City Garden Apartments in Albert St, Auckland, was issued with a dangerous building notice on Wednesday. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
City Garden Apartments in Albert St, Auckland, was issued with a dangerous building notice on Wednesday. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Residents of a downtown apartment building deemed unsafe will not need to leave their homes on Monday after experts found the 16-storey tower was “no longer dangerous”, Auckland Council building consents general manager Ian McCormick says.
City Garden Apartments’ tower in central Auckland was issued a Dangerous Building Notice [DBN] on Wednesday after both council building inspectors and Fire and Emergency New Zealand [FENZ] found significant defects with fire safety systems in the building.
That would no longer need to happen after he and 15 building inspectors, along with specialists from Fire and Emergency, assessed that the concerns that led to the notice had been fixed, McCormick said late this afternoon.
“We are pleased to say that good progress has been made and based on our observations we believe the building is no longer dangerous.
“[The] owners were able to demonstrate that crucial life-saving systems including the alarm systems, sprinklers, smoke and heat protectors and fire doors are all working compliantly.”
Contractors enter City Garden Apartments in central Auckland yesterday to carry out remedial work, after Auckland Council issued a Dangerous Building Notice. Photo / Jaime Lyth
The council were still waiting on certification documentation before they could say “with certainty the building is no longer dangerous”, but expected to have that completed today.
“Once this is received and we are satisfied, we will inform the body corporate and residents that they will not need to vacate on Monday.”
However, they were unable to lift the Dangerous Building Notice immediately because of an application made by the lawyer for City Garden Apartment’s body corporate, Tim Rainey.
The application for a determination also put on hold the evacuation order, a ministry spokeswoman said yesterday.
“At [today’s] stage we would usually lift the notice under normal circumstances”, McCormick said.
“However, due to a determination to MBIE sought by the building owner’s legal representation, we are currently unable to do so. We are working through that process, but this will not affect the fact that residents do not need to vacate.”
Barrister Tim Rainey is acting for City Garden Apartments' body corporate after the Auckland apartment tower was issued with a Dangerous Building Notice by Auckland Council.
An MBIE spokeswoman confirmed that when a determination was being considered, any decision or exercise of a power by council was suspended.
That was only in relation to the matter being determined, unless the chief executive directed it otherwise, the spokeswoman said this afternoon.
“MBIE may make a direction when the matters involve life-safety. In some circumstances council or another party will request MBIE make that direction.
“There has been no request to make such a direction at this time.”
Today’s outcome was a good one, but there was more work to do to improve the passive fire systems and complete the separation of the stairwells through the car park building, McCormick said.
This work would be incorporated into a Notice to Fix which the council would serve on the body corporate soon.
“We are pleased to see this work is progressing and we will continue to monitor the works closely to ensure any outstanding concerns with the building are fully addressed.
“We believe the issues facing this building are unique and we don’t share similar concerns for other apartments in Auckland. However, this situation highlights the importance of building owners regularly inspecting and maintaining building safety systems to ensure the safety of occupants.”
Residents outside City Garden Apartments in Auckland after a Dangerous Building Notice was issued by Auckland Council on Wednesday. Photo / Jaime Lyth
He went to the ministry because the tower didn’t meet the definition of a dangerous building as previous issues had been fixed, Rainey said yesterday.
The handle of a fire door had been vandalised and that was discovered during a fire alarm within the building last week, he said.
A connection between the fire alarm system and FENZ had also been disconnected by a contractor who’d run a fire alarm test but not reconnected the system.
That was also discovered last week as a result of an issue with a sprinkler, which was broken. It should’ve resulted in the fire service being alerted but that didn’t happen.
“These are the sort of mistakes that happen in a large building like this.”
The Grenfell Tower fire in London seven years ago claimed more than 70 lives.
Meanwhile, the building’s management said they were short more than $30 million needed for long-term fixes to some fire hazards and re-cladding, RNZ reported last night.
The building hasn’t had a warrant of fitness since 2017 and the council has issued several notices to fix and infringement fines.
One resident said he had no idea where he’d live if the building was deemed unsafe, and hadn’t been advised whether his accommodation would be paid for or not.
“Whether or not the fire alarm goes off, that means nothing to me because we all watched the Grenfell building with the same cladding on, go up in minutes,” a resident told the Herald.
The apartments had previously been subject to a resident’s complaint about their exterior aluminium cladding, which was the same as that used on Grenfell Tower in London, where a fire in 2017 killed more than 70 people.
He was “disgusted” the cladding hadn’t urgently been removed, apartment owner Daniel Young said in 2018.
At the time McCormick, as the council’s building consents general manager, assured those living and working in the 25 Auckland buildings found to have exterior aluminium composite cladding that they were safe.
The flammable polyethylene cores in their claddings were not necessarily dangerous because they had other means of fire protection, McCormick said.
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.
