Dealing with an Industry that Lives on Transaction Fees

A minor case, involving fairly low amounts of money, but a reminder that when you are dealing with people who get paid to make you sign, and get nothing if you don't, you must treat them as a hostile party. Yes, you must pay more to protect yourself; you must hire your own counsel, your own inspector, and even then if you have any questions, hire another to review that one's work. Start from a position of pessimism and distrust. Especially in a bubble, buyers get starry-eyed and they are such easy targets, and there is so much money to be made on the extra churn it attracts additional shady operators, so your odds of finding a trustworthy one get lower and lower.

If you feel pressure. Walk away.

Real estate penalty a joke, say thwarted pair

The advertisement said relocatable houses were permitted on the sections.

They bought one of the sections with the intention of putting a relocated house on it and using it as a holiday home.

Mr and Mrs Wild said they twice asked Ken Adam, owner and branch manager of Perpetual Real Estate's Te Anau and Manapouri Fiordland branch, if there were any restrictions on the sale. Mr Adam told them both times there were no restrictions, they said.

However, after they purchased the section they found out a covenant was in place prohibiting secondhand transportable homes from being put on the section.
. . .
He admitted there had been an oversight in the newspaper advertisement's wording.

It was also an oversight that the Wilds' contract did not feature the covenant saying no relocatable houses were permitted on the section.