Shane Kennedy, chairman of Anchorage Apartments body corporate. Photo/Andrew Warner
Shane Kennedy says there were times the owners of the Mount's Anchorage apartments felt like giving up their battle to fix their complex.
But the Tauranga House of Travel owner, who has lived in The Anchorage since it was built in 2002 and is the complex's body corporate chairman, says it was worth the legal fight now work is under way to transform the building.
"It's a good news story," he says. "We are going to come out of it with what could be loosely described as a new building.
"All the owners, myself included, are quite excited about it - which is a nice place to be after several years of anxiety."
The Anchorage is undergoing $10 million worth of repairs and upgrades, including replacing all facades and the roof.
The building suffered only minor leaks and Mr Kennedy is reluctant to call it "a leaky building", saying the cladding was fine but as a consequence of compromised decks, the whole thing needed fixing.
The building will be brought up to current Building Code standards after it qualified for the Government's Financial Assistance Programme [FAP], which covers 25 per cent of the cost of remedial work.
The original application under the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services Act was denied, but accepted on appeal.
Mr Kennedy credited local lawyers with helping the apartment owners gain a satisfactory resolution, saying it was not an easy journey.
The owners had gone through a range of emotions, including denial, fear and realisation that something needed to be done, and getting the consensus of 68 owners with different expectations and different budgets had been challenging at times.
Mr Kennedy said The Anchorage owners were hugely sympathetic to owners of other leaky apartments still engaged in legal proceedings, but he urged people not to give up, saying across the board, there was greater understanding of weathertight issues and obligation on authorities to deal with such buildings.
Compliance was tighter and construction firms also had much more experience fixing problems.
"Everyone is more educated about what we're dealing with so I think the results are getting better," he said.
"Once people get through the hard times and they end up with a brand new fully-compliant building, they hopefully get back the value of their asset."
Living with the noise The sound of loud drilling could be heard when the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend visited The Anchorage recently.
A resident spoken to outside the building said he was confident the works would fix all problems and update the complex in both appearance and standard.
"It's going to be a 2015 building when it's finished. Everybody's happy about it."
The 80-year-old man, who did not wish to be named, said he and his wife were among the first residents of the complex when it was completed.
The couple's fourth-floor apartment had suffered minor leaks in the past through the roof and although it was disappointing the complex had been found to have problems, it was "not a big deal".
Nor was it a bother living in the building during the current upgrade.
"Once you close all our doors, that cuts the noise right down."
The Anchorage is being repaired and upgraded in two halves, each scheduled to take six months.
The man and his wife are living in the half of the building not currently undergoing work, and will move to an apartment on the other side when work on their half begins.
He praised construction company Naylor Love for keeping residents updated on progress in bi-monthly newsletters.
Hours of work by the company's contractors have been limited to mitigate the impact on residents and others renting apartments for holidays.
About two-thirds of the apartments in The Anchorage are in a rental pool, and the accommodation is still operating.
Booking.com says the complex managers have a "no noise/no nuisance policy in place with the contractors".
Mr Kennedy said any disruption to the accommodation operation would hopefully be recouped once the work was completed because the complex would be more modern and could potentially charge higher nightly rates.
A search of the Companies Office website reveals the development company behind the complex, Mount Lifestyles Ltd, was struck off the companies register after being incorporated in 1999 and liquidated 10 years later.
Shrink-wrap buildings Anyone who lives at the Mount will be familiar with the sight of buildings covered in white plastic wrap.
But local company A1 Wrap says not all the buildings are leaky and the plastic covering is used for a variety of reasons, particularly cost savings.
"It allows contractors to do what they need to do in any type of conditions," says A1 Wrap owner-operator Charles Baxter.
"There is no delay in work.
"It's also an environmental protection. It confines all materials, sprays and dust."
Furthermore, it protects workers because it is tightly packed against scaffolding in the same way as a truck tarpaulin, preventing falls.
Mr Baxter says the product is starting to be more widely used on buildings in the Bay, following a trend already well established in Auckland. There, it is also common on new builds because people want to minimise the impact on neighbours, and also for the wow factor when unveiled.