Buying a Home in New Zealand
Graeme Chesters
Buying a Home in New Zealand is necessary reading for anyone planning to buy property in New Zealand. It contains a plethora of essential information and insider tips to guide you through the New Zealand property maze, and save you time, trouble and money. Irrespective of whether you’re buying a family, holiday or retirement home, or a property purely as an investment, this guide will help ensure a smooth, problem-free transaction. Whether you want an apartment in Auckland, a period house in Christchurch or a modern suburban home in Wellington, Buying a Home in New Zealand will help make your dreams come true. Don’t leave home without it!
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Other guides for New Zealand
Extracts from the book…
Shipping Your Belongings
The cost of removing the contents of an average three-bedroom property from Europe or North America to the Antipodes is usually from around GB£7,500 to £10,000 (US$15,000 to $20,000), depending on the country or region your moving from and the part of New Zealand you’re moving to (e.g. a house in the suburbs of Auckland or a remote retreat in the South Island).
Removal companies usually take care of the paperwork and ensure that the correct documents are provided and properly completed. Major international moving companies generally provide a wealth of information and can advise on a wide range of matters regarding an international relocation. It’s also wise to check the procedure for shipping your belongings to New Zealand with the relevant embassy or consulate in the country where you live.
It’s recommended to use a major shipping company with a good reputation. For international moves it’s best to use a company that’s a member of the International Federation of Furniture Removers (FIDI) or the Overseas Moving Network International (OMNI), with experience in New Zealand. Members of FIDI and OMNI usually subscribe to an advance payment scheme providing a guarantee: if a member company fails to fulfil its commitments to a client, the removal is completed at the agreed cost by another company or your money is refunded. Some removal companies have subsidiaries or affiliates in New Zealand, which may be more convenient if you encounter problems or need to make an insurance claim.
You should obtain at least three written quotations before choosing a company, as costs can vary considerably. Moving companies should send a representative to provide a detailed quotation. Most companies will pack your belongings and provide packing cases and special containers, although this is naturally more expensive than packing them yourself. Ask a company how fragile and valuable items are packed and whether the cost of packing cases, materials and insurance (see below) is included in a quotation. If you’re doing your own packing, most shipping companies will provide packing crates and boxes. Shipments are charged by volume, e.g. the cubic metre in Europe and the cubic foot in the US.
If you’re flexible about the delivery date, shipping companies will quote a lower fee based on a ‘part load’, where the cost is shared with other deliveries. This can result in savings of 50 per cent or more compared with an individual delivery. Whether you have an individual or shared delivery, obtain the maximum transit period in writing; otherwise you may need to wait months for delivery!
Be sure fully to insure your belongings during removal with a well established insurance company. Don’t insure with a shipping company that carries its own insurance, as its rates are usually high and it may fight every penny or cent of a claim. Insurance premiums are usually 1 to 2 per cent of the declared value of your goods, depending on the type of cover chosen. It’s prudent to make a photographic or video record of valuables for insurance purposes.
Most insurance policies provide cover for ‘all risks’ on a replacement value basis. Note, however, that china, glass and other breakables can usually be included in an all-risks policy only when they’re packed by the removal company and insurance usually covers total loss or loss of a particular crate only, rather than individual items (unless they were packed by the shipping company).
If there are any obvious breakages or damaged items, they must be noted and listed before you sign the delivery bill. If you need to make a claim, be sure to read the small print, as some companies require clients to make a claim within a few days, although seven is usual. Send a claim by registered post. Some insurance companies apply an ‘excess’ of around 1 per cent of the total shipment value when assessing claims. This means that if your shipment is valued at $30,000, there’s no point in making a claim for less than $300.
If you’re unable to ship your belongings directly to New Zealand, most shipping companies will put them into storage and some allow a limited free storage period before shipment, e.g. 14 days, after which you may be charged between $60 and $100 per month for an average container, excluding insurance, although prices (and the quality of storage facilities) vary greatly.
If you need to put your household effects into storage, it’s imperative to have them fully insured, as warehouses have been known to burn down!
Make a complete list of everything to be moved and give a copy to the removal company. Don’t include anything illegal (e.g. guns, bombs or drugs) with your belongings, as customs checks can be rigorous and penalties severe.
Provide the shipping company with detailed instructions of how to find your Antipodean address from the nearest main road and a telephone number where you can be contacted. If your New Zealand home has poor or impossible access for a large truck, you must inform the shipping company (the ground must also be firm enough to support a heavy vehicle). Note also that, if furniture needs to be taken in through an upstairs window (e.g. to an apartment), you may need to pay extra. You should also make a simple floor plan of your new home with rooms numbered and mark corresponding numbers on furniture and boxes as they’re packed, so that the removal company will know where everything is to go and you can leave them to it.
After considering the shipping costs, you may decide to ship only selected small items of furniture and personal effects, and buy new bulky items of furniture Down Under. If you’re moving abroad permanently, take the opportunity to sell, give away or throw out at least half of your possessions; it will cut down your removal bill, clear your mind and make life simpler, and you’ll have the added pleasure of buying new furniture that suits your new house.
Bear in mind when moving home that everything that can go wrong often does, so allow plenty of time and try not to arrange the move from your old home on the same day as the new owner is moving in; that’s just asking for fate to intervene!
Prohibited & Restricted Goods
In addition to the usual items such as drugs, pornography, guns and explosives (which you cannot import without permission), anything with plant or animal origins may be prohibited or subject to import restrictions under New Zealand’s ‘Biosecurity’ laws.
Breaches of the strict New Zealand Biosecurity laws result in an instant $200 fine and the possibility of an additional fine of up to $100,000 for an individual ($200,000 for a corporation) and of up to five years in prison.
Food, plants, dried flowers, seeds and potpourri mustn’t be imported into New Zealand under any circumstances. You can be fined for importing an apple or kiwi fruit, even if it came from New Zealand in the first place!
There are also restrictions governing the following:
- animals or items made from animal feathers, fur, horns, skin, tusks, etc;
- equipment used with animals, including riding tackle;
- biological specimens;
- garden tools, furniture and ornaments;
- lawn mowers, strimmers, etc;
- tents and camping equipment;
- golf clubs;
- vacuum cleaners, brooms and brushes;
- wicker and cane items;
- bicycles;
- walking and gardening boots.
The above are often subject to inspection, cleaning and fumigation procedures, for which you may be charged a fee, if not an outright ban. It therefore isn’t recommended to import any of these items into New Zealand. If you wish to, you should obtain advice from customs in advance and declare them on arrival.
On your Arrival Card you’re asked to declare whether you’ve been camping or hiking in forest or parkland in the previous 30 days, and whether you’ve been in contact with animals other than domestic cats and dogs. You must also list the countries you’ve visited within the previous 30 days.
Pets and other animals shouldn’t be imported into New Zealand without authorisation from customs. Should you wish to take your pet to New Zealand, you should entrust the job to a specialist pet shipping service. You require a health certificate provided by a vet in your home country and your pet must undergo a period of quarantine after it arrives in New Zealand (exemptions apply under certain conditions to pets imported from Australia, Hawaii, Norway, Singapore, Sweden and the UK). The good news is that you won’t be charged duty on your pet.
If you bring prescribed medicines with you, you should carry a prescription or letter from your doctor stating that the medicine is being used under a doctor’s direction and is necessary for your health. You should carry medicines in their original containers. You must also make a declaration if you wish to import more than $10,000 in cash.
Information
If you’re in any doubt about whether anything you wish to import into New Zealand is banned or restricted, you should make inquiries at a New Zealand embassy, consulate or high commission, or directly to the New Zealand Customs Service (freephone 0800-428 786 or 04-473 6099, www.customs.govt.nz) or contact the New Zealand Customs office at your point of entry.
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PRICE: £13.95
PUBLICATION: April 2008
EDITION: 2nd
PAGES: 288
BINDING: paperback
FORMAT: 210mm x 148mm
COLOUR PHOTOS: over 100
