Walled-in by a nightmare

The Auckland City Council is not satisfied Ursela Beasley's house is not a leaky home and she is desperate to find a way out of the impasse. Picture / Dean Purcell

"In a parklike setting in a quiet right-of-way and just metres to the Panmure Basin," said the Harcourt's brochure. "Built by quality tradesman (his home is next door) using the Cornerstone building system. The large dining area flows in two directions to the patio on the east side and garden area on the west, all completely private. Absolutely modern with a European flavour."

To all appearances, the Ireland Rd townhouse lived up to the hype. Ursela Beasley paid $466,000 off the plans and took possession in January 2004. But her dream home has become her Kafkaesque nightmare.

Two years of stonewalling and blind alleys have reduced the once upbeat business analyst to the point where she can no longer work.

Accustomed to solving problems for corporates, the obfuscation between builder, subcontractors, lawyers, consultant and officialdom has gradually overwhelmed her.

Beasley, 51, set her sights 10 years ago on a modern, low-maintenance home and worked hard towards her goal. With two adult children, she was looking forward to easing back.

Wary of leaky homes and untreated timber framing, she wanted a house with "no hassles" and was encouraged that developers Alan and Josette Prince, sub-licensees for the Cornerstone concrete and polystyrene structural system, were building one for themselves next door.

But the Auckland City Council has refused to issue a building code compliance certificate for either home and the Department of Building and Housing has backed its decision.

Beasley's situation is best explained in negatives. The council isn't satisfied she doesn't have a leaky home so it won't issue a code compliance certificate.

She has spent $20,000 in legal fees trying to get Prince Developments to fix the problem. But more than two years on, not a hammer has been lifted.

Beasley is not the sort to take a step back or the easy way out. She's unwilling to rent or sell the house until the issues are resolved. Anyway, without a compliance certificate she would struggle to get her money back.

As for the sales pitch of having the builders living next door, relations have descended to Neighbours From Hell status.

"This home has become my prison. I can't deal with two things at the same time any more. I'm just mentally and emotionally exhausted.

"I'm single, self-employed and dependent on my income. At the end of the day, if I can't make money I'll have to walk out and leave everything behind."

Beasley's story is a warning to other homebuyers that, four years on from the leaky homes crisis, the odds remain stacked against owners when it comes to resolving new home defects.

What is frightening is that hundreds of others are living similar nightmares.

Homes are still being bought without a code compliance certificate, even though this is noted on the LIM report.

The Department of Building and Housing acts as a quasi-appeal authority on compliance issues. Of 166 determinations by the department last year, 144 were for homes refused a certificate because of cladding/weathertightness matters.

Most applicants were home-owners - and cases sent for determinations represent only a few of many.

Beasley's problems began when she took possession of the nearly completed home before the builder had a compliance certificate.

She says her former lawyer went on holiday and failed to check whether the certificate had been gained.

She plans to sue the lawyer. He won't comment but has indicated he will defend the claim.

Why all the fuss about a piece of paper? Compliance certificates state that the house, properly maintained, will meet building code requirements for 50 years. Councils can become jointly liable for any defects which show up within 10 years of issue.

Without one, owners have little chance of selling for anywhere near market value.

Beasley's townhouse shows none of the trademark leaky home symptoms such as damp spots, mould or rot but has been branded a potentially leaky home.

The council and departmental concerns include: plaster cladding in contact with the ground; hints that the plaster was too thinly applied in places; two hairline cracks below one window; insufficient height difference between floor and patio paving; and water penetration around windows.

The bureaucratic caution is understandable following the leaky homes scandal, from the viewpoint of future homebuyers and of ratepayers paying millions of dollars for repairs to defective homes which council building inspectors have approved.

In Beasley's case, it might seem the neighbourly thing for the builder to nip over the fence and fix the faults. That this hasn't happened after two years is far from straightforward.

Alan Prince disputes that he is personally liable as builder for the defects in Beasley's home.

He says he "left the subcontractors to get on with it".

The firm responsible for the plastercladding, Ironcladd, went into liquidation in June 2004 and was wound up, although director Steven Ray Vestal now trades as Ironcladd Homes. Vestal could not be contacted.

Beasley still doesn't know what needs to be done to achieve compliance with the building code. Until the extent and cost of repairs is known, damages claims against Prince Developments and Alan Prince as builder must wait.

"I don't know whether it will cost $63,000 or $263,000," says Beasley.

But the efforts of lawyers and consultants to thrash out a solution which satisfies the council seem only to have protracted the dispute.

"It's like a roller-coaster ride. One minute you think you're nearly there and then you're not. As long as something is seen to be happening that's good enough."

Beasley suspects the process is being dragged out "in the hope that financially I won't be able to carry on. This will only get resolved as long as I can fund [the legal costs]".

She estimates that will take three years and another $100,000 in legal fees. "I'm totally emotionally and financially drained. No one cares."

One complication seems to be the Cornerstone design, an energy-efficient building concept invented by Christchurch architect Mary Ginn.

Walls are made of poured concrete posts and beams, separated by thick blocks of polystyrene. Very little wood is used.

Various cladding options are possible. At Ireland Rd plaster was applied directly, as happens with solid-wall (concrete block) construction.

Ginn has franchised the system and says several hundred Cornerstone homes have been built throughout the country without incident.

"The crazy part about it is the solid wall construction is a far better option [for avoiding rot] because it doesn't have wood."

But the unusual structure may have heightened bureaucratic caution. When the council refused to issue the compliance certificate, Prince sought a formal determination from the Department of Building and Housing.

But assessor Nick Dibley agreed with the council, itemising a number of faults, most of them easily fixed.

Weathertightness was the biggest concern. Moisture tests found levels in the wall structure between 21 and 22.9 per cent - levels above 18 per cent indicate moisture is getting in.

Dibley recommended the installation of a "cavity" layer between cladding and wall structure to provide ventilation and allow water to escape.

At the time of Dibley's assessment, the department was planning to amend the building code, making cavity systems mandatory to reduce the problem of rot in timber framing.

But retro-fitting them during leaky home repairs, as councils often require, can add tens of thousands to the cost.

Prince maintains that the concrete/polystyrene construction, which uses very little framing timber, makes the cavity system unnecessary and difficult to install.

In a written response to the damages claim lodged last August in the Manukau District Court, Prince disputed several of the defects identified by the council and the department's assessor.

As an experienced builder, he saw Cornerstone as an answer to the leaky home crisis.

He engaged architect Norman Williams to find an alternative solution. One year on, little progress has been made.

For its part, the council says Beasley needs an expert advising her. Beasley believes her builder should take responsibility.

"My view is if someone stuffed up, they should sort out the problem."

What irks Beasley is that her neighbours are getting on with their lives - expanding their business and taking holidays, while her spare money goes on legal costs.

"There's no timeframe for anything to happen."

The Princes' cellphone is diverted straight to voicemail and they failed to respond to Weekend Herald inquiries. They have been advised not to discuss the case because a claim is before the courts, says their lawyer, Paul Hunter.

They appear to have given up obtaining a code compliance certificate for their own home and resorted to a different structural system for a third, adjoining townhouse.

Norm Williams, the architect hired a year ago to sort out the compliance issues on Beasley's home, is exploring alternatives to removing the cladding and installing a ventilating cavity.

"I'm still awaiting a proposal from a cladding firm," he said. "I've been waiting for quite a while. Maybe they don't want to get involved in case things go wrong and they get hooked in."

Within days of the Weekend Herald's inquiry, staff from cladding firm Rockcote turned up to inspect the home.

Williams said he also wrote to Cornerstone's Mary Ginn but had yet to hear back.

Contacted by the Weekend Herald, Ginn recalled a letter from Williams in January which she had meant to reply to. She has since contacted Williams.

Ginn says Prince built the homes "according to where things were at that point in time [but] the rules changed in the meantime.

"The whole thing was about windows allowing water in. Now it's dispersion of water out of there."

She says there are cheaper ways to fix the faults than installing a cavity, such as drilling holes to allow water to escape. "They've wrongly labelled the system - the rest of the country is saying it's solid wall construction."

Beasley's decision to go public with her frustration may at last have sparked some activity but has hardly improved neighbourly relations.

Prince Developments' lawyer Paul Hunter, in an email to Beasley's lawyer Paul Cogswell, wrote: "My view is my clients are doing much more for your client than many developers would do by engaging Norm Williams to try to find a way to obtain a code compliance certificate for your client's property ...

"Please note that your client is seriously jeopardising my clients' ongoing co-operation by going to the media in relation to this matter."

A reply from Cogswell elicited a further email: "Our clients understand your client's growing sense of frustration ... [and] accept it is her right to contact the media if she wishes to ...

"However, we are concerned that media coverage may affect the approach the Auckland City Council takes to this matter to your client's detriment and it may also deter contractors from becoming involved with the required remedial work."

Beasley: "I just can't deal with it any more - it's like a nightmare that I'm living in. You've got more rights with a toaster."

When things go wrong

It's essential to obtain independent expert advice before buying a house or in any building dispute, says the Department of Building and Housing. A pre-purchase inspection may identify potential problems; a building code compliance certificate increases your options should defects show up later.

The department and the Consumers' Institute jointly run a comprehensive website (see link below) which includes steps to resolving problems with architects, builders and tradespeople. It has sections on buying a house and weathertightness.

If you think you have a leaky home, contact the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service and/or a lawyer specialising in leaky home disputes. The Leaky Homes Action Group provides, support, resources and information.

Action group chairman John Gray says a building consent must be obtained for any remedial work and a building surveyor should oversee the work. A list of reputable building surveyors can be found on the link below.