Dream of better life becomes eight-year nightmare

Whangaparaoa resident Wilna White and her daughter Shani, 11, stand near the upper-level deck where Shani's friend almost fell through because of rotting wood. Photo / Dean Purcell

Wilna White and her family are migrants who became leaky-building victims.

After a nine-year struggle which is yet to end, she wants to warn other migrants of the dangers of buying a New Zealand house.

Paul and Wilna White lived in the English village of Barton-le-Clay outside Luton and worked in London, arriving here in December 2001.

The family loved Auckland's beaches and bought a house at Whangaparaoa. They dealt with a licensed real estate agent.

Soon after buying, they discovered severe weather-tightness issues and the rot was so bad that a child fell part-way through an exterior deck.

The couple have fought for eight years to get compensation, claiming $475,000 in a Weathertight Homes Tribunal case. But earlier this year, they got just $173,000 and have appealed the decision.

The tribunal awarded the Whites $121,000 from Lorelle Kerkin as the sole trustee of an estate that sold them the house at 6 Castaway Place, and $52,000 from Rodney District Council, which signed it off.

Mrs White said the past eight years had been a nightmare.

She has been robbed of annual holidays because dealing with the leaky-house issue has taken up all her spare time.

Mrs White warned that migrants were in danger of being tricked.

"We had never heard of leaky buildings before arriving here and the issue really only hit the news during 2002.

"The agents didn't alert us to any leaky-building issues.

"Whether that was because the scale of the problem was not really appreciated yet at that time, we don't know. We did question why a hole had been cut and the wood replaced underneath the main deck and were told that the owner had accidentally put a spade handle through it.

"Speaking to agents now, they do make inquiries about the history of the house and if they had done that perhaps the shady history of the building of the house would have emerged - but that may well be hindsight, which as you know is always 20/20," Mrs White said.