After a day of heavy rain the toilet had overflowed, spewing out sewage and stormwater.
"It's gone into the lounge, the kids' rooms, the hallway, everywhere," Ms Halsall said this week. "Probably the only place it hasn't really affected is the kitchen... Now we can't live in our home for three to six months...
"I've just cried and cried and cried. I'm angry now."
The family had been complaining to the Buller District Council about the poor drainage since she bought the house eight years ago, she said. The toilet gurgled and didn't flush properly after heavy rain.
"Every time it rains [the toilet water] rises to the top so we can't use it."
Council contractor WestReef Services had often been around to pump out pipes. The week before the disaster, drain surgeons had flushed out the drains.
"On the Friday after that was the big deluge - that's when it all occurred."
The family evacuated into a motel and are now in a rental home, which is being paid for by their insurance company.
Ms Halsall said they had met Buller Mayor Garry Howard who couldn't guarantee the sewage wouldn't overflow again. She wasn't prepared to move back into her home until she received a guarantee.
"Why should the insurance be paying out all of this when it could happen again -- but will I get insurance again, because they [her insurance company] know this is a problem with the council... I'm devastated."
There had been arguments about whether the problem pipes were council's or Housing Corporation's, she said. "But I don't care whose they are, because I pay rates."
Her next-door neighbour, Vicki Griffiths, has lived there for 27 years. She said she, her partner and two children aged 16 and 10 continually coped with sewage and stormwater problems.
"We live in a Third World country when it rains."
Their backyard became a swimming pool. Their toilet had occasionally overflowed. Luckily it had happened in the daytime when her family were at home.
"It's just the fear of not knowing if it will happen to us. Unfortunately it happened to Jane - my heart bleeds for her."
Ms Griffiths believed the drainage problem stemmed from nearby Riley Place. She said that whenever she had complained WestReef sent a truck to blow out drains there.
No one from council had been to see her.
"It honestly got to the point where we were that embarrassed to go to them, because it was just continual and we just felt they weren't listening to us and they would pass the buck [to WestReef]."
However, council's utilities manager Ian Forsyth had been "amazing" and spent time explaining that the problem came from pipes installed many years ago by the Housing Corporation.
If that was the case, her family would have to spend a "phenomenal" amount of money fixing the pipes on their own section, she said.
They planned to install two sumps to drain the water in the backyard and she was buying a "thunder down under" bucket to use when the toilet was out of action.
The council's operations manager Steve Griffin said the ongoing drainage issues involved non-council pipes on private property. The pipes were in a state housing area which was not subject to council consents.
"This means that the property owners whose property is served by them are responsible for their maintenance. The council is responsible for the drains in the roadway not on private property."
What had happened at Ms Halsall's home was unusual, Mr Griffin said.
"The toilet overflow occurred during the night during a significant rainfall event and the overflow happened without the toilet being flushed.
"We believe, therefore, that there are other issues perhaps with the plumbing of the property and the manner in which the stormwater is being disposed."
The gully traps or manholes nearby would usually discharge before a discharge from a higher terminal such as a toilet, but council wasn't aware that had happened.
The council was working with Ms Halsall to provide a solution, he said.
He declined to answer when asked if the council would accept no liability. Nor would he say whether the council would allow the house to be reoccupied without a guarantee the problem was fixed, or whether council had had complaints from people other than Ms Halsall.
"The issue is currently being investigated and I have nothing further to add at this stage."
- Westport News
