Waitakere council to take itself to court

Waitakere City Council is prosecuting itself in order to keep face with victims of its hard-line stance on building work done without consent.

The council has found itself on the wrong side of the law after accepting tenders for the removal of six homes on the Henderson Valley flood plain.

It contracted out and approved the buildings' removal without the necessary consents.

The council is the authority that grants consents.

It is also prosecuting two building removals firms - Fistonich and Craig Walker - for removing the houses without consent.

Council legal services manager Denis Sheard said yesterday the law made the council liable for the acts of its agents.

The contract with the removal firms required those consents to be obtained by them.

"The applications may have been lodged but they had not been granted.

"This is no different from any other prosecution we take for anybody who does building work in Waitakere without a building consent."

The council and the removal contractors head to court in December.

Mr Sheard, who has 30 years' experience in local body law, said he could recall the Bay of Plenty Regional Council taking itself to court over a sewage spill and the judge ordering $20,000 to be paid by internal transfer.

He did not know how much the case would cost the city council but so far it had spent about $3000 in getting an outside legal opinion.

Nick Fistonich said the lack of consent did not risk anyone's safety; they were demolition consents to allow drains to be cut off, the house removed and the property cleared.

Craig Walker said: "One department of the council was putting big pressure on my company to get the job done, get those houses out of there.

"It was a fait accompli that the council would give consent - it bought those houses to have them shifted and tendered them for removal."

Hans van Duyn, whose Eurovision Building Removals was taken to court by the council and fined $6000 in June, said the council was "bureaucracy gone mad".

"You'd think this could be sorted out without going to court - the council apply the rules without any common sense."

In Eurovision's case, no building consent was obtained for constructing pile foundations to support a relocated house or the relocation.

The property owner and the builder were also fined $3000 and $4000 respectively.