Govt, councils to meet leaky home owners

Government officials, council experts and homeowner representatives are about to meet to investigate the rotting homes scandal.

The Government's new leaky-home probe begins this month. It seeks to quantify the scope of the issue, thought to affect up to 80,000 houses.

Suzanne Townsend, deputy chief executive of sector policy at the Department of Building and Housing's deputy chief executive of sector policy, Suzanne Townsend, invited the Home Owners and Buyers Association to contribute, and asked for a representative to be nominated by Friday.

The department is establishing a think-tank to advise on the terms of reference for the project, she said.

Many officials and experts will be called on.

Representatives of the department, Treasury, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Department of Internal Affairs, Local Government New Zealand, the Wellington and Auckland city councils, , the Institute of Building Surveyors and the association would be involved.

She asked the association to nominate a staff member in a senior role as a representative, and said the group would meet in person only once during March.

Building and Construction Minister Maurice Williamson wants to address the legacy of weather-tightness problems, but said he needed far more precise numbers.

"It is one of my top priorities for the year," he told Auckland mayor John Banks and Wellington mayor Kerry Prendergast.

Department officials will research the number of leaky homes needing repairs.

Mr Williamson said the last time the Government did this was in 2005, and it was time to update information to get a clear picture of the size and scope of the issue.

He also wants to know how many places could potentially leak and wants the number of places which were built with materials found to be associated with problems.

"This is information that only local government can compile and provide," Mr Williamson said.

"I am advised you already have an actuarial assessment on the potential size of the leaky home problem and I also think that information will be a useful contribution to the research."

Industry estimates say places will cost $500 million to $5 billion to fix but Mr Williamson wants more precise figures.

He wants the research done by May, when he said he would get advice on new policy options.

Council officials in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Manukau, North Shore, Rodney, Tauranga and Waitakere would be called on because those areas have the most leaky houses.

Ms Prendergast said she was happy to share any information her council had, and would do all that was possible to support the Government in finding an enduring solution.

"But we also resolved to ask the Government that it continue to work with urgency on a solution once the research has been completed.

"Home owners affected by this issue are in desperate need of a way forward and we will continue to lobby the Government to provide them with some urgent assistance," she said.

Association president John Gray said meeting Mr Williamson led him to believe that there was a real understanding of the problem and a will to improve the situation, despite credit-crunch constraints.