Migrant Tale – House Buying and Divorce Laws

Continuing in our series of Migrant Tales – first hand accounts of the migrant experience of New Zealand taken from places around the net.

Today’s tale was first published on an emigration forum. It is in two parts.

It was written by a British woman who divorced her husband after he committed adultery in New Zealand, only to find that she lost half her hard earned equity to her bankrupted husband.

Because none of her British qualifications are recognised in New Zealand she’s now living on benefits and raising the children on her own.

She gives some advice on how to protect your assets.

house buying and divorce laws

If you are thinking of moving to NZ or in the process of moving, here is some Life saving advice you will never find out until it happens to you!

If you are married already and thinking of buying a house in NZ, please know the laws in NZ are not like UK especially when it comes to divorce/separation.

I married my now ex in UK in 2006, I had a house he was a bankrupt. We have a son together. In NZ the law is, if you are married more than 3 years the equity split is 50/50. Property division is a separate issue to the children. So even if the wife brings in ALL the equity, i.e. 400k, because the husband has the Job offer in NZ, and the husband commits adultry to get out of the marriage after three years (which isn’t illegal here), and the wife is left with the kids, he can claim half your equity.

Also women please check to see if any of your English qualifications are recognised here, none of mine are so now Im living on benefits. For me try and get more than 50% of my equity back you have to go to court (cost between 10-30k).

Looking after a child on benefits and having no NZ recognised qualifications after bring hundreds of thousands of dollars to NZ, and your husband has a good job, is not good reason to claim back your equity….. and if your children are over 6 years old, benefits is limited if you are not actively applying for jobs even though there aren’t any, it’s a recession here too.

So get a pre nuptial or better still put any equity that you intend to buy a house and share with any partner in NZ, into a trust, or leave your money in the UK again in a trust fund, and rent here, as the housing market is going down not up.

Part two

I had a meeting wth a lawyer this morning and he told me the laws have changed, so everything ive been reading on the internet in terms of help or rights for someone in my situation, is no longer valid.  The law is 50/50 it doesnt matter that I contributed 100% of equity, or bought both our cars, i.e. everything, the fact that the house we lived in was considered marital property, its 50/50. I was told because we didnt have a prenuputal even though he is aware we were married in UK where back then they are not legally binding documents, he said that makes no difference everybody in NZ is aware that you have to have a pre nuptual and that is all a Judge will look at. The child of the marriage has no bearing on the equity split, and neither does the fact that he has a job and Im on benefits supporting our child, and been paying his share of the joint mortgage for two years.

Bottom line is he told me, only the Valuation of a house is relevant, not the market selling price which Ive been given by our real estate agent which proves houses are selling at only 95% of valuation. The selling costs are not taken into account either, and neither is the costs the make the house insurable by a new buyer. So basically half the sellable costs are ignored, and an inflated value is what will determine the price after selected deductions to deterine a figure to give my ex husband in court. Doing this means an unrealistic figure will be presented to the Judge, which will obvioiusly present a potential $ value in terms of my ex husbands entitlement, so the only option is to actually sell to prove the fact that figure is not achieveable. Because im on benefits I cant get a loan, to buy him out.

The outcome therefore is, selling my house to give my ex husband money that cannot be achieved through a realistic sale, beacuse actually selling will mean selling costs that were not taken into account by the Judge. This means my ex stlll gets nothing, but now because the house had to be sold to prove this fact me and our 5 year old son will have to get a rental property. Unlike in the UK, they are below human right conditons, ie no heating, no double glazing, mould ridden and winters reach below minus 10c wind chill in winter, so in a daughty wooden house with no insulation and high power costs here, and doctor vists at almost 40 dollars a visit, (thats my food budge for the week for me and my son),  NO national health in NZ, means if I drop dead will be the best outcome for both me and my son.

At least my child can be wth his legally allowed gold digging father and have a warm roof over his head and food in his belly, as the legal system here is making sure immigrant mothers like me, with heeps of cash, end up homeless, peniless and jobless due to Uk qualification restrictions.

Therefore today confirmed to me the new “blanket” property settlement laws, do not take any extenuating issues into account, which means, any partner you have when you arrive in NZ if they have a foreign passport, there is nothing stopping them from ripping you off, and never pay child maintenace after  they get your equity, beacuse property settlements is separate to child issues, so unlike NZ citizens who cannot run away from debts or their maintenance responsibilites, immigrants can, and they do so with the blessing of the courts, because they can take your equity, use your money to leave NZ using their britsh passports,  never to return or pay child support! This unfortuantely the truth and the facts in terms of the law here, so I again have to say IMMIGRANTS WITH CHILDREN AND CASH BEWARE!

De Facto Relationships and Civil Unions
Many people are unaware that in New Zealand people in De Facto relationships also have rights over assets, not just married couples and those in civil unions.

The law as it applies to property may be found here The Property Relationships Act 1976: Information on the law relating to the property of married and de facto couples.

Property Prices

House prices will drop, warns Westpac bank (27/3/2012)

“The bank released a report on the housing market today saying increasing values in Auckland and Christchurch were due to a shortage of homes and that the rest of the country was unlikely to see such large rises.

”We expect higher interest rates and a burst of construction activity to curtail the market in years to come,” Westpac chief economist Dominick Stephens said.

Nationally, house prices were up 4.3 per cent last year according to the Real Estate Institute. In Auckland, the increase was 6.45 per cent, from $455,000 in December 2010 to $484,375 in December 2011.

Stephens expected house prices to rise a further five per cent this year then stay flat in 2013 before falling one per cent in each of the following two years.

”Our fear is that prices could rise more than five per cent this year, particularly if the Reserve Bank dallies on hiking the official cash rate. And we do use the word ‘fear’, because the further prices rise in the short run, the further there could be to fall over a longer horizon,” Stephens said…

”Interest rates will not stay this low forever. We expect rates to rise substantially over the 2013 to 2015 period, as the Reserve Bank struggles to contain inflationary pressures arising from the Canterbury rebuild. Higher interest rates would put the brakes on the housing market in short order,” Stephens said. ”And second, house prices in New Zealand remain stretched relative to incomes.”

While the Auckland and Christchurch markets showed a large lift in property values, prices fell in most other areas with a pick up seen only towards the end of the year…”

Migrant Tale – New Zealand Citizenship May Be A Way Out

A NZ passport can be a route out

Continuing in our series of Migrant Tales – first hand accounts of the migrant experience of New Zealand, taken from locations around the net.

Today’s tale was first published on the forum at Expatexposed.com, a self help and support, not-for-profit forum, for people living in New Zealand.

It is the only immigration forum on the net to be free of vested interests and corporate sponsorship, and as such portrays a refreshingly realistic image of life in New Zealand for many emigrants.

Our Story.

I’m so glad I found this website – you can begin to think you are imagining all the negativity. I just wish I had seen it before we moved to NZ.
We arrived in NZ in 2005. Settled firstly in West Auckland where we enjoyed living during the ‘honeymoon period’. Couldn’t quite believe that we had paid over $300k for little more than a wooden shed to live in….. Shocked but anyway…we then decided that we should chase the kiwi dream of a lifestyle block and moved to rural Otago. Mistake number one. Rural town, rural people, rural attitudes….
We then made our second mistake of renovating the house we bought thinking we would get the money back when we sold it. We didn’t, and ended up $30k worse off. Husband couldn’t find decent work so we ended up living off our savings. We moved again, closer to a ‘city’ (pfft!) to increase OH chance of work. Didn’t work. Moved again – now in Christchurch (we moved into our house 2 days after the Feb earthquake). Things going very slightly better now…

Things I miss:
Being able to have a conversation without that ‘delay’
Decent houses with central heating and double glazing, not ones thrown together with a bit of gib board and pink batts.
Walking over footpaths for miles with my dogs
History and culture (seen more in a pot of yoghurt…)
Affordable grocery shopping and decent fruit and veg markets and a range of things to choose from in the supermarket.
A good curry
Being able to watch TV without ‘look how fantastic NZ is’ being forced down my throat everywhere.
Having some savings.

We arrived full of how wonderful our new life was going to be. I am sick of having my decent salary (pre tax) being creamed off by the government to support the majority of this rural, undereducated nation. We don’t have holidays (no wonder the kiwis are such good campers), we can’t afford to go back and visit our family. I am gutted we made the decision to come. I now feel that we can’t return and leave my son behind (he is 22 and happy here living with his girlfriend). My daughter is 13 and I feel she has suffered due to the education system here –she has just started high school. Her peers in the UK seem way ahead. But still, they let anyone into University here so I’m sure she’ll be fine…
We are applying for citizenship so that at least we may be able to consider Australia in the future. I would love to go home, but I’m worried about reports of ‘ping pong poms’, people who get home and hate it, then spend the next few years trying to get back. Maybe I have my rose tinted specs on when I think of ‘home’.

You may also be interested in:

Jobs-driven migration to Oz at high of 53,000 (22/3/2012)- “The Kiwi exodus to Australia has hit a new high, with annual departures reaching 53,000 last month, Statistics New Zealand said yesterday.

New Zealand suffered a net loss of 39,100 people after departure numbers were partially offset by 13,900 arrivals, most of them returning citizens…The overall net loss of 4100 people in the year to February 29 is also the largest since the year ended August 31, 2001, when 4400 people left New Zealand.”  read more

Migrant Tales – US Kiwi Only Wanted To Help Christchurch

Continuing in our series of Migrant Tales, first hand accounts of the migrant experience of New Zealand taken from around the net.

Today’s tale first appeared on the forum at Expatexposed.com, a mutual help and advice forum for migrants in New Zealand. It was written by the American raised offspring of a Kiwi migrant who came to New Zealand to help out after the earthquake.

“Hello forum, here is part of my story. Thanks for taking the time to read.

I was raised in the US by a Kiwi Mother and and Scottish Father, but had never visited New Zealand. I had been planning a trip to NZ in 2010, when my family here in Auckland and Christchurch called me and told me about the earthquake in Christchurch. I decided, as I was already looking for jobs in NZ, and I wanted to see my family etc, that I would come to NZ to visit and help.

As a Contact Center implementation specialist, it is my job to assist with the rollout and management of new call centre operations. Basically help to set up a training and quality assurance program. I helped set up the emergency claim system that forwarded the different types of emergency to the different people dealing with them.

I applied for a position with a government organization as an emergency claims manager, and was interviewed for the position, flew over for the final interview, and due to my prior management experience and emergency centre roles, I was hired.

Let me just set up my mental picture of NZ when I arrived: I thought that since there was a MORE diverse culture in a SMALLER space, the people would be more accepting of outsiders, and less racists than, say, Texas.
I thought that since it was a smaller population, the populous would be more in touch with themselves, the surroundings, etc. More “enlightened.” This was my mindset as I entered the country.
In addition, I had never been exposed to alcoholism on any level. Alcohol was something that, in limited amounts, made for a great time, in my mind.

While working for the government organization, many things came to light, mainly that the attitude in NZ is that, unless you get WASTED, you are “boring.” I found that I could not relate to anyone on that level. I came to see that people were openly racist, and xenophobic.

On my birthday, I decided to invite 3 other managers to my place for dinner and drinks etc. This was the beginning of the realization that it may be very hard to make friends. The night ended when one of the managers got so wasted they began to destroy my belongings, became very racist (towards myself, a caucasian) and I had to physically remove them from my house, and ask the others to leave.

They proceeded to stand outside and yell and curse and throw things.

These were people in their 30s and 40s… I am in my late 20′s, and I have not encountered this sort of behavior outside of high-school parties.

This same manager once showed up in the office so drunk after completing their shift, and going straight to the bar downstairs, they fell over and slashed their skull forehead open down to the bone, creating a lot of paperwork.

My preconceptions have been totally shattered, and I have become completely alone. The position with the government organization was supposed to be for only 3 months, but ended up being for more than a year, it was “casual” and we were released from duty. Never before did I think that I would lose compassion for people, but I have.

People in Christchurch were unbelievably ungrateful, and kiwis in general have no concept of how to deal with disaster. Most people demanded action within days, action that has been assessed will now take YEARS! People would refuse to speak with emergency representatives from other races.

I had to take a call where someone requested that they “speak to someone who was not BROWN…”
THESES “BROWN” PEOPLE WERE VOLUNTEERS IN SOME CASES, WHO WERE THERE TO HELP TAKE EMERGENCY CLAIMS!!!!!!

Much of the feedback from the people we spoke with was NOT surrounding the claim process, but racist comments regarding how they want to talk to someone from their small, stagnant gene pool, and not an Indian.

The racism is disgusting, and extends even to cities hating other cities. The people are so small minded. Their country is the size of 1 state, yet they fight like city-states and hate one another based on geographic location. I am a NZ citizen, yet get treated like dirt cause of my US accent. Rather have an American accent anyway than be a small-minded person. Ignorance is rewarded.

Since being here:
-I have been mugged x3
-Had my car stolen and recovered x2
-Had everything in my house stolen
-Had my belongings stolen from WORK!!!
-Had my motorcycle attempted to be stolen, but when it was discovered it was chained, the would be thieves simply vandalized it.
-Had my family refuse to communicate with me as I will not participate in alcoholism with them.

I have never felt so isolated and detached from the happy, vibrant and balanced human being I once was.
I desperately need positive, PASSIONATE people in my life, I feel like someone in solitary confinement, slowly losing my mind.

Has anyone seen the movie “Idiocracy?”
That is what it feels like to live in NZ…”

Teaching In NZ – A Migrant’s Exit Interview Revisited

A Migrant’s Tale revisited.

Occasionally E2NZ  takes a look back at an old blog entry when its content becomes topical again.

After American teacher Gregg Smith published his book “Swimming in the Cesspool – An American Teacher’s Nightmare Encounter with New Zealand Secondary Education” migrants working in the teaching profession are in the NZ news again, we thought some of our readers may find this old blog interesting…

This is a copy of a migrant tale from January 2011:

.

“Continuing in our popular series of Migrant Tales – first hand accounts of the migrant experience of New Zealand, taken from locations around the net.

Our latest tale is taken from the forum at Expatexposed.com, the only uncensored NZ immigration forum on the net, where people are free to talk about NZ as they really see it.

If you are a teacher, or skilled worker,  contemplating a move to New Zealand you may like to read an insider’s view of what it’s really like. You won’t hear stories like this at emigration fairs or recruitment websites (emphasis ours):

Sitting here enjoying the sunshine at Christmas, reflecting on two years spent teaching in New Zealand, I thought it was time to put down a few words to illuminate the path for those in the UK contemplating a move.

In true D&T fashion, I shall proceed on an evaluation basis, with bullet points!
Let’s start with the good:

The weather is much better than the UK, with warmer summers and milder winters – though the humidity is crippling at times.

The workload is smaller, with less meetings.
Wages are paid every 2 weeks, which is so much easier than monthly.

And the Bad?
Red Tape – Getting here was an absolute nightmare. Despite starting the ball rolling 4 months before leaving the UK, I still arrived without my qualifications being ratified and no work Visa. The whole process is costly (it runs into thousands – and that is without air fares etc), time consuming and incredibly frustrating. It is also on-going, as I am currently contemplating whether to have more police checks, more medicals, and spend more money on my Third Visa – yes, you need to renew it every year. As I am now married to a New Zealand lady, so I could go the residence route, but that would cost even more. Many colleagues have left when faced with the same dilemma – spend the money on yet another Visa or buy a ticket home.

Qualifications – NZ does not recognise the PGCE for salary purposes, and if you have a GTTP they will not recognise that at all. For a country that bases much of its Education system on the practices in the UK, this is simply ridiculous and is a big clue to how we are treated over here. We have to pay a lot of money (Hundreds) to have our Degrees and Post Grad study ratified by a country which uses Cambridge to ratify their own international GCSE program!

Cost of Living - getting much, much worse. Food prices have shot through the roof over the past couple of years and many teachers are struggling to make ends meet. For an easy comparison, 2L of milk is 2.50, compared to about 1.70 in the UK. This is 50% more expensive – and that can be extrapolated across all your food and household bills. Electrical goods, clothing and cars are roughly double the price. A decent 3 bed house in a decent area of Auckland costs 1000 – 1500 pounds a month, Salaries have parity in the middle of the scale, but newly qualified and responsibility holders are on less.

Professional Development – Simply appalling. Getting a job here is fairly easy, but as others have said, moving to other schools or trying for promotion is very, very difficult. They tend to promote Kiwi’s, which on the face of it is understandable, but you will constantly ask yourself ‘How on earth did that person get the job’ – and that applies to many of the senior roles including Principals. Contentious? Of course, but like many things in New Zealand, scratch away the surface and there is often something rather ugly underneath. For example, New Zealand is a green country, a champion for the environment, that is the perception of many and one of the big selling points of the country. When you get here, you will be surprised to see that the car of choice and aspiration is huge with a gas guzzling V8 under the bonnet!

Politics – There is an uneasy, forced symbiotic relationship in NZ. There is deep seated anger and unrest here, and some of the views expressed will have you aghast. It is a 4 way split – Maori, European Kiwi, European immigrant and Asian (Asian is a term used in New Zealand to describe Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Indian, Pakistani etc). The situation here is tense, let no-one tell you otherwise, and it is going to get much worse.

Driving - Appalling. The road death toll is horrendous for a developed nation. Many factors contribute to this situation. Many people are driving on the road without ever having a driving lesson, the roads themselves are very poorly set out and signposted, lane discipline on the motorways is non-existent and to cap it all, you will be amazed at the lack of courtesy, the level of arrogance and pure aggressive bloody mindedness of the driving. I used to enjoy driving in the UK, but make excuses not to go out here.

Psyche – New Zealand suffers from small country syndrome, as do many of the people. If you look at the population figures, the rate of growth is declining, and if you take away the huge amount of people coming in from China, the population is actually in decline. This would appear strange for a new country full of possibilities, so to those who will no doubt disagree with many of my musings – ask yourself the question why this may be? We are referred to as Poms, which is derogatory, and that name has recently (2010) officially been given the all clear by the government to be used by all, including broadcasting. This is a big indication of where the country and the leadership is going. New Zealand has become a violent society, and it is getting worse.

Wages – Watch them. I lost out on $2000 through over-payment of tax, and despite writing numerous letters the money is now gone as the window of complaint is now closed.

Work:  NZQA simply doesn’t cut it. The goalposts are constantly shifting and externally assessed coursework is a lottery. This makes it incredibly difficult to accurately predict where the students will be placed and makes a mockery of predicted grades. Many schools are now opting for the IGCSE qualification, so again, to those who question my point – ask yourself why. The leadership here is not transparent, and decisions are made which beggar belief. I have lost count the number of times I have been lied to by the leadership team, in my own school and others. The reason for this is not that people from New Zealand are pathological liars, though the evidence is there to support this both professionally and personally, it is more to do with small country syndrome and wanting to save face.

If you have read this far you will probably think that my perspective is wholly negative and I wish I had never come here. Wrong – I came for experiences and that is exactly what I have had, good or bad. But there is a caveat – I came here a single person, and we can leave whenever we choose, which will be soon, but if you have a family, please think carefully before making that decision. *** has had her eyes opened by my experiences and she does not like what she sees in her own country. She has written to Government ministers to complain about my treatment and is looking forward to getting out of the place.

I leave you with a true story, which illustrates a point I am not willing to say:
I bought a pair of pliers from a well known, large chain of electronics stores here. On first using them, they broke so I took them back for a refund: ‘Sorry mate, you can’t have a refund’ was the reply, ‘why not’ I asked, ‘because they are broken’ came the reply. Nuff said.”

(This post also appears in chapter 6 of our Migrant Tales)

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Migrant Tale – I Want Out

Continuing in our popular series of Migrant Tales, first hand accounts of the migrant experience of New Zealand taken from places around the net.

For more Migrants Tales please click on the link in the header above, there are scores from people of all nationalities from all walks of life.

Today’s tale was recently published on Expatexposed.com, a not for profit emigration discussion board dealing mostly with New Zealand.

The author is an American woman who deeply regrets her decision to move to New Zealand with her Kiwi partner two years ago.

Initially I moved here from the U.S. because I am engaged to a Kiwi and we made the decision to move here to be near his mother. I was alright with this because when I visited NZ I just fell in love with the country, and because his mother has no one else here really that she can rely on. It has been two years now, and I have not been able to even get a nibble as far as a job, we are barely making ends meet and to make matters worse at the end of the month my fiance’s job ends because the company is closing down.

After having been here for two years I can say that I wholeheartedly hate living in this country. Everything is insanely expensive, the job market is garbage and I am almost always either freezing or too bloody hot. Our overpriced flat has no heat or air, is constantly damp and we’ve got a mold problem. Our landlord is useless. I desperately want to go home to the U.S. but my fiance’s mother would be left with no one here, and my fiance just thinks things are dandy in NZ, or at least that things are better in NZ than in the U.S. I am terrified that i’ll have something go wrong medically with me here because having seen the state of NZ hospitals and the healthcare system in general I know I would be up the proverbial creek without a paddle. I do feel that my health has declined since moving here. With food prices the way they are in NZ the only food we can afford isn’t food that we should be eating to stay healthy. I am really not at all sure what we’ll do when my fiance’s job ends.

In closing, I dearly want to go home but even if I got him to agree at this point we wouldn’t be able to afford it. I am really just over this place.