Minister tells of own leaky building woes

Building Issues Minister Chris Carter has particular sympathy for victims of leaky houses or homes that have been poorly built - he owns one himself.

Mr Carter has spent $15,000 fixing up "shoddy workmanship" in a Wellington apartment he had bought as a rental property.

"I'm thankful that I took ownership of this property later in life when I had the resources to tackle its problems, rather than earlier when I didn't. What troubles me is a young couple with small children could easily have bought this apartment instead of me."

Mr Carter would not divulge the precise location of the apartment, saying it would be unfair to residents of adjoining properties. A number of those residents had also had to fix the problems with their apartments.

Mr Carter said the problems with his apartment were due to poor design and construction and cheap or inappropriate materials.

He told the Certified Builders Association conference in Nelson at the weekend that problems in the building industry had occurred partly because building had not been taken seriously enough and because the industry had been "shoddily" deregulated in the 1990s.

Mr Carter's repair bill is small compared to others who have been stung by the leaky home controversy.

Leaky Homes Action Group chairman Bernie Fuller has a $300,000 repair bill for his Mission Bay home and is facing a $50,000 legal and consultants' bill.

Yesterday, National Party building and construction spokesman Nick Smith criticised the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service, saying it was slow and costing more than $100,000 per settlement in bureaucracy costs.

The Government said it would spend an extra $4 million a year to supervise the building industry to avoid more leaky homes. It also increased spending on the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service to $17.7 million.

* A special report in the Weekend Herald on Saturday takes a critical look at the Government's response to the multi-million dollar crisis.