Have you engaged a solicitor to look over your commercial or rural property agreement?
We recommend you have the Agreement for Sale and Purchase checked by us before you sign it.
This way we can check the conditions and put in additional safeguards for you. We can search the Title, discuss property ownership options with you, assist you with any due diligence issues and ensure that all GST issues are taken care of. Documents such as leases, resource consents, water rights, etc. need to be checked and explained to you.
IMPORTANT: Summer 2024 Edition Update
In the Summer 2024 edition of Commercial eSpeaking published on 4 February, we ran a short item in the Business briefs section (page 4, column 4) on the Business Payments Practices Act 2023.
Despite no prior signal from the government, on 22 February the Small Business and Manufacturing Minister, Andrew Bayly announced the government will repeal this legislation.
The Minister said, “There is a major problem with large market players imposing long payment terms and routinely paying invoices late.
“However, the Business Payment Practices Act is not an effective solution and would impose unnecessary compliance costs to over 3,000 businesses upgrading their ICT systems. Australia implemented a similar scheme in 2020, but a recent review of the scheme’s effectiveness found that payment times have not reduced.
“Furthermore, small businesses can already find out which companies are late payers through a credit agency at minimal cost.
“The Government will be requiring government agencies to adopt faster payment times, including for eInvoices, which will support business cashflow and encourage the growth of eInvoicing.
“We will also work with BusinessNZ to create an industry-led voluntary code to ensure small businesses are paid on a more timely basis.”
When replacement legislation works its way through the House, we will let you know; the government has given no indication when this will be.
