Council tipped not to certify potential leaky homes

By BERNARD ORSMAN


The Auckland City Council is expected to announce today that it will not certify hundreds of existing plaster-clad homes without a cavity to drain away water.

Other councils are likely to follow, causing stress to thousands of people who have still to get their homes legally certified. This is likely to make these homes harder to sell.

Sources have told the Herald that the council will not issue a code of compliance certificate for any residential properties with a monolithic cladding system without a cavity.

Before issuing a certificate, the council will require homeowners to remove the cladding and install a cavity at a cost of thousands of dollars.

A code of compliance certificate is the final approval saying a house has been properly built and complies with the building code.

They are issued by council building inspectors or professional building certifiers contracted to work for councils.

The Auckland City Council is acting to limit its liability from 920 cases before the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service. The first, benchmark ruling by the service opened the way for owners of leaky buildings to claim millions of dollars in compensation from councils and an easy path for developers and builders to dodge their responsibilities.

Today's action by Auckland City will put pressure on the Government to change the rules so councils do not have to pick up most of the bill for 2500 claims nationwide.

The Manukau City Council will consider adopting a similar policy to Auckland City's at its environmental management committee meeting next week.

The Building Industry Authority has already published a statement on its website declaring its concern about councils taking a blanket approach on refusing code of compliance certificates for monolithic clad buildings without cavities.

A blanket approach could cause homeowners unnecessary stressand confusion, it said.

The authority said it supported councils issuing a certificate only after they were satisfied on reasonable grounds that a building complied with the building code.

The Building Act states that a council shall issue a certificate if it is satisfied on reasonable grounds the building work complies with the code. It is understood that Auckland City will argue that the lack of cavities on monolithic claddings is evidence that homes no longer comply with the building code.

Since last December, all new leak-prone houses in the Auckland region have been required to use wall cavities and treated timber for protection against leaks and rot, but there are still hundreds, if not thousands, of leak-prone homes built earlier which have not received a code of compliance certificate for one reason or another.

It is not illegal to live in or own a building without a code of compliance certificate, but it is hard to sell a home without one and often results in the seller having to drop the price.

Auckland City's director of customer services, Paul Sonderer, refused to confirm the new policy last night, saying the public would have to wait until today to see the package of measures the council had in mind.

How wall cavities work

* A gap or cavity between the outer wall and the internal structure allows water to drain away.

* During the 1990s, many new homes were built without adequate cavities.

* New building rules require an air gap at least 2cm wide to drain water that gets in behind external claddings.