An avalanche of debt and disaster

Tim Manning faces legal and financial headaches on all sides - from home owners with leaky houses to investors and creditors tired of waiting for their money.

Leaky buildings: Manning companies face a $20 million lawsuit from the owners of Sacramento, his flagship 153-unit development by the Botany Downs shopping centre. A building consultant's report says some homes may no longer be worth saving. Staircases and balconies are rotting so badly that the owners have been told to repair them immediately at their own expense, or face the legal consequences if someone is killed or injured in a collapse.

Some of the worst features are:

* Parapets along the rooflines are not capped which allows the rain to pour in.

* Some decks are not properly attached to the poles supporting them.

* Poles have been planted directly into the ground, rather than into concrete, which means they will get wet and rot.

Other Taradale developments face similar problems, as the Weekend Herald revealed in July last year.

At the Grange in Albany, 105 owners have been warned by a building consultant's report and a legal opinion that their homes will not survive without major repairs. At Vista Rosa, a 65-unit complex in Mt Albert, two rotting walls have been replaced and the toxic mould stachybotris has been discovered.

An owner of a unit in the leaking 44-apartment Norfolk Pines at Albany said this week owners had met Manning who was as "good as gold" to deal with and an agreement was reached for him to pay for a complete audit of weathertightness. "No one has worked out who will pay for repairs, but Tim has been co-operative," he said.

Manning also faces a $1 million lawsuit from residents at the 26-unit West End in Grey Lynn, who say their apartments will cost $40,000 each to fix.

Some units at Greenstone Terraces in Queenstown are likely to have their roofs removed to fix what Taradale describes as a "condensation" problem. An overseas investor with a unit there said 28 of the 75 units will have their roofs removed.

Repairs have been carried out on chimney leaks and deck problems at Marama Point, Rotorua. Cracks have been found in the cladding of Sacramento's neighbouring development, Pueblo.

Investors and creditors: Companies which managed Taradale developments in Rotorua and Queenstown owe at least $2 million to investors in unpaid guaranteed rents. Liquidators' reports suggest total debts to creditors and investors of $5.2 million - $2.1 million from six companies liquidated by Manning and a further $3.1 million from the development companies behind the three resorts. Liquidators said the real total will be less because some the debt is internal between Tardale companies. However many creditors' claims have not yet been added to the list.

Manning maintains that neither he nor Taradale owe the investors money and blames former colleague, Gary McNabb, who ran the companies.

McNabb disputes this. He and Manning jointly owned the companies involved.

Taradale Hamilton has also gone under, with unknown debts. The Weekend Herald understands creditors are owed at least $300,000 for two proposed developments which have not yet been built.