Sodden walls spark $3.5m suit

By ANDREW LAXON

Homeowners at a large leaking development in central Auckland are suing for damages of $3.5 million - and singling out one of New Zealand's most widely used building products in their legal claim.

Residents at the 85-unit Greenwich Park site in Grafton discovered the walls were rotting four months after they began moving into their $250,000 homes in December 2000.

They now face repair bills of up to $40,000 a unit and are suing inspectors Approved Building Certifiers, builders Federal Construction and cladding manufacturers James Hardie.

The cladding targeted by the lawsuit, Harditex, has been used on thousands of New Zealand homes in the past decade.

Body corporate chairwoman Dianne Ashleigh told the Herald that leak investigation experts Prendos found walls sodden with moisture content of up to 40 per cent at the Grafton site, which lies between Khyber Pass Rd, Symonds St and the Southern Motorway.

She said the owners held a meeting with Federal and James Hardie and later tried to get Federal to repair the damage but got nowhere.

"Everyone just runs for cover."

She felt owners had to come forward and be honest about the problem because it was wrong to sell homes without revealing the hidden rot - as some owners wanted to do.

Paul Grimshaw, a partner at Auckland law firm Cairns Slane who represents about 600 owners of leaky homes, said the faulty cladding claim was an important part of the case.

"I believe the cladding system is fundamentally flawed in that it doesn't manage any moisture that goes into the cladding system and our expert evidence says that.

"The cladding system ought to have a cavity, so that when any water gets into the system it hits the cavity and drains away.

"What's happened in this case is that, because there isn't a cavity, it's gone through the cladding and the building wrap to soak the untreated timber and rot the framing."

Mr Grimshaw, who plans to file the lawsuit next week, said the cladding system should also have specified that treated timber should be used in the wall framing.

James Hardie's New Zealand general manager, Bob Markham, said from Australia that he could not comment on the lawsuit as he had not seen it. "However, speaking generally, Harditex has been used very successfully throughout Australasia for the past 16 years when it's installed correctly.

"The current leaky building issue in Auckland appears to have more to do with design and construction issues rather than the cladding materials used."

Builders the Herald spoke to describe Harditex as the most widely used fibre-cement cladding in the country. About 2400 houses are built with fibre-cement claddings in Auckland each year.

Late last year, James Hardie introduced an alternative to Harditex, called Monotek, which has been heavily advertised as the answer to leaky building worries.

The company's website says the new product "adds the benefits of superior building weather-tightness ... giving you piece [sic] of mind that your new home has a built in defence against the passage of time and the elements".

Approved Building Certifiers general manager Matt Palmer said he knew nothing about any serious problems at Greenwich Park until he received a faxed letter on Thursday notifying him of the legal action.

"I find it incredible that no one has come to us. All we'd heard was that there were a couple of units that the builders were fixing."

Federal Construction manager Steve Quine said the company would consider whether it wanted to make a response.

Meanwhile, Taradale Developments, which faces a multimillion-dollar lawsuit and leak inspections across four of its biggest sites, announced yesterday that it had redesigned a whole development in Wellington to avoid repeating the problem.

Taradale's Wellington manager, Dean Dewar, said the 91 Monterey units being built in Churton Park, Johnsonville, which sell for between $141,000 and $300,000, had been redesigned in traditional-style weatherboard and marine-grade plywood.

"Although it has been costly and put us back by several months - as well as losing some potential buyers - we are very glad that we did the responsible thing."

Freefall into a building disaster

In the past two weeks the leaky building crisis - first revealed by the Herald six months ago - has become a national talking point. This is how the latest chapter unfolded:

September 10: The Herald reveals that balconies are rotting at Eden Two, one of Auckland's biggest innercity developments, after just 18 months.

September 13: The Herald reveals that builders and developers have drawn up evacuation plans for more than 100 residents at the 65-unit Silverfield Terraces in St Lukes if repairs find traces of toxic mould.

September 14: The Herald reveals that New Zealand's biggest terraced housing developer, Taradale, faces a multimillion-dollar lawsuit from owners at its 153-unit Sacramento site in Botany Downs. Four of the firm's biggest sites - Sacramento, Vista Rosa in Mt Albert and the Grange and Norfolk Pines in Albany - have been investigated for rot or are about to be checked.

September 17: An official inquiry finds evidence of a big and growing problem and calls for a full public inquiry. Internal Affairs Minister George Hawkins dismisses the recommendation.

September 18: Mr Hawkins says an inquiry is premature.

September 19: Mr Hawkins announces a select committee inquiry with limited terms of reference - described by leak investigation expert Greg O'Sullivan as "a joke". Two lawyers who formed a consortium and won compensation for the Erebus disaster, suggest owners of leaky homes do the same.

September 21: The Herald reveals owners at the 85-unit Greenwich Park development are suing for $3.5 million in damages. Epsom MP Richard Worth calls a public meeting at the Horse and Trap pub in Mt Eden tomorrow.

* If you have information about leaking buildings,
email the Herald or fax (09) 373-6421.

Further reading
Feature: Leaky buildings

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