jennifer45

Please, please do your homework.
If you don't know what's happened over the last 2 decades in the building industry then use the services of those who do.
Estate agents here make a lot of money and are only interested in selling or their clients 'wishes'!
Some have the misinterpretation down to an art form and will swear blind black was white in order to prove their case.
~We were, fortunate and of the two previous sale negotiations we entered into we made them a condition of a non negative building inspectors report. Thank God /whoever!
The last one had a failed stucco wall/ 60% damp reading . it had been covered up and repainted. There was no CCC Code of Compliance Certificate and had a 60 ft drop beyond a deck wall which was only 450cm high and had a notice to fix from the council. None of this was told to us by the agent, who was fully aware of the defects! He even set us up with a solicitor ( from the yellow pages) who turned out to be a friend and also represented his client!! Nice one. Even she told us to walk and leave it alone!!
When we found out the extent of the problem and how he had misled us, a 3 week nasty trade of emails from him ensued all through Xmas!
I could have had his licence! I could have had him fined $25000 but I'd seen photos of his family- it was Xmas -They weren't to blame for having a total Wassack as a DAD- so I told him to move on.
His client in an attempt to prove the house is fine (it was in 1992) has asked for a Council Building inspection. They have been to the house 3 times and still need a further inspection as there are so many issues!
Guess what!
The agent has put it back on the market!
I was so upset- knowing that some 'foreigner' with no knowledge of the importance of a CCC will end up buying an enormous problem for NZ$600,000.
Do you home work.
Go to the local council- check the files- find out all you can and even then get a building inspection report and make the results a condition of the sale.
It's a dog eat immigrant world out there -Be Careful!

On a happy ending - we've bought our dream house from a Private vendor!
Not a lying, conniving, devious estate agent in sight!
They're not all like that- We know one who we've invited to our house warming.
Yes there is a large BBQ and a Large Spit!

AngelaandJim

Hi

Great post thank you for the info and taking the time to warn others

When we were over we were looking at houses one was brand new it was lovely but most of the back garden had been subject to a land slide the people we were staying with had told us about this house but we did not realise it was the exact house till we went to see it then it dawned on me when the agent said some of the garden goes down into the bush I had a bloody good laugh telling her the story of the house she was shocked how I knew when I had only been in the area a few days

Hope your new house is all you dreamed of and you have many happy years in it

Wooly_Cow

Great advice. Regarding stucco walls and 'leaky houses' there are several good sites on the web which describe what to look for and have photos. Here's one

http://www.consumerbuild.org.nz/publ...y-look-for.php

This doesn't mean that all stucco walls have problems but once you get an idea of what to look out for, you can ask for a detailed report for a building inspector...not the agent.

Armed with this report we looked at a house that clearly had been repainted and had obvious evidence of damp ingress but even a direct question to the agent 'Does this house now or did this house ever suffer from damp ingress?' got the answer 'Oh no this is a perfect house' - Yeah right!

MnB

Great post & sound advice, thanks
Glad you've found your dream house ....wishing you many happy years there

ewanainsworth

Why did you not report these people to the REINZ/REAA.
They are now free to go and rip off the next mug who is unprepared for this kind of rogue agent.
From what I have read, the first guy is pretty much guilty of every rule in the book, and the second story reeks of misrepresentation and non disclosure to me.
Thankfully the new laws that came out in November last year will get rid of a lot of rogue agents as the fines are now way higher than they were, and these people will not want to be caught out.
The REINZ reckon that 20% of agents will not continue in real estate with the new laws. Thats 1 agent in 5 that wont carry on because their practices wont stand up to the new laws and it will cost them a fortune.
I have not long started in real estate, I am not allowed by law to bad mouth other agents, but it is no wonder the law had to change with these kind of stories around, and believe me, unhappy vendors and buyers are only too willing to tell me of their other agent horror stories.
For me starting out, it leaves the door wide open for me to do a good, honest job for people. (yes were not all out to rip people off) and gain a good reputation.
I recommend that ALL buyers insist on an independent builders report (it can and always should be a condition of any offer made).
Also buyers should get a LIM report direct from the relevant council, NOT and I mean NOT from the vendor or real estate agent.
Also consult your lawyer at every stage (NOT a lawyer recommended by an agent).
Do everything you can to protect yourselves, you are after all about to spend a large fortune so do what you can.
Shit! Ive just realised I'm not allowed to give advice as Ive been licensed less than six months .....everything said above is for your info only and not intended as advice...lol. That should keep everything legal!
Sorry, just realised how long this is.

Browner_

The vast majority of housing in NZ is complete and utter crap and nowhere near the money that you will have to pay to get it.

It may look spacious and value compared to your English terraced house, but many of these places are out and out dumps .

Im now renting one of those modern looking houses which are plaster clad. Yes, plaster. Egg shell I call it, cos its about as fragile and damages so easily. These houses are not built to last and many are as leaky as hell. They look great when built but after 2 years look very tired and damp.

Im renting cos Im too damn scared to buy anything. Ive been here 8 years now and Im too wise to do it.

gags

For someone who wants to put all there hard earned cash and effort into the county by buying a nz home, this is very worrying news.

Please, someone else out there, is this all your experiences too?

Bo-Jangles

Gags, yes you do have to kiss a hell of a lot of frogs to find a decent house here. Best advice is to look at loads and you soon get an eye for what's right and not right, look for the signs, the damp smells, cover up jobs, do your homework on the areas and neighbourhoods. There's lots of info available about 'leaky house syndrome' (Google it!!) As Jennifer quite rightly states - get an independent survey done. It's not worth skimping on the cost of a full survey with moisture readings etc.

If you have any doubts walk away. My house is partly 'eggshell' chilly bin style and we touch wood have not had any trouble, but I will say it is still a concern and I don't think we should have bought it, because it may be difficult to sell on in the future. A house very near to us was recently re-clad with weatherboard to the tune of $150k because of leaky issues with the plaster.

george toni

I see hundreds of different houses every year in the course of installing heat pumps, im always under , in or on houses and can say that on the whole most have a degree of crap to them.

I even think new builds here are sub standard sure they pass codes here but then codes here are not always the same as UK standards.

They are still wood frames paper then 'chicken wire' and stucco' sure they have a bit of insulation in the very thin walls but thats it!

Value at over $250k! id say not!

I reckon the new build here are viewd as 'great' because they are being compared to NZ stock that for many years are crap if you compare a turd with a bit of mud then the mud looks good!

Look look and look again check for borer (woodworm) insulation,heating source for house not just lounge and get a builder to have a look.

good luck

george

Browner_

It should be worrying news. Be very, very , very wary.

I really really dont want to buy anything which isnt brick-clad, but these sort of houses in Wellington are very few and far between.

The Eggshell stuff is unbuyable in my opinion, and some of the modern "weatherboard" stuff is decidedly dodgy too.

There are stories out there of immigrants who have ploughed their savings into a heap of crap which has had to be demolished soon after. Do the research.

I have bought 2 houses and even with what I thought was decent research, I regret buying both of them. Until you have lived here, its difficult to understand the crapness, the dampness, the lack of sound and heat insulation, and maintenance these places require.

Hokey-pokey

The majority of New Zealand's property is wooden, particularly in Wellington. That's because the town was destroyed twice by earthquakes in the 1850's. The third time they didn't build in brick .

Stormer999

The majority of new buids in the UK are well below the standards of 5/10 years ago. We now have an outer brick shell with the inside 'walls' being studded plaster board with heat/sound insulation sandwiched in. The floors and stairs are chipboard and MDF, the doors, windows outside facias even front doors are now honeycombed plastic. Soundproofing between rooms, floors and adjoining houses is terrible. So called detached houses are built inches apart and land allocation is minimal. Plumbing is plastic and due to the very 'compact' room sizes the central heating boilers are quite small.
Things have changed fron the double cavity wall days I'm afraid.

gags

There has to be more positivity about the homes over there. The home is the most important part of any move, in my opinion anyway especially with kids. Obviously we would do our research over there very very thoroughly, but they can't all be bad or why would anyone buy them. (Maybe. as you say, some people perhaps don't investigate enough, bowled over by space etc. I also appreciate the reason why they are all not built from brick. OH being a surveyor may pick up alot of faults, frustratingly for me but he will also seek advice and reports. Really need some good news here from some success stories. Sorry to be going on about it. I have taken note of everything said before and am very thankful for it all. Forwarned is forarmed etc. just need another side to it thats all.

Genesis

I live in a typical 'apparent leaky' home. I have lived in it 5 years. It is as dry as a bone in relation to water ingress. The only moisture in the house is from us breathing, washing, cooking et al. I have had the odd problem with it due to poor underfloor ventilation and some dirt backfilled against a wall that should not have been but you get these things sorted, with a bit of effort. The home even has a flat roof! The only time i have had a leaks were because of a blocked down pipe, a small crack in the wall and a rusted bit of guttering. The houses here built like mine will crack especially with the 'quakes we have. The trick is to maintain your house and look after it. I have upgraded the house as it was tired when I bought it in 2005 being almost 14 years old. Okay its not a brick terrace like in the Uk but it only cost the eqivalent of 160k pounds and its a 6 bedroom house with lots of features and a big pool on a large section in one of the nicest parts of town. What would that cost in a comparable part of the UK?? There are some pony builds out there just like there are in the UK. I do understand that the problem here is bigger though re naff housing. At the end of the day the only thing that will assure you have a goodun is time. I like to think that in the 5 years I have bben here and the previous 14 it has been standing prove that whilst its had the odd issue its not going to fall down the back gulley tomorrow. At the end of the day even all the building inspections in the world cannot guarantee what will happen to your home..only time will tell. That's not to say inspections are not valid they are, just ensure you get a good inspector.

Genesis

I have heard that many, many of the leaky homes are in Auckland (thats not to say they don't exist elsewhere) and I guess thats because thats where most homes are built . Apparently the really bad ones were built circa 2000 for a 3-4 year period when rules on preserving wood were relaxed and thus when water got into the untreated wood it caused much damage.

Many humans in NZ live in usable accomodation. Yes much of it lacks double glazing and central heating but both can be installed as we have done. Yes lots of it does look a bit 'shedesque' and there is not the same build longevity that you get from a c1900 UK terrace. However my mate live in a wooden villa that is about 140 years old and its still a very good home. Don't be put off by the doom mongers slighting ALL kiwi homes. Just do your homework, chose carefully and hopefully time will show you you have a good home.