KEY POINTS:
The Auckland City Council is refusing to sign off two large townhouse projects in Parnell and Balmoral until the developers resolve a number of building issues.
Twenty four upmarket townhouses, each costing $1 million to $1.55 million, at Birdwood Cres in Parnell are built and sitting vacant while developer Kelly McEwan tries to resolve boundary and building issues with the council.
In Balmoral, developer Chris Hook and his son, Rob, are having a battle with the council over durability issues with a group of 12 plaster-clad townhouses in Mt Eden Rd. Most of the townhouses are rented.
Regulatory team head Mark Vinall said the council would not sign-off the developments by issuing code of compliance certificates until it was satisfied they met standards under the new Building Act 2004.
He said the council was withholding final certification to subdivide the Birdwood Cres properties into individual titles until it had resolved boundary and drainage issues. It was also seeking further information on building issues mostly relating to documentation, inspections and sign-off before it would issue a code of compliance certificate, he said.
At Mt Eden Rd, the council was seeking further information on durability and structural issues at the two-storey townhouses.
"We want to satisfy ourselves that they won't be future leaky buildings," Mr Vinall said.
Mayor Dick Hubbard said the projects were "test case stuff" and if any developer produced a building not up to an appropriate standard then the clear message was "bring it on".
But Sharron O'Sullivan, who manages the body corporate for both developments, said the owners were under incredible stress from the refusal by the council to sign off the properties.
She said the owners had been trying to resolve matters at 905 Mt Eden Rd for two years but the council was still not saying what the problem was and kept shifting the goalposts.
Rob Hook said he had been trying to resolve the issues at Mt Eden Rd since August 2005 after the builder did a runner and another builder had to complete the 12 townhouses.
Mr Hook said he had acted in good faith with the council and undertaken an expensive peer review by a council-approved engineering firm, Duffill Watts & King. The review identified a number of problems that had been fixed.
"They do not seem to want to issue a code of compliance and really I don't know what else we can do," Mr Hook said.
Developer Kelly McEwan said he believed that Domain Nominee Ltd had built 24 sound, weather-tight and good-quality masonry homes at Birdwood Cres which complied with the building code.
He is the trustee for 50 individuals who have joined together to develop the site.
Mr McEwan said he applied for a subdivision certificate in April but this had not been granted.
In regard to the code of compliance, the council had claimed there were insufficient inspections.
Mr McEwan said it appeared to require almost 2000 inspections.
