Time limit for claims means owner will miss out

Brian Maley's townhouse is outside the 10-year limit for leaky home claims. Picture / Dean Purcell

Brian Maley enjoyed nearly 10 years' easy living in his near-new townhouse in leafy Meadowbank, in Auckland's inner eastern suburbs.

The 64-year-old food company manager's world came crashing down last winter when he decided to sell and retire to Mangawhai.

The conditional sale fell through in July when a building inspection revealed his nest egg needed $150,000 in repairs. It was the first he knew he had a leaky building. But because the home was completed in May 1995 (he bought it a year later) it was just outside the 10-year cut-off point for leaky home claims.

"Everybody thought the house looked great. I had it repainted - the plasterwork looked fine." But for 10 years, water had been dripping in behind the plaster cladding from unflashed roof parapets and entering the framing from the decks. Closer inspection revealed a catalogue of faults. The irony for Mr Maley is that the home was built with treated framing timber. "If they'd used untreated wood it would have been obvious there was rot a lot earlier." Experts say the home will have to be completely reclad and decaying floorplates and framing replaced.

"It's like a nightmare. You work hard for your retirement and all of a sudden you lose $150,000 of retirement income. When you get hit like this you don't know what to do. I don't have the capacity to replace the money."

The 10-year limit on claims means he cannot apply for a loan to fix his house, with banks refusing to lend on leaky home repairs.

Weathertight Homes Action Group chairman John Gray says a growing number of homeowners are discovering the results of leaks outside the 10-year period.

But the Government rejected his plea to extend the time limit in its just-completed review of the Weathertightness Act.

He says many homeowners sell when they realise they are outside the claim period, leaving unsuspecting new owners to foot the bill.