It was a family transaction designed to keep former Maori land at Raglan within the family Rangimonehu Kereopa claims, having the High Court agree a caveat should remain on the title preventing her son’s company from selling while their family dispute is sorted out.
The High Court was told Rangimonehu and her since deceased husband Piripi had land containing their family home on Wainui Road transferred from the Maori land register to the general land register years ago. This proved useful when their daughter in 1999 was looking to purchase a nearby property on Government Road; they allowed the daughter’s bank loan to be secured over their Wainui Road as additional security.
Three years later, Rangimonehu and Piripi were in financial difficulty with unpaid rates and the possibility of a forced mortgagee sale of Wainui Road. They were reduced to living in a shed on the property without running water or toilet facilities while the main house was rented out.
Son Dennis organised a rescue. He borrowed funds to buy out his parents taking ownership of Wainui Road; his parents in turn took ownership of their daughter’s property on Government Road; and the then existing bank mortgage was repaid. Rangimonehu and Piripi received no money.
Circumstances of this rescue package were canvassed in the High Court over twenty years later after Rangimonehu learnt her son had put Wainui Road on the market. Lawyers acting for Dennis had done all the paperwork for the rescue package, she said. She had acted on the faith that Denis was acting to keep Wainui Road in the family and that would remain the case, she said.
There was an arguable case that Denis took title to Wainui Road on terms of a trust, Associate judge Brittain ruled. A full court hearing is needed to determine if a trust exists and what are its terms. Meanwhile, the caveat remains.
Six years after the rescue package was implemented, Denis transferred ownership of Wainui Road to a company he controlled: Brunsha Ltd.
Judge Brittain ruled it is arguable Denis engineered a sale to his company Brunsha Ltd, as a supposedly innocent third party purchaser, in an attempt to exploit Land Transfer rules so as to side step Rangimonehu’s claim there was an enforceable trust over Wainui Road requiring ownership be kept within the family.
Land Transfer Act rules allow subsequent owners to keep ownership free of any prior trust, provided the new owner did not have actual knowledge of or was ‘wilfully blind’ to the existence of a prior trust affecting the land.
Kereopa v. Brunsha Ltd – High Court (18.12.23)
24.037