Council stops work to repair leaky home

Jan Cowan did not think a building consent was necessary as she believed the work on her West Auckland home would be classed as repairs. Picture / Richard Robinson

When Jan Cowan bought her Laingholm house with breathtaking views of the Manukau Harbour she thought it was a dream move. Instead, it has turned into a living nightmare.

Not only has she had to confront the leaky home syndrome, but her efforts to repair her house have been jeopardised by a Waitakere City Council order to stop work because she did not get a building consent.

The primary school teacher has forked out close to $100,000 to get her house reclad.

Ms Cowan said she was able to have the work done on her home only after receiving an inheritance. Strong plywood cladding replaced the monolithic polystyrene and plaster cladding.

Now the work could be ripped out from under her feet because she failed to get a consent.

On the advice of her builder and an architectural draughtsperson, Ms Cowan did not think a consent was necessary because the work could be considered as repairs. However, that was not the case and the council has ordered all work be stopped while the situation is reviewed.

Ms Cowan is concerned it will find against her because the recladding has not included expensive drainage cavities. But she said the new Shadowplank cladding would make her house so watertight that that should not matter.

For Ms Cowan it is just further stress that she is finding hard to bear.

"It has cost me mentally, emotionally ... big time."

The 57-year-old has cut back her teaching to three days a week so she can try to sort out her housing disaster.

Last weekend rain got in and soaked the possessions she had stashed in what she thought was a safe dry room. "The east wall of the house remains open because the council won't let me close it up ... You'd think the council was there to help me."

She is bitter that the council, in her view, had ticked off the house as it was being built, including work that was never done.

Now Ms Cowan feels as though she is being punished twice. "Why kick the victim? I'm not the person who built the house, I just bought it."

The 200sq m two-level house was built by a carpet-layer who contracted out some of the work. Her builder has told her it was shoddily constructed.

Ms Cowan first realised a problem within a month of moving in as water started coming in through walls and ceilings, wetting the carpets.

She has since discovered rotting timber, floorboards like Weet-Bix, black mould and the toxic Stachybotrys mould.

Ms Cowan blames the house for her severe coughing and chest problems which have seen her in and out of Waitakere Hospital.

Waitakere City Council's legal services manager, Denis Sheard, said repairs could be undertaken without consent only where they were "like for like". But that did not count in this case where the cladding was being removed to be replaced by a new type of material.

Mr Sheard said he had a "tremendous amount of sympathy" for Ms Cowan, who appeared to have received poor advice. The council had not made any decision yet about the situation but he said Ms Cowan could apply for a certificate acceptance which was the next best thing to a building consent. "I am not saying it would be granted but it is available for her to pursue."

John Gray, chairman of the Leaky Homes Action Group, said Ms Cowan was in a difficult situation because she did not have unlimited funds to undertake the most desirable remedial work.

She was working on a very tight budget and had had to do the best she could with what she had, he said. "Many other owners just end up selling ... She is actually trying to fix it."

Mr Gray said there was a problem with the amounts being mediated for leaky house owners through the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service. While they were meant to be confidential, he understood they on average were netting leaky home owners only about 40 per cent of the estimated cost of repairs. The fact they were just estimates also posed a problem as it was not until repair work began that the true damage to houses could properly be assessed, he said.

Weathertight Homes Resolution Service general manager Nigel Bickle said there were some limitations to the assessment of leaky homes.

The service had been reviewed on a range of issues and the report was with the Government,t which was expected to make announcements shortly.