The alleged trace was courtesy of a desktop study and there was no evidence from earthworks or a site visit.
Council placed a building constraint along a 40-metre wide stretch of the land, and put the alleged quake risk on the property's LIM, which the couple say impacted on the property's value.
The resilient couple, who live in Rutherford Drive, Waikanae, questioned the report's scientific basis which led to council commissioning a second report from GNS, in 2007, which while more specific, was also a desktop study.
Still unhappy, the couple managed to get council to get an independent geological report which led to the Brown report, released in 2008.
The Brown report looked at the two GNS reports, but undertook a site inspection and geomorphic mapping, and concluded there was no fault trace and what GNS had identified was an edge of a debris flow deposit.
Despite a hearing commission leading to the removal of the disputed information from the District Plan, council felt it needed to keep the conflicting reports on the LIM.
Council regulatory services group manager Kevin Currie said on Monday that ideally trenching would have been carried out to confirm if there was a fault line in the area but none of the affected property owners agreed to the work.
"We had received advice that until the investigations could take place the two conflicting scientific reports should be included in LIMs."
Though they did have the right to build on the land, the Wright's were uncomfortable to pour more money into the property especially with the LIM report's accompanying heavy-duty documents.
The couple, who have been tempted to sell the land and free themselves of the saga, forged on in their quest to get a trouble-free LIM especially as "it has been proven over and above any doubts that it [fault line] is not there so we shouldn't have to compromise ourselves at all," Nanette said.
Their resolve led council to obtain an independent legal ruling by Richard Fowler QC who has stated the GNS Science information didn't meet the threshold of credibility.
Council was advised to remove the risk tag from the property, which council's senior legal counsel Tim Power has said, in an email this month to councillors and some senior staff, it will do.
"No specific reference to a potential Hadfield fault would be included in a LIM of the Wright's property requested today," Mr Currie said.
"We will be giving the Wrights a LIM free of charge to demonstrate this."
The Wrights are awaiting something in writing from council before they can move on with their lives.
"We need confirmation that it is sorted," said Nanette, who was hospitalised for a day because of stress.
They would also like an apology from council, but aren't optimistic they'll get one.
They're unsure of their next move, especially whether they should build.
"What we could do 13 years ago and what we can do now are two different things," she said.
"And we've spent a lot of money fighting this.
"We're now on the pension.
"Some days it's 'yeah just do it' and other days 'what are we thinking about."
She said the couple felt victimised "because we dared to challenge the original report and kept challenging," she said.
"No matter the outcome, we can never get those 13 years back.
"Our grandchildren have missed out on the opportunity of having a country life experience."
Trevor, who has a wine box full of papers relating to the case, summed the saga up.
"It's basically bureaucrats not facing realism."
