Glen Innes resident fighting eviction has High Court appeal dismissed

Niki Rauti, 62, had her High Court appeal dismissed. Photo / Greg Bowker

The Glen Innes resident fighting for years to keep her state home has had a High Court appeal against the decision to evict her dismissed.

Ioela (Niki) Rauti had lodged the appeal after an earlier District Court ruling said she must leave her home of more than two decades to make way for redevelopment.

After taking her battle to the High Court, Rauti waited five days to hear the decision of the judge, who reserved his decision last Thursday.

Today it was announced the sickness beneficiary's appeal had been dismissed.

Justice Lang found the question revolved around whether Rauti had been sufficiently told by the Housing Corporation of New Zealand (HCNZ) that it had transferred her tenancy to Tamaki Regeneration Limited (TRL), and whether TRL had then given sufficient notice asking her to leave.

He found sufficient notice had been given asking Rauti to leave.

Rauti's refusal to leave her home was rooted in opposition to the regeneration of Glen Innes.

Rauti and her supporters say the project is gentrification which has turfed out low-income families who had been promised a state house for life, destroying the community.

Her house is one of 2500 houses Tamaki Redevelopment Company, TRL's parent company, has pinpointed to be replaced with thousands of new homes over the coming years.

The company wants the house and her land for redevelopment but Rauti has so far refused to leave, despite orders to do so and offers of alternative houses nearby.

The house was leased to Rauti in 1999 after the death of her mother, who had lived there since the 1980s.

Rauti said alternative homes offered were not suitable for her needs - they were too damp or the two-storeyed homes were too difficult for her to access.

She's been fighting TRC since it took ownership of her house, along with 2700 other houses in the area, from Housing New Zealand last year.