Council seeks to protect owners

Acid soil caused corrosion of underground pipes at the Marsden City development, above, prompting WDC to ask if a warning about the soils should go on LIM reports.

A possible addition to Land Information Memorandum (LIM) reports on coastal properties in Whangarei could stop others being bitten by repair costs associated with acid soils.

But it could also impact the value of some properties.

Whangarei District Council knows all too well the problems such soils can cause, as it faces a multi-million repair bill at Bream Bay's failed Marsden City development, where infrastructure vested to the council failed thanks to acidic soil corroding underground pipes.

Now, WDC is asking the High Court whether the possibility of acid soils at a property should be mentioned in LIM reports as protection for buyers and developers.

WDC was also in court trying to recoup about $8 million from the companies it says are responsible for signing off the faulty infrastructure.

The listing of acid soils on LIM reports was one of two pieces of potentially bad news for coastal property owners in Northland. Northland Regional Council is to release its coastal flood and erosion zone maps later this month, which will list 14,000 properties susceptible to flooding.