Frequently Asked Questions

All of New Zealand. We are physically based in three locations across Auckland and sometimes in Queenstown, but we can work entirely remotely.  This means you could live in Christchurch and be buying a property in Gisborne – no worries. 

Conveyancing is the legal process involved in transferring the ownership of property from a seller to a buyer. Usually, the process includes reviewing the sale & purchase agreement, attending to conditions included in the agreement, assisting with due diligence checks such as reviewing and reporting on the title and Land Information Memorandum, liaising with your bank, attending to the transfer of settlement funds, and generally ensuring all legal requirements are met.

As early as possible, and before you sign an agreement. This enables your lawyer to advise on what conditions and terms to include in your sale & purchase agreement, reviewing documentation ahead of an auction, preparing Kiwisaver applications and/or reviewing your conditional loan approval.

The Home Rangers are committed to being transparent about fees. View our fee schedule. Or you can contact us if you want us to guide you through the costs involved.

Disbursements are additional costs incurred during the conveyancing process, such as fees for property searches, title registration, mortgage registration or discharge, and other administrative expenses. Click here to view our fee schedule and what disbursements could be involved in your transaction. 

AML (Anti Money Laundering) checks are required by legislation to make sure that people and organisations aren't using their transactions to hide illegal money or finance criminal activities. This means that law firms, real estate agents and financial institutions must collect and hold verified proof of ID and address (and often source of funds) for all of their clients. Over the years, this process has become much simpler and can be completed online with a few clicks.

To be eligible to withdraw funds KiwiSaver funds, the general rules are that you need to:

• have been contributing to your KiwiSaver fund for at least three years,

• intend to live in the home you are purchasing, and

• it must be your first property purchase.

It’s important to remember that the withdrawal process may take 10-15 working days. Therefore, timing is very important if you intend to use your KiwiSaver.  This is one of the reasons it's important to get us involved sooner rather than later, so that we can account for this in the terms of the sale and purchase agreement (often, it needs to be addressed in the agreement).

Yes.  We are experienced in trust and company law . Note that more time is required when dealing with such entities and therefore our fees reflect this.  View our fee schedule, which notes trust and company involvement. 

Beyond mortgage repayments, standard costs include council rates, some cities have metered water rates, home and contents insurance premiums, general upkeep and maintenance, and utility bills.

A LIM (Land Information Memorandum) report is a local council report outlining information about a property, such as zoning, building and resource consents, special land features, flooding risks, the location of underground services, and more.  We always recommend that a purchaser obtains one prior to entering an agreement, or including such a clause in a conditional agreement.  We are pros at summarising these long documents and extracting the relevant information, so contact us if you need help obtaining and/or reviewing a LIM.

A pre-settlement inspection is an important step in the purchasing process.  It typically occurs a few days before the settlement date and you arrange this with the vendor’s real estate agent.  The goal of this inspection is to ensure that the property is in the condition you agreed upon and that any necessary repairs or conditions in the sale agreement have been met.  You should check that the hot water works, that chattels included in the chattels list are present, chattels such as the oven and stove top are working, the general state of the property.  It should be in the same condition as it was in when you signed the agreement. 

If you find anything amiss during your inspection, this needs to be raised with the seller’s lawyer prior to 5pm the day before settlement. So, let us know as soon as possible if you find anything astray.