KEY POINTS:
Twin sisters Michelle and Lisa Turner and their neighbours are facing a Court of Appeal challenge next year in the latest round of New Zealand's longest-running leaky building saga.
A council is fighting a $100,000 bill the courts have ordered it to pay for the owners' North Shore leaky housing complex, a move which residents say prolongs their agony.
This year, a group who bought units in the 21-unit Sunset Terraces in Mairangi Bay won their marathon case in the High Court at Auckland.
North Shore City Council lost and was ordered to pay $485,000 and $100,000 costs on four units.
The Turners' share of the cost order is $30,000, according to a ruling from Justice Paul Heath.
The Turners' neighbours, the Halfords and Parkinsons, were awarded $30,000 each and another neighbour, Steve Devlin, was awarded $10,000.
But now the council has appealed against that $100,000 cost order and is taking the sisters and others to the Court of Appeal in Wellington at a date yet to be set.
"I'm not expecting them to drop their appeal but this sucks," said Michelle Turner who bought a unit with her sister in June 2002.
Their lawyer, Matt Josephson of Grimshaw and Co, said a challenge was always likely.
"The council are within their rights to appeal and it might well be the insurers calling the shots rather than the council because we can't tell from the outside," Josephson said.
The appeal would be vigorously opposed, he said, but the saga had already been the country's longest-running leaky building case, taking 366 days between the first day of the court trial and when the High Court decision was issued.
Michelle Turner says she feels robbed of the best years of her life.
"I've learnt a lot. I regret the fact that I've spent all the time in my 20s, when I should have been enjoying my life, going to lawyer's meetings and fighting.
"My friends have been out having fun but we've had this weight of worry the whole time. It's robbed me of my youth. I don't regret buying the property because it got us into the market but it's taught me a hell of a lot about people and who you can trust and who you can't. I mean, the council signed the apartments off," she said.
The most bitter pill of all is that to fix the places, owners need council approval - consent from the same authority which has opposed them for years.
"We've got to go back to the council and pay them to get consent to fix it," she said.
"We won against the council as private owners so therefore are entitled to a contribution to our legal fees which is what the $100,000 is for. This does not even cover our fees. This battle has been going on for over five years and we are unable to get on with our lives until this is finished.
"We purchased when we were 21 years old, only to find out that our house was leaking a few months later. Before purchasing the property, we checked it had a code compliance certificate. The council issued that.
"When we can start repairs on our property, we are going to have to apply to the council for consent which is very costly - just to get our house back to how it should be."
Part of the collapsed Blue Chip property empire also bought apartments in the Sunset Terraces. Porchester Ltd and Blue Sky Holdings owned about 13 units and they were part of the failed residential property investment group now in liquidation.
Justice Heath, who ruled in favour of the owners, said Blue Chip's financial failure posed problems for him in issuing the costs decision.
North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams said yesterday that it was the council's insurer RiskPool which had decided to appeal, partly to seek clarification on points of law.
"It's unfortunate that the Turners are affected but there are a number of matters and principles which have implications for future cases and unless these points are clarified, future cases could be delayed," he said.
