But no payment could be claimed from Auckland Council because independent certifiers signed off the building - meaning the council had no liability.
Dawson said building manager John Burrowes was acting as the owners' representative while repairs were being carried out.
The block was built in 2001 and its apartments were designed for short-term and long-term rental, Dawson said.
"All units have been in high rental demand ever since. However, as a result of the body corporate's call to facade consultants to prepare a fabric maintenance plan in 2005, evidence emerged that the cladding required urgent attention as well as attention to persistent leaks posed by severe problems due to the roof design," Dawson said.
"In 2007, it became apparent that there was water ingress into other parts of the building as well, even though the majority of the units showed no outward evidence of dampness or mould. It became evident that failures had occurred from the outset," he said.
"This posed great stress on the body corporate committee of the day to come up with the best strategy to rectify the problems."
That committee is responsible to the owners to ensure that their interests are well managed according to the Unit Titles Act, Dawson said.
However, the law as it was then gave no guidance to a committee or building manager on how to address the issues confronting them with a leaky building.
Nor did most committee members possess the skills to address them.
"As all of the committee held jobs and were voluntary, the task became enormous," Dawson said.
"Decisions needed to be made to advise all owners of the costs they were to face, assist owners who might hold up the rebuild because of lack of funding or other factors, secure legal protection for the committee, find a competent architect and engineer familiar with commercial building design, find a builder with the skills to remediate an existing building, find a competent quantity surveyor, establish what claims the body corporate might have and against who, establish a separate budget to levy owners with the cost of this preliminary work and prepare a project strategy that integrates all of these functions to arrive at a start date."
The committee enlisted the help of the Home Owners and Buyers Association to co-ordinate and advise on many of those functions, he said.
"Even so, the committee has still had to meet fortnightly since 2007 to arrive at the outcome we see today.
"Seven years later and [with] costs to owners running in excess of $100,000, the building is now in the process of meeting the standards it should have at the outset in 2001.
"Following a year untenanted, the building should be refurbished and ready for reoccupying around February," he said.
"Multi-unit situations such as this are proving to be all too common over Auckland and are the cause of widespread financial and social distress not only to owners but tenants as well."
Dawson is on the committee of the new Auckland branch of the Body Corporate Chairs Group, which holds its inaugural meeting at O'Connells in Shortland St at 6pm on Thursday.
The Pulse
• 65-unit leaking Ponsonby block.
• Built 2001.
• Problems discovered 2005.
• By 2007, scope of issues extended.
• $7m fix-up just begun.
• Due to finish February next year.
• Owners getting Government's financial assistance package contribution.
• That will cover 25% of repair costs.
