Draft: not yet reviewed by a lawyer. This page is general information in plain English and may change.

Disclaimer

Effective 6 November 2026.

Ask Matty is a research aid. It is not a LIM, a building report, a title search or a valuation, and it is not legal or financial advice. The data may be out of date or wrong. Check the certificate of title and the official records, and take advice from a lawyer, before you rely on anything here.

What Ask Matty is

Ask Matty is a free research aid. It counts property titles by type (cross-lease, unit title, leasehold and others) for each suburb and council in New Zealand from LINZ data, and adds context from other public sources listed on the data sources page, in plain English. It also shows what LINZ records for an address anywhere in New Zealand, and what the council planning maps show for a Christchurch address. That record may be wrongly matched to the address, and the title may carry interests (such as easements, covenants and caveats) that are not shown. It helps you work out which questions to ask. It does not answer them for you.

What it is not

• It is not a LIM (Land Information Memorandum). Only a council issues a LIM.
• It is not a building report or an inspection. Nobody has looked at the property for this site.
• It is not a title search. The official record is the certificate of title, which you can get from LINZ or through your lawyer.
• It is not a valuation. We show no valuation, rating value or price estimate.
• It is not legal advice, financial advice, or advice about a purchase, a loan or insurance. We are not lawyers, conveyancers, valuers, builders, brokers or real estate agents.

The data can be wrong or old

Records change after we copy them. A record can be missing, out of date, wrongly matched to an address, or wrong at the source. A title can have interests, conditions, work or disputes that these datasets do not show. Maps and overlays are indicative: where a layer meets a boundary the map is a guide, not a survey. A count of titles is not a count of homes. The date of the data is shown on the suburb, council and property pages and on the data sources page; after that date, things may have changed.

What to do before you rely on anything here

• Get and read the current certificate of title and any instruments, plans and agreements it refers to.
• Ask the council for a LIM and check the District Plan for the property.
• Get a building inspection, and consider a builder's or engineer's report where the age or condition of the building matters.
• Take advice from your own lawyer before you sign an agreement or go unconditional.

No assurance

This site cannot tell you that a property, title or building is acceptable. If a page does not mention a problem, that does not mean there is none: it means these records do not show one. To the extent the law allows, we give no promise that anything on the site is complete, current or suitable for your purpose. Nothing here limits any right you have under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, the Fair Trading Act 1986, the Privacy Act 2020 or any other law that cannot be limited by agreement. See also the terms of use.

Found a mistake?

Write to peter@peterhowell.co.nz. See Corrections and requests.