Title investigation
Commercial property titles can be complex. These need careful analysis to understand their impact on your intended use.
Key title matters:
- Easements: Rights of way, services, party walls, and shared access
- Covenants: Use restrictions, development controls, consent requirements
- Encumbrances: Mortgages, caveats, and other registered interests
- Unit title matters: Body corporate rules, long-term maintenance plans, levies
Building compliance
Compliance issues can be expensive to remedy. Key areas to investigate include:
Were consents obtained for all works? Are code compliance certificates in place?
What percentage of New Building Standard (NBS)? Is it insurable?
Current warrant of fitness, evacuation scheme approval, sprinkler certification
Land use consents, conditions compliance, permitted activities
Common issues we find
Our experience with Hawke's Bay commercial properties has revealed common problems:
Real examples from our practice
- - A mezzanine floor added without consent - requiring engineering assessment and retrospective consent, or removal
- - Change of use from warehouse to retail without resource consent - meaning the current use was technically unlawful
- - Easement for neighbour's services running directly under proposed building footprint
- - Encroachment by neighbouring building onto the property - requiring boundary adjustment or building removal
Why professional help matters
Council property files can contain countless pages. Knowing what to look for, what matters, and what's missing requires experience. We've reviewed thousands of LIM reports and property files. We know the questions to ask when documents are incomplete or concerning.
Finding issues during due diligence gives you options: renegotiate the price, require the vendor to fix problems, or walk away. Finding them after settlement leaves you with the problem and limited recourse.
Environmental considerations
Commercial sites may have contamination or hazardous materials that create ongoing liability:
- Contaminated land: Check the HAIL register and council records
- Asbestos: Asbestos management plan and register required for buildings with ACM
- Underground storage tanks: Previous petroleum or chemical storage
What Carlile Dowling does
Our title and compliance investigation includes:
- • Full title search and analysis of all registered interests
- • Review of LIM report with detailed annotation of concerns
- • Council property file review where warranted
- • Identification of missing consents or compliance certificates
- • Written summary of issues requiring attention or negotiation