KEY POINTS:
North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams is calling for homeowners to take greater responsibility for the safety of their own homes following a balcony collapse at a Browns Bay house at the weekend.
A family of five at Stapleford Cres, including a baby in a high chair, were dining on their deck enjoying a fine summer's afternoon on Saturday when it snapped and sent them plunging 3m to the concrete ground.
Although the baby escaped unhurt, the four adults suffered injuries ranging from a broken leg to cuts and were taken to North Shore Hospital.
When the Herald visited the house yesterday, homeowner Leslie Thom, who suffered cuts to his head, said everyone was resting.
Mayor Williams said he would meet his officers at the council this week to discuss a possible house safety education drive and get ideas on other ways of preventing similar mishaps from happening.
"It is impossible to expect the council to be the policemen for the safety of all house structures," the mayor said.
"But what we can do is enforce the message encouraging people to take greater responsibility for their own homes."
Many of the houses on the North Shore, especially in the East Coast Bays area, would fall into the same category as this house - built in the 1970s, with decks that would be well over 20 years old, he said.
The Thoms had lived in their home for about 30 years.
"Houses built in that era are solid as a rock, but the downside is people tend to take for granted how safe their properties are," Mr Williams said. "People who buy new homes are encouraged to get the LIM report, but those who have lived in a house for a long time have nothing to encourage them to get professionals to do a safety check regularly."
The mayor said it was easier for the council to monitor decks on new homes that were being built - a building consent was needed for any deck built 1m above the ground - but it was "impossible" to monitor those in older homes.
East Coast Bays fire officer Dave Spencer told the Sunday Star-Times that a possible cause of the collapse was because the deck "wasn't attached properly".
Mr Ivan Pecirov, 31, who lives on the same street as the Thoms, said there were some "dodgy deck builders" around and it was really difficult to do a check on who the good ones were.
As a result, he had constructed his own deck when he moved into the property two years ago.
