Papamoa Village Park fined $24k for non-consented building works

Papamoa Village Park Limited has been fined $24,750 for construction of five non-consented units at the park. Photo / File

A Tauranga campground business has been fined $24,750 over the construction of five units in Pāpāmoa without the necessary building consents.

Papamoa Village Park Limited was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court yesterday after earlier pleading guilty to a charge of carrying out building work not in accordance with a building consent.

The charge related to five residential units built at Papamoa Village Park in Parton Rd between May 2014 and March 2017 by Tauranga building company Venture Developments Limited.

The Tauranga City Council brought prosecutions under the Building Act against both companies after its inspectors found a total of 28 non-consented units during site visits in February last year.

Venture Developments was paid $507,000 to construct the units, which were then onsold to tenants for about $125,000 each.

Papamoa Village Park Ltd's lawyer Kate Barry-Pacino argued a fine starting at $25,000 fine was appropriate given the special and unique circumstances of this case.

The defendant had not made a profit from these dwellings, and the intention was to improve the buildings to make them safe and affordable homes for unit owners, she said.

Judge David Cameron said this was clearly not a mere oversight.

"I agree with the council's prosecutor there was a high degree of carelessness by the park director who gave incorrect advice to Venture Developments when a simple phone call to the council would have elicited the correct information," he said.

In October Venture Developments was fined $54,000 for the same charge in relation to all 28 units built at the park between October 2016 and February 2018.