Go-slow on claims of leaky buildings

Current claims to the Government for leaky buildings could take until 2025 to resolve, a new report says.

The report, commissioned by a developers' group, says the Government body set up to settle leaky building disputes has resolved only about 10 per cent of claims.

The report slams the Watertight Homes Resolution Service (WHRS), established in November 2002, for resolving only 244 of 2714 claims processed so far.

It says up to 12,000 parties or individual defendants are involved in the claims.

The figure does not include leaky building suits filed in district courts and the High Court, which it is estimated could involve the same number of claimants again.

The New Zealand Property Group Inc, a society of 26 developers formed in May last year, commissioned the report.

Spokesman John Parker said it was appalling that the WHRS was moving so slowly to settle claims.

It was allowing guilty parties to escape.

"A lot of people who had responsibility are liquidating companies," he said.

The problem would get worse as more claims emerged.

Mr Parker estimated that the number could double in the next 10 years as untreated timber - which was widely used in the mid-1990s building boom and has been implicated in leaky building syndrome - continued to rot.

The Government needed to pour more resources into the WHRS to speed up the claims process.

Of the claims settled, the report said 161 were resolved via mediation, 13 by adjudication and 70 by other means.

Mr Parker said the fact that many defendants had chosen mediation rather than adjudication showed they had lost faith in the process.

The WHRS could not be reached for comment last night.

Mr Parker said the New Zealand Property Group, whose members include the Kitchener Group responsible for Auckland's Princes Wharf development, commissioned the report because no one else was monitoring the WHRS.

The society also wanted to dispel public perceptions about developers being the worse villains in the leaky building crisis.

The society had estimated developers would be found liable in 10-15 per cent of claims.

The report found only one development company was implicated in 28 findings of liability.

It said that of 12 claims settled by adjudication, the building and construction industries were found negligent in 42.9 per cent of cases, followed by councils and building certifying companies at 32.1 per cent.

The Weathertight Homes Resolution Service Act was passed in 2002 in response to the leaky building crisis.

The purpose was to provide owners of homes that are leaky buildings with access to speedy, flexible and cost-effective procedures for assessment and resolution of claims.