We purchased this deceased estate 124ha property by auction. It took several weeks to get all the property details from Kevin. The farms benchmark details from the Regional council was needed to do due diligence, as the farm is in the very restricted Rotorua Lakes Catchment. It was getting closer to Auction day and in the end I had to provide a name and phone number for Kevin to ring to get these details. On Auction day we wanted to be phone bidders and Kevin provided us with one of his agents that did everything that we wanted him to do, so we were pleased. There was not one clause in the sale and purchase agreement that suited the purchaser, like leaving any kind of pasture cover, supplement, house clean etc, but we knew that is the way with Auctions if the vendor wanted their terms only. After the Auction, we met with the farm’s three trustees, one of them a past Waikato Regional council chairwoman. They told us that they would remove the R1 cattle by the end of June and most of the R2 cattle from the 10th July. They told Kevin and myself that they would not deck out the farm, would be feeding out the bales on hand and it would be good for us. From our neighbouring property we could see all the animals still on the property late July, several paddocks turned to mud and water spraying up from water leaks. This was communicated to the vendors and copied into Kevin. The response was yes it was said but not contractual. Settlement day at the end of July and of course the place is an absolute mess. We feel Kevin could have kept a closer eye on the farm prior to settlement. We paid good money for the area that this property is in. Obviously it is known that an agent always works for the vendor, but we feel there has to be a limit to this and standards must be kept so a deal between two parties is fair. We are aged in our 30’s and this is our 5th farm purchase, it certainly hasn’t been our best experience, but we got the farm, so some good has come of it!
Kevin Deane
