City backs no-blame package to solve leaky home woes

Relief could be on the way for victims of leaky homes in Tauranga who face impossible financial obstacles in trying to get their houses fixed.
Tauranga City Council yesterday agreed to "support in principle" the Government's proposed no-blame financial package in which the Government and the council shared half the costs of repairs, leaving homeowners with the rest.
Chief executive Stephen Town and Mayor Stuart Crosby have been delegated to work with Government officials and other heavily impacted cities to flesh out details of the financial package.
 A report will be brought back to the council for approval, with the financial impacts going out for public consultation, starting with the 2011-12 annual plan.
Mr Crosby said the financial impacts could not be fully determined until details of the package were settled.
Tauranga has joined North Shore, Auckland, Waitakere, Manukau, Wellington and Christchurch in seeking to finalise details of the package.
Eighty-two claims representing 151 leaking Tauranga properties have been accepted by the Watertight Homes Resolution Service, of which about 15 claims involved the council as the building certifier - opening up the council to liability.
Council special projects manager Terry Wynyard said research had established about 1.6 per cent of new houses in Tauranga may result in weathertightness claims.
Based on an average 900 new dwellings built each year for 10 years up to 2005, potential claims could number 144. Of these, 104 could lodge a claim against the council.
If council contributed 25 per cent of repair costs, the average ratepayer-funded payout would be $53,000 or $5.6 million across 106 leaky homes.
However if the number of claimants ended up much higher than the indications from the small cross-section of houses tested for weathertightness, council's liability could blow out to $25 million (481 claims) or $36 million (686 claims).
The Department of Building and Houses has estimated that between 50 and 70 per cent of claimants will opt for the no-blame approach, reducing council's potential costs in the scheme to between $2.8 million and $3.9 million based on 106 claims.
 Mr Town said the package was the first opportunity to cap council's liability. He called this an "extremely positive step forward".
Mr Wynyard said there were huge variations in the number of potential claims. This reflected the uncertainty that not every monolithic-clad building leaked.
Asked why Hamilton, with its rapid growth, did not share the same number of leaky houses as Tauranga, Mayor Stuart Crosby said it was the style of homes built in Hamilton.
Mr Wynyard said everyone was chasing their tails to find someone to take liability for the repairs, when the legal costs could be better spent fixing the building.
There was a social aspect to the Government package - owners of leaky homes were tearing their hair out because they did not have the money to go through the court process, he said.
Most claims against the council had been funded through the council's insurance, with council meeting excesses of $20,000 or $50,000 but the industry was no longer paying out on leaky homes.
The council yesterday voted 8-3 to support the Government's package in principle, with Crs Hayden Evans, Murray Guy and Catherine Stewart opposing.
Cr Stewart said the Government would glean that the council was happy with the package, however she said a wider conversation was needed with the community.
Cr Evans argued that central government needed to take more responsibility. "They made the rules and they should pay for it, and not this council or its ratepayers."
Cr Guy said there was no where in which the council was actually negligent. It was fairer to sheet home the responsibility to all the revenue derived by central government, rather than penalising ratepayers.