A builder has admitted more than a decade of illegal construction on a property on the outskirts of Hastings.
Appearing in Hastings District Court this morning, Ezra Combs pleaded guilty to seven charges laid under the Building Act by the Hastings District Council relating to the structures on a property at Ruahapia, just north of Hastings.
Similar charges against three other people were withdrawn.
The council began investigating last October and found 31 non-compliant buildings on the property. The other four on the property had been built according to the rules and had building consents.
The buildings comprised a mixture of residential and rental accommodation, and office and other commercial space. They had been erected since 2003, when a woolshed on the property was converted to living quarters, ignoring a council requirement to have a building consent.