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Changes to Residential Insurance From 1 May 2013 the majority of insurance companies operating In New Zealand have changed residential building insurance from ‘full replacement’ to ‘sum insured’. Under the ‘full replacement’ system the insurer would fully replace the destroyed asset with one of equivalent size and quality. The ‘sum insured’ on the other hand, is the maximum amount that your insurer will pay out in the event of a disaster. In other words it caps the insurer’s... Read More

Leaky Buildings � The Perfect Storm A “perfect storm” is an expression that describes an event where a combination of circumstances will aggravate an otherwise benign situation. Our perfect storm involved the use of materials prone to rotting, cultural changes which moved away from traditional building methods, poor building practices and lack of oversight and controls. This unfortunate combination has led to the very expensive mess which will be forever known... Read More

Ensure That What you Spend on a Property Really Adds Value Valuers are often asked whether spending money on improvements will add a commensurate amount of value to an individual property. Clients are often disappointed when told that relatively expensive capital items might add little to the overall value, while some minor expenditure can add a lot. It all becomes very confusing. In order to demystify this we have considered some representative scenarios. What Adds Value to... Read More

A short decade or so ago, if you wanted to buy or sell a residential house in New Zealand you had limited choices available if you wanted to ascertain the market value. There was always the option of seeking out your own information and analysing the data yourself. In reality, most people lack the necessary expertise to do this with any degree of accuracy. While everybody seem to have their opinions of market value, talk is cheap and mistakes can be very costly. The usual... Read More