Property Law
Buying your first place? Selling up? Developing a dozen townhouses?

Our Christchurch property lawyers help buyers, sellers, developers, body corporates, and real estate agents sort the legal side efficiently… and with far less stress.

Property is a big deal. Sometimes literally.
Whether there’s a family home or multi-unit complex on the line, you want to know exactly what you’re signing, what could trip you up, and what happens next. That’s where we come in.
Our property law team can help from initial due diligence right through to settlement – checking the paperwork, spotting potential issues, and keeping things moving along the way.
If you’re buying or selling, we’ll help you understand your sale and purchase agreement before you commit to anything important. If you’re developing, we’ll work alongside the other people involved to help keep everyone on the same page. And if residential associations, body corporates, or industry rules are giving you a headache – we’re really rather handy there too.
Basically, if it involves the legal side of property, there’s every chance we can help you out. But let’s break it down a little just to be on the safe side.
Home sweet home. Paperwork and all. Buying or selling a home should be exciting. The legal side often feels far from it.
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Regardless of whether it’s your first purchase, fifth sale, or somewhere in between – our conveyancing lawyers in Christchurch help make the whole process as straightforward as possible. We’ll talk you through the sale and purchase agreement, carry out the legal due diligence, check the title and other relevant documents, work through any conditions, and take care of the conveyancing through to settlement.
Phew. Take a breath.
We’ll also look out for hidden risks – particularly in earthquake-affected areas – and help suss out the compliance side of things. Then there are ownership structures, unit titles, cross leases, building issues, and a whole host of other things that have a tendency to crop up when you’d much rather they didn’t. The earlier you loop us in, the better.
Ideally before you sign anything with a lot of tiny writing on it.
Big plans need solid groundwork. Developments and subdivisions have heaps of moving parts.
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Developers, lenders, planners, surveyors, councils, and contractors are all involved at one point or another. There’s also quite a lot of law to sort. We help developers and property owners navigate the legal side from early planning through to completion. We’ll cut through the documents and legal processes, help get your bankers, lenders, planners, and surveyors on the same page, and keep an eye on the details that can cause headaches later.
We know our way around unit titles, easements, covenants, cross leases, and subleases too. Forgive us for the list. It is what it is. Surprises are lovely at the right time and in the right place. Halfway through a property development is not ideal on either count.
We can step in at pretty much any stage of a project to untangle issues, deal with the unexpected, and work out the best way forward.
Lots of owners and lots of rules. One less headache goes a long way. Unit title developments come with shared spaces, shared responsibilities and – you guessed it – plenty of paperwork.
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Then there’s the complexity of dealing with so many people (and their people!). At RVG, we advise body corporates, owners, property managers, and developers on the legal issues that come with the territory.
That includes body corporate rules, management arrangements, long-term maintenance planning, ownership and membership questions, repair and maintenance obligations, disclosure requirements, and disputes.
Yup, we do it all. So if you’re running a body corporate or trying to understand what being part of one actually means – we’ll help make sense of the details.
Legal backup for people who live and breathe property. Real estate moves faster than an All Blacks winger. So when an agent needs legal advice, waiting around for three days and a six-paragraph disclaimer isn't terribly helpful.
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We work with real estate agents on the legal questions that crop up in the real world: sale and purchase agreements, contract prep, changing rules and requirements, tricky transactions, plus all those oddly specific questions that don’t fit neatly into any box or training plan.
We know all too well that sometimes you simply need an answer so you can get on with the deal. So that's what we'll give you.

Everyone’s got something to say about the property market – and most people have a stake in it one way or another.
Whether you’re buying, selling, developing, subdividing, or otherwise – bring us in and we’ll help you work out the legal side.
Straight answers and practical advice from property lawyers who know the lay of the land. Neat.