Most people who ring us are not in trouble. They have bought a house, or a parent has died, or the lease is up.
Ordinary work, explained in ordinary words. Three partners and a registered legal executive, on the same street since 1984.
We are not the right firm for a listed company or a criminal charge. We will say so and give you a name rather than take the work.
01Property & conveyancing
— We read the agreement before you are bound by it.
- Buying
- The agreement, the title, the LIM, the flats plan, the body corporate papers. Conditions, dates, mortgage, settlement.
- Selling
- Checking what the agent drafted, discharging the mortgage, and accounting to you the day the money lands.
- Cross-lease & unit title
- Common on the peninsula and the source of most surprises. We read the flats plan against what is actually built.
- Character overlays
- Much of Devonport sits in a Special Character Areas overlay. We tell you what that means before you commit.
- Refinancing
- Moving a loan between banks, adding or removing a borrower, and the certificates your lender needs.
- KiwiSaver withdrawal
- The first-home application and declaration. Start it earlier than you think you need to.
02Wills & estates
— The documents that decide things when you cannot.
- Wills
- Straightforward, or built to handle a blended family, a trust, or a business share. The original stays in the strongroom.
- Enduring powers of attorney
- Two documents: property, and personal care. The law requires independent advice, so we see you alone for part of it.
- Probate & administration
- The High Court application, then the actual work — closing accounts, transferring the house, distributing what is left.
- Small estates
- Below the probate threshold the job is smaller and the fee should be too. We tell you which one you are in at the first meeting.
- Residential care
- Asset testing, what gifting history gets looked at, and how a trust is treated. There is rarely a clever way around it.
- Retirement villages
- Occupation Right Agreements run to a hundred pages. We go through the deferred management fee with you and your family.
03Family trusts
— Sometimes the honest answer is to wind it up.
- Reviews
- The Trusts Act 2019 raised what is expected of trustees. Many trusts have not been looked at since the 1990s.
- Setting one up
- Deed, trustee decisions, memorandum of wishes. We will talk you out of it if the reason does not hold up.
- Trustee duties
- Annual resolutions, keeping the core documents, and what a beneficiary is entitled to ask for.
- Winding up
- Resettling assets to the people who should hold them, and the tax questions that come with it.
04Family & relationship property
— Most of it settles by agreement. You should know early if yours will not.
- Contracting out
- Often called a prenup. Usually done when one person brings more into a house purchase. Each side needs their own lawyer.
- Separation
- What the Property (Relationships) Act treats as relationship property and what it does not. The house, KiwiSaver, debt.
- Care of children
- Parenting arrangements by agreement where possible, Family Court where it is not.
- Dissolution
- Procedural and inexpensive, and a separate matter from dividing property. People are often surprised by that.
05Business & commercial
— Write down what was agreed while everyone still agrees.
- Buying or selling
- Agreements, due diligence, restraint of trade, and the lease transfer that usually holds everything up.
- Leases
- Read before you sign. Rent reviews, make-good at the end, personal guarantees, and selling partway through a term.
- Companies
- Incorporation, constitutions, and a shareholders agreement that says what happens when one of you wants out.
- Commercial property
- Buying premises, seismic rating, resource consents, and what the building is actually allowed to be used for.
Five steps. The point is that you know which one you are in.
You get in touch
One sentence on what it is about, and whether there is a date on it.
We check we can act
A conflict check, and the identity verification every NZ practice is required to run.
Engagement letter
In writing before the work starts: what we are doing, who is doing it, and what it costs.
The work
One person holds your file, and you can reach that person.
Settlement or signing
Someone rings you on the day. Originals go to the strongroom; you get copies.
Every line states its basis.
| Matter | Basis | Excl. GST |
|---|---|---|
| Residential sale | Fixed | $1,450 |
| Residential purchase | Fixed | $1,650 |
| Will | Fixed | $480 |
| Mirror wills, a couple | Fixed | $780 |
| Enduring powers of attorney, a couple | Fixed | $980 |
The first half hour is not charged. Long enough to work out whether you need a lawyer, whether you need this one, and roughly what it costs.
Disbursements at cost, shown separately — LINZ registration and title searches, filing fees, identity verification, couriers.
Come andsee someone.
Signing a will or an enduring power of attorney takes about forty minutes. A first conveyancing meeting takes about half an hour. We will tell you which documents to bring when we confirm the time.
Above the chemist, between the ferry terminal and the library. Stairs from the street; a ground-floor room is available if stairs are difficult — say so when you book.
Two hours free on Victoria Road and in the Marine Square car park behind the library. The 8.15 and 8.45 ferries both land in time for a 9am appointment.