Government asks why leaky houses keep popping up

Clayton Cosgrove

Government officials are asking the building industry to explain why leaky homes are still being built and many repairs are not working.

Despite law changes, revamped building rules and the reintroduction of treated timber, weathertightness issues are still emerging on building sites.

Officials at the Department of Building and Housing and Weathertight Homes Resolution Service in Wellington have quizzed industry representatives to try to find out why the issue persists.

Weathertight Homes Resolution Service general manager Nigel Bickle said there were concerns about new houses and repairs to existing stock.

The department would soon publish a book of guidelines on remedying leaks in an existing home, he said.

"We really want to contain this weathertightness issue and there are more steps that need to be taken," Mr Bickle said.

He emphasised that although reforms had been made, his service had told Building Issues Minister Clayton Cosgrove that much more was needed.

Mr Cosgrove said "dud builders" who put up leaky homes would soon be outlawed by the Government's new builder licensing regime.

"Can I guarantee that no leaky buildings are going up today? Of course I can't," Mr Cosgrove said. "This is a systemic failure. But we're monitoring the situation and we will stop the problem."

The department's investigations would continue, he said.

Registered Master Builders Federation chief executive Pieter Burghout said his board provided the department with information on the issue.

"We could not fathom why it would still be happening if the councils were inspecting buildings," Mr Burghout said.

"If leaky buildings are still going up, it means there's a few rogues out there still but our members are relatively confident we're not doing this."

Two sector experts criticised the Government for failing to stamp out the catastrophe estimated to affect at least 15,000 properties.

Building consultant Steve Alexander and Auckland airline pilot John Gray of the Leaky Homes Action Group said the problem was far from eliminated and issues which caused the crisis were so complicated and deep-seated that it could take years for them to be resolved.

Mr Alexander, who has been investigating building failure since 1997, said the level of skill and education in the industry meant some houses being built now would leak.

"The question should not be 'why are people still building leaky houses?' but instead 'why wouldn't people still be building leaky houses?"' said Mr Alexander, whose consultancy Alexander & Co is working with claimants seeking more than $50 million.

"We have a new Building Act that gives some helpful changes but lots of other aspects of the changes have not been implemented yet, like the licensing of builders."

Although the building industry had improved in the past few years, factors which gave rise to the problems last decade persisted and were not easily fixed, Mr Alexander said.

Mr Gray said surveyors had also told him of new leaky homes going up.

In April the Government announced a regime to license builders, to be phased in from next November. Last week it announced changes to the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service to speed up the process and allow more victims to use it.

But Mr Alexander said changes so far resolved only a few issues.