With the holiday season upon us and looking forward to the New Year, this edition rounds out 2016 with our seasons greetings from the Partners and Staff at Brookfields.
Christmas Closedown Period
Please note our offices will be closed from 5pm Friday 23 December 2016, fully reopening on Wednesday 18 January 2017.
We are aware of a number of instances where interests in camping grounds and other areas have been sold with a “title” based on a licence to occupy a specified portion of land as shown on a plan secured by an encumbrance and a share in the land as a tenant in common with other owners, or similar arrangements.
In the recent decision of Re Spark New Zealand Trading Ltd (“Spark”) involving the sale of land under an agreement for sale and purchase (“the agreement”) where covenants were attached to the agreement, two judges of the Environment Court had to decide whether the agreement, together with the proposed transfer of a share in the land as tenant in common, constituted a sub-division of the land.
Franchising is serious business in New Zealand. If you go to any mall in New Zealand you will find a number of the outlets are operated by franchise tenants. In fact there are probably more than you think.
To some extent, leasing to a franchise tenant is no different to leasing to any other commercial tenant. However, there are issues which a landlord should be aware of and take into consideration when leasing premises to franchisee.
Who is the tenant?
Often franchisors negotiate the terms of the lease but the tenant will be the franchisee. Other times franchisors will negotiate and enter into the lease either themselves or via a special purpose company specially set up to hold the lease and then they will sublease or licence the premises to the franchisee.
A few months ago we looked at Minister Nick Smith's 2 June announcement that the proposed National Policy Statement (NPS) on Urban Development Capacity was available for public consultation.
On 31 October 2016, the Minister announced that the Government had signed off on that NPS, and that it would take effect from 1 December.
The councils experiencing the highest growth will be most affected. That means Auckland, Christchurch, Tauranga and Hamilton are in the frontline. Fast-growing cities like Nelson and Queenstown are also affected.
Parliament has passed the Building (Pools) Amendment Bill, which the government claims will strengthen pool safety compliance and reduce the accidental drowning of children
Splashing around in a swimming pool during the summer is a joy for many kiwi children, but the safety risks of having young children around swimming pools, particularly when unsupervised, are undeniable. In 1987, in a bid to reduce the number of accidental drownings of children, Parliament passed the Fencing of Swimming Pools Act, which required all swimming pools to be fenced. The introduction of this requirement has significantly reduced the number of accidental drownings, but in recent years the government has expressed concern that the requirements have not been enforced consistently across New Zealand, and that the enforcement tools available to local authorities for non-compliance were deficient.
We shine the spotlight briefly on three recent decisions of the Environment and High Courts concerning:
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