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Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey says he will insist the Government play a more active role in the leaky homes saga when the Auckland region's leaders meet Building Issues Minister Clayton Cosgrove.
The February 23 meeting follows a Waitakere City Council decision to appeal against a court judgment it believes will threaten councils and their ratepayers with multimillion-dollar costs.
The High Court ordered the city to pay 69-year-old Colleen Dicks $250,900 because its building inspectors approved the way her Hobsonville home was built.
The council was left with the full bill because the builder, Hobson Swan Construction, is in liquidation.
But it has challenged the ruling by taking it to the Court of Appeal fearing it could lead to a series of lawsuits that could overwhelm RiskPool, the national insurance scheme that defends 82 territorial authorities - including Waitakere.
Mr Cosgrove said the Government passed legislation in December to revamp the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service so that homeowners could seek liable parties for compensation.
"Local authorities have insurance to cover their public liability, and it is not the role of the taxpayer to indemnify the insurance industry."
Mr Harvey said the Government was not blameless in this "dreadful muck-up".
He believed it should be more understanding of the situation councils were in. "They [the Government] can't totally let themselves off the hook - they approved the shoddy building materials."
John Gray, of the Leaky Homes Action Group, which is raising money to help fund Mrs Dicks' legal costs, said last night there had been an "incredible" response to an appeal.
Clark extremely sorry
Yesterday: Helen Clark talking to Paul Holmes on NewstalkZB about Colleen Dicks' case:
"Do I feel extremely sorry for the family concerned and other families affected? Of course I do. There's been appalling and shoddy building and again, one of the jobs we have been doing the last three to four years is putting in place some decent building standards. That of course has led to some people moaning that it's putting building costs up too high, so sometimes in politics you feel you can't win."
November 25, 2002: Helen Clark in response to Herald revelations of the extent of the leaky building problem:
"The seriousness of the situation appears to be a fraction of what the beat-up in the New Zealand Herald implies.
"Last time I looked, which was about a week ago, about 1000 calls had come into the hotline ...
She later added: "What we know about the Herald is it does bang on about things, often of no substance, and I can't say ... that I gave the banging-on about that particular issue a great deal of notice."
