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The folks who live on the hill
Here are a few photos of the house and land we recently bought in NZ. We’d only seen it on the Internet and through some photos Taffy and Welshgirl had taken when they visited the property, so we took a tremendous gamble in putting an offer in. It's not something I'd particularly recommend, especially with an older house. The land is 3.5 acres and, as we aren’t residents or citizens of NZ, we weren’t allowed to purchase land of more than 2000 sq. metres. Because of this, the transaction went through under Taffy’s name, as he will be buying part of the land anyway when it’s rezoned for splitting in a few months’ time.
For those interested, house buying is much simpler in NZ (if all goes according to plan). Due to the sale of our house in Spain we were in a position to buy mortgage-free. We put in an offer, which must be in writing, and then came the wrangling over the price until both sides agreed on the final amount. As there was already an offer on the property (subject to sale of another property), we lost a week because the other prospective buyers had to be given a chance to get their act together (this is to avoid gazumping) and either back out or firm up their commitment by going ahead with the sale. Usually the other buyer gets up to 5 working days to make up his/her mind and, in this case, our competitors took it to the 11th hour before finally standing down, which was rather nerve-wracking. Had they not backed out within the stated time, they would then have had to proceed with buying the house. When putting in an offer, it’s always advisable to cover your back with a few let-out clauses in case you change your mind and decide not to go forward with the deal for some reason. This can be that the offer is subject to the LIM or builder’s report and there is something called the ‘due diligence’ clause, which is good to slip in. An offer with these clauses attached is called ‘going conditional’.
Once the deal was done, the lawyer did the title search e.g. checking on easements including rights of way, drainage and sewerage, electricity, telephone, gas, etc. He/she would also check what needs to be removed from the title before you settle, such as the seller’s mortgage. Meanwhile Taffy went along to the Council Offices to research the LIM (Land Information Memorandum). A LIM provides information the council holds about the property. It will show whether existing works have received council consent and whether the council requires any remedial work. It might, for example, show a fire burner has been installed without the appropriate certification. This could invalidate insurance on the property (e.g. if the burner caused fire damage). A LIM report will also give you information about any site characteristics (such as contamination, whether it’s liable to flooding, etc) and zoning details.
You can get another party to do the LIM for you at a cost, but going there and doing it for yourself can save a lot of money (sometimes it’s even for free). It just involves reading through the file on the house to ensure that everything is as it should be. When all appeared to be in order with that, a builder’s report was obtained, which gave the house a clean bill of health. Now that all the clauses in the offer had been satisfied, it was time to go ‘unconditional’, after which we could no longer back out of the deal and a 10% deposit was paid. Following this, there is a 3-week waiting period, possibly to allow all the relevant paperwork to be prepared. At the beginning of the sale process, we were given the date for completion and, when this day arrived, the balance of our payment was handed over and the keys were ours. It all went through very smoothly and everyone seemed to know their part in it. I wouldn’t say that it always goes as smoothly, but generally I think it does.
Seeing as Taffy was the one who was handling matters from the NZ end, I’m sure he’ll add any omissions I’ve made or correct any details I’ve got wrong.
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, as there’s a collection of weird and wonderful antique items in there that need urgent attention. They may be functioning well, it’s just that they look like they didn’t ought to be. 
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