Homeowners caught in certification trap

By BERNARD ORSMAN


About 1800 homeowners in Auckland City face bills running into the tens of thousands of dollars to get their homes certified.

The council yesterday confirmed it would not certify Mediterranean-style plaster, stucco and fibre-cement homes without a cavity to drain water.

Officers said at least 1800 homes were affected by the policy. Homeowners could fix the problem at their own cost or seek a determination from the Building Industry Authority.

Homeowners who chose to fix the problem could get away with providing some ventilation in the walls at a cost of hundreds of dollars. In the worst-case scenario, homeowners would have to rip out walls and install a cavity system at a cost of tens of thousands.

If homeowners go to the Building Industry Authority for a determination, the authority will confirm, reverse or modify the council's decision.

The council said it was acting on new information from the Weathertight Home Resolution Service that showed all buildings using monolithic cladding required a cavity and a benchmark ruling by the service which opened the way for owners of leaky buildings to claims millions of dollars in compensation from councils.

Customer services director Paul Sonderer said the information gave the council "reasonable grounds" under the Building Act to refuse to issue a code of compliance certificate for monolithic buildings without a cavity.

Mr Sonderer said the council knew of 1800 monolithic homes in Auckland City without a cavity but did not know how many of the 930 claims in Auckland City before the resolution service were monolithic homes without a cavity.

"Our insurance excess is $2 million per claim so the potential risk to ratepayers should claims succeed in whole or part could run into millions," he said.

"Nationwide, ratepayers confront a potential bill running into tens of millions. We need to act to protect ratepayers from the bill continuing to escalate in the future."

So far Auckland City has settled more than 20 leaky building cases privately at a cost of more than $1.1 million and made five settlements through the service at a cost of $70,000.

The chief executive of the Building Industry Authority, John Ryan, said Auckland City's blanket approach to monolithic buildings without cavities was incorrect and the council should be assessing the matter on a case-by-case basis.

Mr Ryan said the blanket approach could cause unnecessary stress and confusion for homeowners and lead to building consents or code of compliance certificates being declined for homes that did comply.

The authority had asked the council to bring a determination to it to get clear guidance on the issue but it had not done so.

The authority had advised other councils that they would not be discharging their responsibilities under the Building Act if they introduced a blanket policy of withholding code of compliance certificates for certain types of homes.

Manukau City Council will consider the issue at its environmental management committee next week but Mayor Sir Barry Curtis said he found it irresponsible for any council not to certify a house that had been built in accordance with a building consent that did not require a cavity.

"From my point of view it is against all principles of natural justice," he said.

"I will do my best to ensure that Manukau City Council never puts homeowners and builders in such an untenable and unfair position when the proposal comes up for discussions."

The consent process

Councils issue building consents before construction starts.

Council building inspectors and professional building certifiers make checks during construction.

Code of compliance certificate issued when house has been properly built and complies with the building code.