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Architects are being swamped by leaky-building court claims and one award-winning Auckland designer says legal action is destroying his profession.
Colin Leuschke, who designed the distinctive Princes Wharf apartment/office project, has just reached a major settlement with Auckland City over leaky apartments he designed.
He says he fears for architects' future because so many people are facing large leaky-building civil court claims.
"Architects are under siege and they're keeping quiet about it. This is devastating the architecture sector because architects will have to go bankrupt," he said.
"Architects will have a hard road in the next few years because we're an identifiable target. It's making architecture untenable economically."
Both he and his firm were sued in a major civil action in the High Court at Auckland heard last month by Justice Rhys Harrison.
Court documents show Auckland City paid the unit owners $1.4 million and Mr Leuschke reached a settlement with Auckland City on July 13 by paying $100,010.
The angry owners of defective apartments in Eden Terrace had claimed $1,879,509 from Auckland City, Mr Leuschke and developer/project manager Mark Cooper.
Mr Cooper and Mr Leuschke went into a joint venture on the project, built between 1997 and 1998. The units began leaking in 2002.
The court heard how 18 units built by McRennies Construction at 8-10 Rendall Place had 13 major defects including incorrectly installed exterior cladding; timber pergolas attached with metal brackets which penetrated the cladding; deck balustrades with flat tops not flashed correctly; aluminium doors and windows without flashings to deflect water; timber frames over garage doors without flashings and wall junctions without flashings. As a result of the problems, plasterboard wall linings were "saturated", which had eliminated crucial fire-rating properties. Moisture levels in unit timber framings were raised to above acceptable levels.
The only way to fix the units was to strip off the exterior cladding and replace damaged materials including the fire-rated plasterboard, the plaintiffs said.
At issue was the role played by Mr Leuschke and Mr Cooper.
Mr Leuschke said he had executed agreements only as a director of his company Bouffont Holdings and that company was a party to the joint venture, not him personally. Mr Cooper claimed his Cooper Trading Trust had been involved, not him personally.
Disputes also arose about the extent of faults with the units, the scope of remedial work and the costs of repairs.
Mr Leuschke voluntarily put his Leuschke Group Architects into liquidation last month. He is now practising under a new business, Leuschke Architects.
Mr Leuschke is named in a second major High Court claim from owners of Waterford Apartments in Parnell.
Beverley McRae, the Institute of Architects' chief executive, said professional indemnity insurers had told her leaky building claims were not a major problem for the profession. She said Mr Leuschke wanted the institute to become more involved in the issue.
