Public to pay for leaky homes

Ron and Judy Adolph were given three days to evacuate their leaky Pepperwood Mews apartment last month. Photo / Rob Trathen

Taxpayers are expected to foot at least part of the bill for repairs to 140 leaky Housing New Zealand units.

Repairs at nine sites - eight in Auckland and one in Wellington - are finally underway, three years after faults including "soaking wet" building paper were discovered.

The amount they cost taxpayers will depend on the result of 128 claims before the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service.

Details released under the Official Information Act show leaks were found in 2006.

An audit of HNZ's 67,000 residential units found 10 per cent had risk factors for leaky building syndrome.

Checks showed evidence of leaking at 140 units in Avondale, Flat Bush, Mission Bay, New Lynn Otahuhu, Ponsonby and Wellington.

Buildings on all nine sites needed partial or full re-cladding, re-fabricating of exterior window and door joinery, and in some cases, structural timber framing replaced.

Costs were estimated at $10.6 million, but later increased to $12 million.

HNZ assets general manager Kevin Mara said minor repairs began last month and were expected to finish in May. More extensive repairs were planned to start in 2010.

Mara said when weathertightness problems first emerged, "people were doing remedial works that didn't really fix the problem, and we didn't want to get caught in that. We wanted to make sure we get it right."

Some tenants have been moved because of health and safety concerns, while others have remained in their homes.

The reports don't include problems revealed this year at an building leased by HNZ for the elderly in West Auckland.

Judy and Ron Adolph were given three days to evacuate their leaky Pepperwood Mews apartment last month, and have been living at a motel ever since.

"We wasted a lot of money that we didn't have going to the doctors all winter," Judy said. "They should never have put us in there."

Owners' representative Judy Anderson said it was likely the complex, built in 2004, would have to be demolished.

heather.mccracken@hos.co.nz