Leaky building legal costs

There's no doubt that leaky building litigation is expensive. It involves your lawyer spending many hours reviewing documents, drafting Court papers, researching the law and discussing the leaky homes / leaky building case with experts. If and when a party is ultimately successful at a leaky building trial the judge will normally order the losing party to pay the winning party's costs.

However, under New Zealand law, a party virtually never recovers 100% of their legal costs, with the figure being closer to 50 to 70%. So at the end of a leaky building trial, a successful plaintiff will still be out of pocket to a certain extent.

Leaky building litigation carries risk

There is never any guarantee that a leaky building case will succeed at trial. There are a number of factors, both factual and legal, that may go for, or against, a plaintiff, and every leaky homes case is different. Your solicitor will keep you informed of the risks you're facing so that you can make informed decisions as to whether you wish to take them. One risk inherent in all leaky building litigation is that if you take a case to Court and ultimately lose, you face having to pay the defendant's costs (again, 50 to 70% of them).

Once a plaintiff has started litigation for their leaky home / leaky building they cannot simply give up if it all gets too hard, without facing a claim for costs against them. Sometimes your solicitor will be able to negotiate a 'drop hands' settlement, in that the defendants won't seek costs against the plaintiff if they drop their claim, but this is not always the case.

Anybody embarking on leaking building litigation should be aware that they are committing to a process that has consequences if they later change their minds.

Additional legal costs

As well as paying for your solicitor's time you'll also face other costs such as experts' costs (see below) and disbursements. Whenever documents are filed at Court they incur a filing fee and the Court will charge a daily rate for the leaky home trial. Your solicitor will keep you appraised of all costs that are incurred on your behalf, as well as giving you regular updates on the legal costs that you will incur.