Cayman apartments: Tauranga City Council paid $21m to settle lawsuit over defects in Mount Maunganui apartment building

The Cayman Apartments building in Mount Maunganui. Photo / File

Tauranga City Council paid $21 million to settle its portion of the Cayman Apartments lawsuit.

The council has revealed its portion of the May 21 settlement today in response to a Bay of Plenty Times official information request.

It had previously twice refused to release the confidential figure, or the total settlement amount including other parties to the lawsuit.

The council said today that "in the interests of public transparency" it had "actively sought and obtained agreement from other parties to provide details of its portion of the payout".

"In the council's last annual report, $19.2m was already earmarked for this purpose.

"Further details of the settlement remain confidential."

On top of that, the legal battle over defects in the luxury Mount Maunganui apartment building cost the council more than $1.5m in legal and expert costs.

The council's legal bill relating to the case came to $666,026 plus a bill for experts of $868,522, GST exclusive, according to costs the Bay of Plenty Times obtained via a Local Government Information and Meetings Act request.

All but one of the owners of 48 units in the Cayman Apartments on Maunganui Rd joined a $36m civil suit against 16 defendants including the Tauranga City Council over defects in the building.

The legal action began after the council issued a notation against the building's property file.

The notation, discovered in early 2016, read the council was aware of "defects" in one apartment and there could be defects in all apartments.

It said the code compliance certificate [CCC] "may have been issued in error and therefore we do not recommend reliance on it".

The note came after one apartment owner successfully settled out of court with Tauranga City Council over defects to his apartment.