fees are now well into six figures—far more than I expected or can afford.

I have genuine concerns about duplication, administration and interest charges, delays in acting on instructions, missed opportunities, and fees that appear disproportionate to the work performed and progress achieved.

Has anyone negotiated a reduction or partial write-off? How did you approach it?

Have recently moved out of a flat. We lived in this flat for 2 years 5 months. There were 3 oil stains left on the driveway. We understand that we would have to have this cleaned. We paid for a professional concrete cleaner to come and attempt to remove the stains ($450) The stains were significantly reduced but were not fully removed. The landlord has now requested to have his driveway restored, using insurance. The excess is $2500 (our full bond) which we are expected to pay for. Do we have the right to fight this and not have to pay for the driveway to be restored?

The oil stains were never brought up in any of our routine flat inspections. Understandably we knew we would have to have it cleaned. Restoration of the driveway seems unreasonable. Home was built in 2020

My siblings and I are sole beneficiaries of a very simple estate. Unfortunately the Public Trust were appointed as the trustee. Despite being informed the only asset was money in a bank account, they sent a first estimate of $15K to administer the estate. Alarmed by the responses made to my post at r/newzealand last week, I advised them the beneficiaries wished them to renounce their executorship. They refused, but revised their estimate for fixed fees to ~$6K. This excludes some work, which is billed at $350/hr.

I've now read all the posts over 10 years lambasting the performance of Public Trust and am greatly concerned. If they renounce, I could apply for letters of administration with will attached and administer the estate for under $1K, thus preserving more of the estate for the beneficiaries. As a trustee, it has a fiduciary responsibility to the beneficiaries. But this conflicts with the organisational drive to make money.

Does anyone have any suggestions re legal strategies that might encourage the Public Trust to reconsider renouncing their executorship of this estate? Turns out all the beneficiaries being in agreement does not have any legal weight. And from multiple reports, complaints to the FSCL or Ombudsman are ineffectual.

Or has anyone succeeded in forcing Public Trust to renounce and on that basis can you offer any advice?

Good afternoon

A pair of headphones was purchased from a NZ company, they have developed a fault during the warranty period. The company CEO has been emailed about the issue (on the 17/07/26), he acknowledged that we are having the issue and said he would help, but has then never replied again. Complete radio silence.

Multiple emails have been sent to him trying to get a reply. Multiple emails have been sent to the company help request email. I have personally messaged them to their Facebook account. Absolutely no reply from anything.

I sent an email last week asking them to reply or I would be forced to take legal action (Disputes Tribunal) moving forward. Again, nothing from them.

Is the Disputes Tribunal the next step? I've never encountered a business (especially a local and apparently well respected one) just fail to reply so I'm a bit stumped. I believe we have waited a more than reasonable amount of time for a reply.

Hi how much do these normally cost to do?

Auckland based

Thanks

Hi guys, I wanted to double check for my friend regarding the trial period issues. He signed the employment agreement before day 1 but the employer didn’t sign the contract until 1 week later after employment. Is trial period still valid? thank you !

Found an awesome place few months ago that seemed to be very peaceful and private, with no I other house within 20-30 metres, which was really important to me due to having PTSD, ADHD and some other stuff going on. It was a bit more than I really could afford on Supported Living Payment, but having that peace of mind, and lots of nature around seemed worth it.

My place is one third of a building that used to be a business, with landlords living next door. On either end of the building, there are two double storey garage doors (right next to my bedroom and living rooms), then on the other side of that there were some random rooms/offices. This is semi-rural by the way. I was told when first viewing the place that they were going to be selling their place in a few months time, and then when I picked up the keys, was told they were also packing up their offsite business and moving things in to the rest of the building, so might be a bit of coming and going for a few weeks.

This seemed fine, but now that that's done, it's now turned into basically daily use of the rest of the bulding without any respect to my peace and privacy. The garage doors go up and down multiple times throughout the day, which cause glasses to rattle in the kitchen, there is obviously no proper soundproofing as I can hear nails being dropped on the floor in the mezzanine, conversations clear as day, tools rattling around. I mentioned a few times about the garage doors, but was told that no one else has ever been bothered by them! I would go to relax in the lounge, but then all of a sudden garage door goes up and furniture starts moving around, or the vintage car gets revved up and goes in and out, stuff like that. Would be people coming and going past my living room all the time, and their visitors would just park right in front of my ranch sliders.

I had to move everything out of the lounge and use the dining room as living area - also because there was no heater in lounge and no insulation so it was freezing (oh yeah, no healthy homes compliance included in tenancy agreement). Today i'm in my bedroom because I just needed to lie down for a bit, but of course, the garage door at the rear goes up, then there's been power tools and banging for the past 2 hours, just a couple of metres away from my bed. My cat is freaked out, and I would never have brought him here if I knew this was going to happen. I've had to cancel home help services, my side hustle that I was turning into a business to get off a benefit fully, I don't have any visitors because can't relax, and I go for a drive if I need to make any phone calls, because if I can hear them on the phone, surely they can hear me and I would like some privacy.

I was told in passing about a month ago that there might be a bit of noise as the have to get the place ready as they might have to move in when they sell their place. I have no idea if that means the whole building, or just the other side, but anyway that's really uncomfortable for me as lose having anywhere private to relax outside or inside.

It seems to be unclear what the rules are around quiet enjoyment and multi dwellings - I know the landlord is allowed to come on to my property whenever, but are they allowed to use the rest of the building and disregard my peace and privacy because they own it?

Because I rent number 44b xxx street, and if you look on a map, 44b is the whole buidling and land. My tenancy agreement says 44b, but there is no mention of the building being split use, if that makes sense.

I know I can issue a 14 day notice, but since everything i've brought up with them before is always brushed off, what's the point? I feel like they are taking advantage of me as a vulnerable adult and are just about the money coming in rather than respecting that i've rented a home. Rentals are few and far between, i've already started looking but i'm really pissed off to be honest that I can't just enjoy my home.

Sorry this may be a little unclear but would love to hear any advice

I have a permanent injury from a hospital reading my xrays incorrectly. Its left me with two permanently bent fingers. I have obtained all my medical records for it, contacted my GP and ACC. I was asking for compensation due to it being an ongoing and pain causing injury caused by negligence from the hospital and ACC keep avoiding it and trying to only compensate me for my days off from work during the time of the initial injury.

TLDR: Downstairs neighbour is repeatedly and purposely disturbing my sleep despite me solving the problem that angered her in the first place.

I live in the upstairs unit of a house, my bedroom and part of my living room directly above the downstairs unit. I've been dealing with an ongoing noise issue with her since 3 August.

The first incident happened when her radio woke me up three times over the course of the night because it was so loud. The following morning I knocked on her door to let her know it had woken me multiple times overnight, and only then did she tell me it was because she could hear myself and my partner being intimate. (Why she had it on all night is unclear to me as he left at 10:30 that night). She said this has bothered her for a long time. She also told me she had informed our property manager that I was part of the reason she's not renewing her tenancy agreement, which was humiliating. I apologised multiple times for the disturbance because I didn't know that she could hear (I'd like to think we're a pretty thoughtful couple) but asked her why she never said anything, to which she said it was an awkward conversation. I sympathise with this but she could've left an anonymous note in the letterbox or something. Right after this conversation with her I texted my partner that we should avoid my place since it bothered my neighbour to the point that she turned the radio up so loudly all night. He hasn't been to my place since. Problem fixed, right?

The next night she did the same thing. So I knocked on her door again and she was livid. I told her that no one was here (which was true) and she was so angry she was physically shaking. She called me a liar and said some really nasty and nonsensical stuff, including that a previously-discussed crack in my wall was made by my bed hitting it "because of all the screwing". She shut the door in my face mid-sentence.

So despite going out of my way to change my lifestyle to address that original problem, the situation hasn't improved. She keeps the radio on on an inconsistent basis, sometimes improving before worsening again, at least 3–4 times per week. Sometimes it's during the day as well (which I'm willing to put up with even though she's doing it to punish me, I agree that it's reasonable to use the radio during the day). I can't identify a trigger, so it feels random which makes it worse as it causes me a lot of anxiety not knowing when it will happen next. A week or so ago she also banged something like a broomstick against the wall or ceiling for a few minutes around 1 am, which stopped only once I went outside and knocked on her door. She has also taken to slamming her doors hard enough that it shakes my whole bedroom.

Each time I've tried to have a conversation about it with her (I think 3 times by now but I've given up) she's refused to turn the radio down or discuss it at all, and on the most recent occasion when I respectfully said that her radio woke me up four times that night she she started yelling at me saying "well you fucked four times last night", again insulted me and called me a liar and kept yelling after closing her door on me again. She said she heard the floors and bed squeaking and something about furniture moving and me moaning, which is simply not truee. The floors have gotten a bit squeakier over time which maybe that's the squeaking she's hearing, but my bed doesn't make any noise and I can guarantee she hasn't heard any moaning because no one has been here.

She refuses to acknowledge that the original issue was addressed at all and she has made it abundantly clear that she's not willing to have an adult conversation about it. I have tried so hard to be patient and give her the benefit of the doubt, but there is literally nothing more for me to do. I've tried to solve this myself in all the ways I can think of. I don't think my partner and I should have to get a hotel room any time we want to be intimate in the first place, but that's a compromise we were willing to make if that's what it took for me to be able to sleep at night. I don't know what else to do. I'm at my wit's end. It's affecting my mood and work performance and I have a huge paper due soon too.

I emailed my PMs about it but they're taking a very long time to respond. Given that she supposedly told them over a month ago that I've apparently been such an issue, shouldn't they have had a conversation with me about it at least? I've heard nothing about it from them. Are they responsible for helping fix this at all? I've asked them to either try to explain to her that my partner hasn't been here or act as a third party to help mediate a calm discussion with her, because if there's something else I'm doing that's bothering her that's a reasonable thing for me to change then I am absolutely willing to change if that's what'll allow me to get some sleep.

I guess my questions are: Are my PMs supposed to help fix this situation? Is it worth calling a noise control complaint again if it gets louder? I'd prefer to avoid Disputes or whatever because it costs money that I don't have and it's stressful and takes a long time. All I want is to get her to stop. I don't care about compensation or her moving. I don't want her to be fined because she's disabled and on a fixed income. I don't want her to have any more reasons or opportunities to harass me. All I want is sleep. Please help

Hi

I work in accounts and i am thinking of leaving. My work has been making changes with telling me in advance and i find them when i try and do something previously part of my role.

I dont have a job description and i get the feeling my work wants me gone so i am scared to ask for one.

Thanks in advance

Hey everyone.

Key Details:

• My partner and I had a fixed-term tenancy agreement with our landlord.
• The conditions of the tenancy was under the provisions of the Residential Tenancy Act 1986 and its amendments.
• Landlord lived elsewhere
• We paid a $1,600 bond, which at the time was not lodged by Tenancy Services, and we were not provided with a bond number.
• We were provided with a bond receipt that was signed and dated by the landlord.
  

So about a week ago (on the 22nd of August) my partner and I had our final inspection of our apartment unit that we rented for a year, and our landlord informed us that he will be deducting a professional cleaning fee from our bond, as we did not leave it in a "tidy state." While we both disagreed, we were fine with it and did not want to make an unnecessary issue out of it, and just wanted the reminder of our bond money back.

However, today I emailed our landlord asking for an update about our bond money as we had not received an update about it since this final viewing. Essentially, he responded saying that because we did not get professional cleaning before the final inspection that this prevented another tenant that he wanted to have move in a day or two after our final date (21st of August).

He then explained that because of this there will be an additional $400 deduction from our bond, due to him having a loss of rent's week.

My main question is that are landlords allowed to do this? I understand the professional cleaning deduction, but he provided zero contact whatsoever (email, text or a call) of a date that he wanted to arrange the final inspection, and he only texted me a day after our tenancy agreement had already ended about arranging a final inspection.

Does the landlord in this case have a legal right to deduct $400 from our bond? My understanding was that tenants are not legally required to pay for professional cleaning, unless the landlord requires after final inspection. So of course we did not want to have to unnecessarily pay for professional cleaning, if we did not need it.

Additionally, since moving into a new place, we were provided with a bond payment from the Tenancy services (from a new tenancy agreement, not the landlord in question), which we've now realized that our landlord never provided us with.

We also contacted Tenancy Services and they informed us that they do not have a record of the bond.

Are there any potential implications of this for the landlord? And could it be worth it disputing these deductions? Thank you :)

So, our neighbours tree fell over in strong winds the other week, onto our property, hitting our garage. Insurance on both sides has been contacted.

My understanding is that it's the neighbours responsibility to pay for any damage caused because it was their tree. Is this correct??

They want us to split the cost of the fence replacement, which I don't think is right.

Hi, Guys,

We are just wondering if anyone has any advice or thinking on a property dispute matter that has ended up with the Disputes Tribunal.

We sold a house after disclosing that there had previously been a room leak and that new flooring and a room upgrade had subsequently been undertaken by tradespeople.

The purchasers later discovered concealed historic water damage and say our disclosure amounted to a misrepresentation. Their case seems to be based fully on our knowledge of historic damage.

We genuinely weren't aware that any damage remained and had lived in the house for several years after the work without further problems.

Has anyone encountered something similar in the Disputes Tribunal, particularly around how ordinary descriptions such as ‘upgraded’ are interpreted?

Hi Reddit 👋

I'm currently in the midst of an ACC review with a review date in a few months & have found an advocate service to help me but I am just wondering if ACC engaging a solicitor to represent them in the review is normal?

Should I be worried? Or is this a somewhat positive sign that they have realised they are in the wrong?

Any knowledge is welcome and appreciated!

Edit/additional info:

The solicitor they have appointed works for a well known "public interest litigation" firm.

The best way I can explain what my review is about is using Engineers as an example.

A structural engineer and an electrical engineer are both engineers and are required to be registered to a governing body in their respective field to be able to work in that area in NZ. However, an electrical engineer shouldn't be signing off on the structural integrity of a building as that is not their area of knowledge.

Who determines whether something needs consent?

This may be better suited to the Property sub but I’m wanting the legal view specially.

A while back I asked about selling a house with unconsented bathrooms (the showers had been re-tiled).

That lead to someone in the Property sub linking me this decision - https://www.building.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/resolving-problems/determinations/2024/2024-054.pdf

It found (if I’ve interpreted this correctly) that re-waterproofing and tiling does not need consent.

I sent it to my lawyer who advised I still had to disclose as in my case, the shower floor was tiled - it’s onto concrete (in this decision it was an acrylic base). But the above case wasn’t just about the floor - I understand it to include the wall as well?

I tried to ask MBIE but the general help desk emailed back a vague statement that they don’t interpret legislation - I can add the wording if it would help.

Anyway, I’m not sure how to proceed - how do I find out/get clarification as to whether I did actually need consent?

- Lawyer doesn’t see it as worth looking at
- purchasers have declined to proceed because of non consent
- unsure how to find out what I want to know from MBIE
- does Auckland Council needing consent override this anyway? Email to them has also gone unanswered but I didn’t really think they’d reply.

I know it’s generally accepted that tiled showers need consent - so, does this decision mean anything or have any consequence?

Live overseas in a bad time zone for calling people so I’m trying to do this via email which doesn’t help.

My family helped me design a solution of a set of devices (including an inverter, a █.█kWh battery and a solar panel to charge it in about █h) for solarising home that can automatically switch between mains and solar-charged battery to minimize the power consumption of all pluggable (I'm not a electrician so I won't rewire) appliances. It has been successfully tested in █hina and if shipped to NZ (which I've confirmed feasible) the total cost will be about █kNZD. BUT my family in █hina is currently extremely worried that if I sell and install these devices, it could trigger frivolous litigations in five-eye countries. In particular, the notorious cases they frequently cite during discussions such as "Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald%27s_Restaurants) (according to them) mark the five-eye countries' degeneration from "governed-by-law society" to "populist society" and from then on advances and progresses are no longer possible.

• If any customer manages to hurt himself with my product (e.g. by touching live wire and neutral wire at the same time, or by pouring water on each wire and then touching both puddles of water at the same time) wouldn't I be just as unlucky as MC? Do I need to list all possible "prohibited behaviors" in the agreement or does this approach even work? Are there any successful or unsuccessful cases?
• One of the lawyer's excuses was that MC's competitors used lower temperatures, but what law states that you must use the same temperature as your competitors? In my opinion, the mentioning about competitors' temperature is clearly just a red herring. In five-eye countries, does the price of legal services (lawyer's eloquence) affect the outcome of a case? If someone touches live wire and neutral wire at the same time and then maliciously accuses me, will the court dismiss the case directly or allow the lawyers to argue in court?
• Ultimately, the jury found MC liable for the damages. So are the judgements in five-eye countries based on the law or the jury's opinion? Does that mean I'm screwed if more than half of the population is █inophobic?