Willem Smith's section is sinking away from his home.
Residential sections that border a swampy reserve in Hamilton West are sinking.
Several residents in Twickenham Place and Wimbledon Close say their sections, or parts of them, are slowly sinking, with some affected more than others.
Willem Smith's Twickenham Place section appears to be one of the worst affected. The foundations of his seven-year-old home are almost completely exposed, the sagging deck has had to be propped up with blocks and stormwater and sewerage lines have had to be re-laid three times.
Hamilton News spoke with council's building control manager Phil Saunders. He confirmed that two Wimbledon Close owners had approached council with concerns about subsidence on their properties but wasn't aware of issues on neighbouring properties.
"We have been dealing with both those owners in Wimbledon Close," said Mr Saunders. "To be fair, I don't think we're aware of any issues in Twickenham and subsidence issues there. Certainly nothing's come across my desk about Twickenham and subsidence issues there. That's not say there aren't any. By all means there probably are but the thing to understand is the subsidence issues won't affect the building platform, they can't because it's founded on solid ground."
Most of the houses in the area are built on foundations anchored by deeply driven piles, as was a requirement outlined in comprehensive engineering reports.
But Hamilton City Councillor Dave Macpherson doesn't believe people should have been allowed to build in the area in the first place.
"The whole area is a giant sinkhole. It's like a mini version of leaky homes but it's not the homes that are leaky, it's the ground.
"Our building inspectors say there was a good geo tech report and they followed that, but that's for the house. Didn't anyone think if the house needed huge underground piles wouldn't the other things around it need to be supported? Blind Freddy could see that."
Mr Smith says he has approached Hamilton City Council informally and the company that built the home. "I haven't been able to get a straight answer from anybody or even know what direction to take."
Mr Smith attended a meeting a local community centre that was to highlight flood-prone areas in that part of the city.
"I thought this is my opportunity, I can ask what is the story with the land issues and how much it has subsided. I tried to speak to someone there but straight away told this isn't what [the meeting] was about. Not long after I confronted the company that built the house and they said 'it's out of our hands'."
Mr Smith purchased the house and land package from Affordable Homes before it went into receivership. Paradise Homes took over the building project.
Originally from Zimbabwe, Mr Smith and his family relocated to New Zealand about 12 years ago.
"I wasn't aware of the lay of the land. I didn't know what was here before. Coming from another country you don't know the make up of the grounds. Now I know what peat is, what it means and how it acts. But I didn't then."
Mr Macpherson said a condition of the building consent was "that every purchaser of each of the homes was supposed to be given a copy of the original geotech report that said what the issues were and why the houses had to be on piles."
Mr Smith said he had never been given a copy of a geotech report. Mr Saunders said "there would have been an advisory note on the engineering stuff that a copy of the engineering report be supplied to the first owners. Whether or not the second owners get it is another thing, if people don't hand it on. A lot of it depends on the conveyancing solicitor advising their client, doing the appropriate checks."
Mr Smith said had he known about the potential for subsidence, he'd never have purchased the property.
"When we had the house built I got a contractor to bring in soil to level off the property and I must have had about 30 tonnes of soil that had placed on the property and within a five-year period the soil has all disappeared and we're back to where we were before. If you walk around the house you can see where the soil was to where the soil is now. In some places it's dropped about half a metre and that's with that additional soil on top."
Mr Smith has had to relay stormwater and sewerage drains.
"I had to lift them out of the ground because the ground moving down has obviously been taking the pipes with it and as a result they've cracked off up against the house so I ended up having to replace a lot of the fittings and lift the sewerage lines back up so they can be hooked up again. I've lifted those lines now three times."
He queried what state the drains that run from the back of his house to the road were in given the concrete driveway, which sits over them, had dropped by about 100mm.
Mr Smith will also need to demolish his deck and rebuild that.
"The deck is chocked up to get it back level again. I can't permanently fix it because it's continually subsiding. However, in the last two or three years it's slowed down quite a bit."
Mr Smith said he wants his issues remedied.
"I'm not looking to make a million dollars out of it, I just want what's fair. At the end of the day, it's our livelihood tied up in this. I'd like to see it rectified or whatever needs to happen to take care of it."
Other homeowners, who asked not to be named, have reported brick garden borders collapsing, driveways sinking beneath the front of the garage by several inches so there's a large lip to drive over, doors that don't close properly, wonky window frames, cracked and sinking paths, and stormwater drainpipes no longer lining up with wastes.
One said she hadn't broached her property's issues with council or her insurance company because of the potential financial strain that repairs may place on her family.
Mr Saunders said council had commissioned an engineer to look at two sections in Wimbeldon Close who could give council some advice as to what residents could to do "mitigate their ongoing issues".
"One of the reasons we went off and got some careful engineering advice was so we could update residents affected in terms of how they can mitigate it in future. Unfortunately, in dumping a lot of soil on the property it's going to aggravate the situation. By putting tonnes and tonnes of soil on you compress the peat even more."
Mr Saunders said the engineering report indicated that the two worst-affected sections in Wimbledon Close could expect to continue to subside up to 50mm a year for the next three years "and then it will settle down. That's the best engineering advice we can get."
Mr Saunders said council's legal advice indicated they'd done "everything correctly in terms of the subdivision".
"That doesn't mean we don't have any empathy for the people [in Wimbledon Close] because we do, and the people are suffering. If they've got money to fix it it's not so bad, but some people don't. The best thing we can do is get the best advice for them and perhaps elude them to that advice so that they understand what's happening to mitigate that.
"We have tried to help as much as we can but our legal advice is council has not done anything incorrect in the subdivision process and that's where it stands at the moment. So council, at this stage, have taken the stance that they can't help at this stage. That doesn't mean they won't. It just means at this particular point in time."
EQC has so far refused to assist the Wimbledon Close residents but council has asked it to reconsider its decision.