An update from Canterbury Legal

Legalchat - April 2025

Dear *|FNAME|*

April is coming to a close and the year is well and truly steaming ahead at a great rate of knots!

Our team has had a very busy start to the year and Easter has just past by. We hope you have managed to squeeze in some quality time with friends and family over this period!

As it has been a little while since our last Legalchat - we do have quite a bit to update you on.

Firstly we say farewell to Stephen who has moved on to other commitments. We wish to acknowledge his time with the Canterbury Legal during 2024 / 2025 and wish him all the best in his journey.

We also delighted to introduce you to our new lawyer XXXX…You can find more information on XXXX on their profile page.

As always, if you ever need help with interpreting legal documents or require quality down to earth legal advice, our team is always happy to help.

2025 Guide to New Zealand Law Changes

While 2024 introduced a range of legislative changes, 2025 is set to you continue that trend with new laws being introduced or amended across multiple sectors. The New Zealand government is preparing for significant law reforms throughout the year.

We take a closer look at Company Law reforms, Resource Management Act reforms, Firearm legislation, Employment Law, Tenancy Law and AML/CFT changes, among others.

We hope this helps get a clearer picture of what changes are in place this year.

The impact of Artificial Intelligence in New Zealand

Whether you have ventured onto platforms like ChatGPT, or you have been investigating using AI in your workplace, Artificial Intelligence is continuing to become an ever increasing part of our lives.

It is something that individuals, companies and society as a whole will need to come to terms with, along with what impacts it will bring.

In many instances over history, advances in technology have been responsible for mass disruption. What makes AI particularly notable is that it is not just impacting a certain industry, but a wide range of industries at the same time. Its development is on an exponential curve and somewhat uncertain, as opposed to linear and predictable.

For the legal sector it also raises a number of questions, probably in fact, more than there are answers to just yet!

- The balance of regulation versus innovation

- The importance of ethics, guidelines and public trust

- How the legal industry as a whole will navigate this landscape

We have done our best to distill this into an article that covers some of these key points, from a legal standpoint.

Property Watch - April 2025

According to QV’s April 2025 report residential house prices have been at a general standstill for the first quarter of the year. Canterbury has seen an increase of around 1.1% since the start of the year with an average price of $774,614.

The largest increase was in the Mackenzie district, rising by 2% to $788,306.

Where ever you are on your buying or selling journey, our team can help with all conveyancing matters. If you are a new home buyer, we also extend a 15 minute free consultation with our experienced Legal Executive Ang. You can connect with Ang via the following details, or please reply to this email and we can connect you.

Email: angela@canterburylegal.co.nz
Phone: 021 329 371

Read the full QV report below.

Incorporated Societies - Don’t forget to mark your calendar!

Are you involved with an incorporated society?

A number of significant changes have been made that existing societies need to be aware of. The previous act governing incorporated societies actually pre-dated the Titanic, so you could say it was well and truly due for an update!

If you are still to update your incorporated society’s constitution with these changes, we have prepared a helpful article that covers all the key things you need to know.

With just on a year left, these changes need to be in place and adopted by your society’s next AGM within the next 12 months - so we would advise keeping it on your radar and please reply to this email if you have any questions.