News & Insights

Kia tika te puri i tō kurī | Control your dog Dog control offences and the defence of total absence of fault Contrary to what The Baha Men said more than 20 years ago, the Dog Control Act 1996 (Act) does not ask ‘who let the dogs out’.  Rather, it expects the owner to know.…

During the last 20 years, New Zealand has lost approximately 35,000 hectares of highly productive land to urban or rural residential development.  Highly productive land is crucial not only to our primary industries and exports, but also to the economic viability of rural communities, whether they be dairy farms in Gore, or kumara farms in…

Jodi Libbey – Senior Associate Jodi Libbey is a fully qualified solicitor in Canada and New Zealand, who brought an impressive breadth of expertise to Rice Speir when she joined our team in June 2022.  Jodi’s specialist areas are civil litigation, regulatory compliance and enforcement, and employment and professional disciplinary matters. She has worked as…

Section 130 of the Building Act – A reminder of the important checks and balances that only the Court can review and approve Napier City Council and Rice Speir create new law around Chief Executive Warrants to avoid immediate Danger. In a recent regulatory decision that creates welcome new law under the Building Act, the…

Insurance – Court of Appeal overturns decision on effect of weathertight exclusion clause in ‘mixed’ claim. In the latest decision in a long running dispute, the Court of Appeal* has allowed Napier City Council’s appeal against the decision of its insurer at the time to decline cover for the entirety of a $12,355,000 settlement on…

The High Court has allowed more time for parties involved with defective buildings to be joined into claims – even after the expiry of the 10 year limit. It is a helpful decision for councils, which often find themselves to be the “last party standing” in defective building claims. Background The BNZ building in Wellington…

In June 2021 the High Court released a significant judgement for councils and insurers in relation to an $18 million building defect claim. In Napier City Council v Local Government Mutual Funds Trustee Limited (RiskPool)* the court found that a weather tightness exclusion barred an entire building defect claim – even though many of the…

Charlotta Harpur is a civil litigation and insurance law specialist with 20 years’ experience. Originally from Sweden, and having qualified in the UK, she came to Aotearoa in 2009 with her husband and two sons. She quickly gained a passion for working with local authorities, who in turn work for their communities. Charlotta has a…

In July 2020 the High Court delivered a fresh perspective on an age old question in building defect cases: does an application to the WHRS ‘stop the clock’ for limitation purposes in relation to all building defects, even those unknown about at the time? The answer, at least for now, is no. The Court has…

We’ve made it!  In one piece.  Kind of.  After almost five weeks of COVID-19 Level 4, a never before seen pandemic inflicting untold harm and suffering on to our health, society and economy, New Zealand has just taken the significant step of moving back to COVID-19 Level 3. New Zealand, as a team, has been…