Apartment owners hire lawyer over balconies

By ANNE GIBSON

Residents of a Newmarket apartment block where all the balconies on one level are in danger of collapsing have engaged a lawyer to sue.

The residents learned yesterday that all the balconies attached to the side of their building need to be propped urgently to avoid a tragedy.

Colin Johnson, who owns a unit on level seven of The Terraces at 118 Broadway, said an inspection of the property had revealed problems with all 17 balconies attached to level seven of the structure.

But even after they are propped, residents will be barred from stepping on to the balconies until full repairs are carried out.

Potentially lethal timber cantilevered balconies on the block prompted the Auckland City Council to issue dangerous building notices this week for 17 of the 43 apartments.

Mr Johnson said a structural engineer and consultant from the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service had advised owners that a call would be made for urgent temporary work on the balconies to avoid a tragedy.

The council's principal building officer, Bob de Leur, said the balconies were extremely dangerous and owners would have to pay for the propping work. If further inspections showed floors to be rotting, some apartments might need to be vacated.

He was worried that if a balcony fell from the building, it could topple on to the railway track underneath.

Albert Giorgini, finance manager at Connex Auckland - which operates the metropolitan rail network - said train drivers were unaware of the potential for problems.

Train services were operating at their usual speed, he said, despite claims from residents that drivers were slowing down because they feared balconies could fall on the tracks.

Mr Giorgini said trains were "operating within normal parameters".

The council found this week that one of the balconies appeared to be unstable but a closer look showed problems with other balconies in the 7-year-old block.

Residents are considering legal action against parties involved in their building and have engaged lawyer Paul Grimshaw of Cairns Slane to represent them.

Building inspection experts Prendos had been commissioned to make a thorough examination and prepare a report on problems for the case, Mr Johnson said.

Mr Grimshaw is acting for more than 2000 other victims of leaky homes.


Mr Johnson said owners expected to take their case to the High Court because they had no faith in the resolution service which, he said, was pitifully slow.

Although complaints about the building were lodged two years ago, the service had issued reports on only seven of the 43 apartments, he said.

Mr Johnson bought his apartment directly from the directors of L&Y Holdings, a company that bought about 3ha of railway land in Newmarket during the 1990s to build apartments and carparking.

Chris Watt, the council team co-ordinator for resource consents, said yesterday that in 1998 approval was given for Teck Lim, Ming Lim and Toon Yeo to alter plans for 118-120 Broadway. The three were trading as Broadway Mall Partnership and applied to build residential units and carparking on business-zoned land.

Companies Office records show L&Y directors to be Jin Lim, Kwang Wong and Toon Yeo, all of Singapore.

L&Y still has offices at 88 Cook St, Auckland, where a spokesperson said messages could be left for staff.

L&Y shareholders Ming Lim, Toon Yeo and Jin Lim requested it be put into liquidation on March 18 and Auckland accountant Michael Clarke was appointed its liquidator.