This three-part documentary series follows S1 of A Living Hell: Apartment Disasters that screened in 2021.
Video / Sky Open
Owners of 33 defective apartments in Auckland’s The Ridge, off College Hill Rd, are selling their unrepaired building as is, after enduring years of upset trying to fix places.
Cameron Melhuish and James Were of Bayleys are advertising 23 Hargreaves St below the Ponsonby ridge as “the ultimate city fringeblank canvas”, saying zoning allows for a wide range of uses.
That indicates the building could be demolished, although the agents didn’t say that.
“Body corporate instructs the sale of the freehold land and existing structure... as is, where is,” advertising said of the seven-level block with 60 car parks.
Inside the abandoned apartment building at 23 Hargreaves St below the Ponsonby ridge: The Ridge apartments are now being advertised for sale. Photo / Bayleys
Expressions of interest are due by March 14 for the ex-office block which featured in series two of the three-part series A Living Hell: Apartment Disasters.
Series two, episode one screened on Sunday night on Sky Open, the new name for Prime TV. S2 E2 airs this Sunday night.
The documentary said owners had spent about $15 million trying to fix the block. Research has shown half of New Zealand apartment buildings suffer from some form of defect, the series fronted by John Gray and Roger Levie of the Home Owners and Buyers’ Association also said.
The show features buildings in Auckland, Wellington and Queenstown.
The Ridge is near Leighs Construction Auckland offices and the Auckland Central Police Station.
In S2 E1 on Sunday, a group of skateboarders was shown trying to gain entry to the apartment block at the very time of filming. No one lives there but filming showed water coming into the building.
The Ridge, an unrepaired apartment block at 23 Hargreaves St, is to be sold as is, where is. Photo / Bayleys
Unit owner,Mike Downard of Taupō, said in the documentary how he had bought a unit there for his university-attending children when the offspring moved to Auckland. He wept inside the abandoned block and turned his back, such was the emotion.
Couple Jagoda and Denis Jezowska told of their family dreams of buying the place but how that had become a nightmare to the point where they may leave New Zealand. They had left and lived in a friend’s place.
Advertising photos from Bayleys show how the building is open to the elements with some materials on the floors.
Buyers are being encouraged to consider all add-value options; office, retail, residential or a mix of all.
The development-intensive mixed-use zoning allows for many different uses.
“Look to take advantage of the existing structure and add value in this highly sought-after position,” Bayleys said.
Bayleys cited neighbours as MediaWorks, New Zealand Police, Alliance Print and Hynds.
The abandoned The Ridge apartments in College Hill, Auckland.
The Ridge has panoramic views across the city to the inner harbour, while others look over Mercy Hospice’s serene park grounds to Ponsonby, the agents said.
Melhuish said this was not the first leaky apartment building he had sold as an entire block although in the case of other sales, people had mainly been still living in the buildings.
The advertising campaign for The Ridge wasn’t fully launched until Saturday, he said and the owners had explored other options.
After it was deemed a leaky building, the tenants were ordered out of The Ridge because its power and fire alarm were due to be turned off to allow workers to fix weather tightness issues, that article said.
A 2018 decision from the High Court at Auckland said The Ridge had been assessed as leaky back in 2009. Auckland Council had issued owners with notices to fix by 2010.
So in 2018, the body corporate struck a written construction contract with Brosnan Construction to fix the places.
Owners had to put up $2,125,415 but the engineer appointed under the contract told Brosnan the project had been suspended.
Owners, via body corporate 329331, decided to halt the planned repair “and properly investigate all options using independent unbiased consultants”, the ruling noted.
The decision said the repair contract could increase to $30m or even exceed that, although whether that figure was cited was disputed in the case. Other cases involving the same block put repair costs at $7m to $15m.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
