Three adjoining townhouses above the cliff collapse, as at November 14. Photo / supplied
A cliff has slipped in front of three adjoining Stanley Point townhouses worth nearly $10 million, resulting in Auckland Council issuing dangerous building notices to owners whose decks hung precariously over the edge until remedial action was taken.
Ross Roberts, head of engineering resilience at the council, said part of the cliff in front of the three adjoining places at 73 Stanley Point Rd, on Auckland’s North Shore, had fallen due to heavy rain in July.
“The slip beneath Stanley Point Rd occurred on July 12 following an extremely intense downpour. Following an assessment by council engineers, it was deemed that the landslide was a natural occurrence caused by the period of heavy rain,” Roberts said of the cliff in front of Stanley Point Mews places.
“As a result of the event, compliance officers issued three dangerous building notices in relation to deck structures situated at the top of the cliff. The affected property owners were also advised by council staff that remediation was a private issue which would need to be discussed with their insurance providers,” he said.
A fourth house at the same address - 1/73 Stanley Point Rd - is unaffected, standing many metres back, behind the three townhouses. The four unit titled properties are in a body corporate.
Decks at two of the three multi-level adjoining white townhouses, developed to maximise sea views, are affected by the landslip.
Another council expert said illegal tree work carried out in 2017 had no bearing on the collapse.
Kerri Fergusson, compliance response and investigations manager, told the Herald this month: “In 2017, owners of properties adjacent to the site at Stanley Point Road were subject to enforcement action due to the removal and alteration of trees at the top of the cliff. At the time the abatement notice was issued, no further risk to the cliff was anticipated.
“With the conclusion of the enforcement action taken at the time, no further action can be taken retrospectively in relation to the breaches. It is important to note that there is no evidence available that would indicate a causal link between the breaches which took place in 2017 and the recent slip,” she said.
The sight of the slip has caused alarm for some ferry travellers, asking how safe the houses above are.
“I”m glad I live on the side of a dormant volcano,” said one city dweller.
Pictures in a July 21 expert report showed how dramatic the situation had been until recently, with the homes’ decks once perched near the edge of the cliff.
A photo taken after the July 12 collapse showed how one deck had previously hung over the edge. That deck has since been altered and is no longer suspended air as it appeared in the photo, taken for a technical report on the situation.
But the homes looking across to Auckland’s city centre still appear in photographs taken this week to be dangerously close to the precipice and black plastic now covers the top of the cliff outside the homes, with soil nails holding that down.
The two townhouses nearest the city appear worst affected. Modifications include safety barriers at two modified deck edges and images show a partially demolished deck at one place.
As at June last year, the council put a $3.1m valuation on 2/73-75 Stanely Point Rd, it values 3/73-75 Stanley Point Rd at $3.25m and 4/71-73 Stanley Point Rd is valued at $3.17m. It is those three properties which have had dangerous building notices issued.
The Herald understands the homeowners’ body corporate has cover with Vero Insurance NZ.
Tonkin & Taylor’s preliminary or rapid report of July 21 for Vero acting on behalf of EQC concluded there had been natural disaster damage and said the middle townhouse lost 10.1sq m of land out its front. The term for that land was “evacuated”.
Insured land at “imminent risk” of evacuation was 5.4sq m at 2/73 Stanley Point Rd or unit b, 11.7sq m next door which is the middle townhouse and 4.2sq m beside that, the engineers said.
Conceptual remedial works were cited as being the need to “remove imminent risk by constructing an anchored in-ground palisade pile wall,” Tonkin & Taylor said.
An anchor inground palisade-piled wall would be needed to remediate the damage to the land and remove imminent risk. Quite how the work would be undertaken was difficult to assess because access to the site was listed as “hard” by Tonkin & Taylor.
The slip was estimated to be approximately 28m high in the report.
That is roughly equivalent to a nine-storey building.
Simon Hayes, an engineer, said he was assisting the owners of one of the four homes: Richard van de Ruyt and Sonya Wilkins.
“Three terraced houses are on the cliff face but the van de Ruyt property is not terraced. It is completely separate from the others and adjacent to the road. It’s around 40m back from the cliff face so is unaffected by the dangerous building notices,” Hayes said.
A deck had already been demolished on one of the three townhouses, Hayes said.
In 2018, the council issued abatement notices to a contractor and townhouse owners for illegal tree work carried out within a significant ecological area - the cliff face which has an address of 69 Stanley Point Rd in front of the townhouses at 73 Stanley Point Rd.
Townhouse owners Bruce Andrew Wetherall and Patrick and Jane Prestney and contractor Filisi Gakoli Fata got those notices, as formal warnings issued for illegally altering trees within the esplanade reserve and significant ecological area. That followed a site visit on April 22, 2017, following a complaint to the council.
Work on the trees was not carried out in accordance with the Auckland Unitary Plan, the notice said. The trees were within 20m from the top of the cliff. No consents were sought or obtained for the work.
Trees had an important ecological, environmental and cultural role, those warned were told.
“They play an integral part in avoiding natural hazards, reducing water runoff, preventing flooding, stabilising soils, preventing landslips and reducing erosion,” the warning notice said.
Questions were put to the three homeowners about their situations. The Herald asked about the 2017 illegal tree work, if their homes were endangered by the slip, if they were safe at their properties, what action had they taken or planned, if any decks had been removed as a result of the council’s dangerous building notice, if their properties were insured - particularly for land subsidence - and what effect had the slip had.
Homeowner Richard Van de Ryt said his place at 1/73 Stanley Point Rd was unaffected by the landslip “because it is located some 30 to 40m away. The slip has had no effect on us apart from dust nuisance and construction rubbish caused by the removal of some structures. We have not had a dangerous building notice served by the council. Prior to your email we had no contact from the council regarding the landslip. Our property is fully insured with no exclusions.”
One of the townhouse homeowners asked how the Herald had obtained his email address. None of the three townhouse owners answered questions about their situation.
The Herald has published stories this year about another North Shore cliff collapse. That was in front of Ben Wilson’s Beach Haven property above Charcol Bay during the winter. That has been deemed a “natural occurrence”.
On July 15, a massive slip occurred on that cliff which Paul Carter, a senior geotechnical engineer, attributed partly to rainfall. A new multi-million dollar house was built on the site, completed around Easter last year, and questions were raised about whether that had any effect on the cliff beneath.
But in August, Ross Roberts, Auckland Council’s engineering resilience head and a geotechnical engineer, said the new house was “very unlikely” to have had any effect on the cliff beneath. Council staff were continuing to monitor the situation but he held no fears for people’s safety.
Two abatement notices were issued to Wilson: the first in 2019 and the second this year. Non-consented vegetation and stair construction works were carried out below his place. Council documents say he admitted to carrying out the vegetation work. Pine trees and natives were removed because he believed they were dangerous.
Toka Tū Ake EQC says if a home is damaged by a landslip on the owner’s land, people are generally covered.
“EQCover for land is limited to land that is within your property boundary and includes the land under your home and outbuildings (e.g. shed or garage), the land within 8m of your home and outbuildings and the land under or supporting your main accessway, up to 60m from your home but not the driveway surfacing,” the Crown entity says.
In general, private insurers don’t cover land damage, EQC says.
On the Stanley Bay situation, an EQC spokesman said: “Generally speaking, EQCover does apply to landslip damage as it’s a natural hazard, however it’d be best to confirm the EQCover components with the insurer as each situation is unique and we’re not in a position to confirm individual circumstances. There are limited to cover, outlined in the act, for residential land and homes.”
Stanley Point Mews is across the road from the new home of one of New Zealand’s wealthiest men, Berridge Spencer, but his place faces towards Bayswater Marina.
Two years ago, construction had started on one of Auckland’s most scenic waterfront spots where 17 separate street addresses are owned by one entity. A builder estimated the project on land owned by Tokoeka Properties - whose directors include Spencer - at $15 million.
The 17 titles on approximately 1.5h at Stanley Point Rd were estimated four years ago to be worth at least $50m, although the council had it then at only $34.5m for rating purposes.
Demand for bonds may well stay strong, but there's a catch.