A Waimarama couple convicted yesterday for the largest local breach of the Building Act in 20 years say the landmark case, and 10 months of anguish, could have been avoided.
Hendrik Verhoeven and his partner, Sandra Lynn Wishart, were jointly charged under the Building Act and fined $2000 each after pleading guilty to two charges of building without a consent.
After the Hastings District Court verdict, Mr Verhoeven told Hawke's Bay Today the case came about only after Hastings District Council had "failed to serve like public servants should".
In 2005, after a burglary of their Harper Rd property in Waimarama, they applied for a permit to build a shed to secure their $35,000 fishing boat and tractor.
They then found the proposed 65sq m shed would not leave room on their section for a mandatory 200sq m reserve effluent field.
"The only space we had to accommodate this was on our driveway," Mr Verhoeven said. "Council told us we could rip up our concrete driveway to do so, yet our drive's uphill from our home, so any effluent would have drained back towards our house. What they asked for was totally impractical, and seeing as they didn't offer any alternatives, I withdrew the application."
Mr Verhoeven, who holds a degree in architectural engineering from the Netherlands, decided to build the shed without consent.
The couple was later shocked to find there were simple alternatives to the problematic effluent field. "Apparently, we could have opted for a holding tank, which council never told us about, and furthermore, we learnt our existing septic tank had a volume of 8000 litres, which meant we didn't need any extra effluent capacity at all."
The irony was they were compliant all along, he said.
In September 2008, a council officer inspected the site following a complaint from a neighbour. In February this year, four years after withdrawing their application, the couple was delivered a court summons.
Hastings District Council community safety manager Malcolm Hart told Hawke's Bay Today the couple hadn't grasped the fundamentals of the Building Act.
Mr Verhoeven said: "I could dob in half the population of Waimarama for the same offence - we were definitely targeted."
Mr Hart denied the accusation.
In addition to the fine, Judge Stephen O'Driscoll ordered the couple pay solicitors' fees of $350 and prosecution costs of $600.
Hawkes Bay Today
