10 November 2011

Maude & Miller Celebrates 21 years in Porirua City.

Roger Miller & Dianne Lester check out the birthday cake at a function to celebrate the Firms 21 st birthday.  

1 November 2011

Roger Miller and Dianne Lester announced to all staff this morning that Daniel Beker has been appointed as a Senior Associate to the Firm as from today the 1st of November 2011.

22 August 2011

Gift Duty To Be Abolished

Gift duty is to be abolished from 1 October 2011. It will no longer be a requirement to undertake a gifting programme at the limited rate of $27,000.00 per person per year in respect of the assets transferred to a Trust.

Click here to read the full article

Trustee Duties

The role of Trustees is the focus of the fourth issues paper in the Law Commission’s project reviewing the law of Trusts in New Zealand. The Commission proposes to examine the following issues relating to Trustee duties:

1. What are Trustee’s duties?
2. Should the duties be set out in Trust legislation?
3. Which of the duties can be excluded by a trust deed and which duties should remain unable to be excluded?

Click here to read the full article

Directors Beware - You must think for yourselves

It is now clear that good intentions alone will not satisfy the Court that you are meeting your obligations as a director. A director must be financially literate and understand the financial status of the company. The cases discussed below stress the need for directors to think independently. A director cannot just read the accounts and expect to have a complete understanding of the picture which the accounts are intended to convey based on third party advice; they should process the data and ask questions for themselves until they are satisfied that they fully understand the company’s financial status.

Click here to read the full article

20 June 2011

Unit Titles Act 2010 – a new regime

The Unit Titles Act 2010 which came into force on 20 June 2011, signals a new attitude towards the management and administration of unit title developments.

Over the years since the original legislation in this area in 1972, there has been a significant growth in the number and complexity of unit title developments, and the proportion of the population affected by them either as residents, commercial occupiers, managers or financiers, not to mention a corresponding growth in the problems which have arisen out of that complexity.

The law has now, however, undergone a significant review so as to provide owners with “a legal framework for the ownership and management of land and associated buildings and facilities on a socially and economically sustainable basis by communities of individual owners….”

The new legislation brings in a raft of changes across almost all areas of unit title developments including:

• new terminology,
• new forms of title structures,
• layered developments,
• new rules around governance and meetings,
• a new financial management regime with compulsory funding requirements,
• compulsory maintenance plans,
• a review of Body Corporate rules,
• new disclosure regime for sale of unit title developments,
• ew dispute resolution and relief provisions.

The changes will affect all unit owners or their agents, as well as those having an interest in a unit title development. The changes brought about by the new Act are significant and in some cases compulsory, and we would therefore urge all our clients who fall into any of the categories above to contact us for advice as to how the new Act might impact on you.

20 August 2010.

Maude & Miller have been appointed honorary solicitors to ICMNZ.

• Roger Miller has accepted an appointment to chair the Internal Management Board for Cultural and Leisure Facilities with the Porirua City Council.

14 April 2010.

Commerce Commission Information.

• For information on the Commerce Commission, please click here.

16 March 2010.

Unit Titles Bill information.

• For information on the Unit Titles Bill, please click here.

24 February 2010.

Securities Commission Information.

• For information on the Securities Commission, please click here.