Occupied Tōwai School in Northland pulled from sale after vendor dies, hapū claim rights

The former Tōwai School, on Ford Road in Hikurangi, Northland, has been withdrawn from sale.

An abandoned Northland school currently occupied by local hapū has been withdrawn from sale after the owner died.

The sale of the former Tōwai School on Ford Road, in Hikurangi, was put on hold after Ngāti Hau learned it was back on the market in March and requested the Crown purchase it.

Hapū members then moved on to the land at the end of March and, according to media reports, were committed to occupying the property until an acceptable resolution was reached.

Ray White listing agent Alex Smits told OneRoof that the owner had died earlier this month while still awaiting an outcome. His family had decided to pull the property from the market, believing it was impossible to sell while the land was occupied.

Smits said the family had got “hoha” (fed up).

“They are very disappointed they didn’t sell this freehold title before he passed away. It’s quite sad really – they got held to ransom,” he said.

“It got too hard. No one wanted to help them out and get the occupiers off the land. It had just become a messy mess.”

The property would now sit idle, he said.

Smits told OneRoof, at the time of listing the property in March, that the owner no longer had the capacity to deal with it so had decided to sell to someone who did.

Hapū members have occupied the former Tōwai School site since the end of March. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Smits said the owner had been travelling back to Northland from Auckland in 2013 when he saw the “for sale“ sign outside the former Tōwai School and “bought it on a whim” for $125,000. A coffin maker had been living in it rent-free in return for keeping an eye on the property until 13 months ago.

The property consists of a dilapidated building, drained swimming pool and deserted toilet block.

Smits said there had been a huge amount of interest in the property since it was listed in March, with about 38 people attending one of the open homes held early on in the campaign.

The old swimming pool also remains on the site.

The property switched from an auction to a tender process in April because of the immense interest, he said, and there had been about half a dozen people lined up to buy it. However, the tender was put on hold after the property was occupied, despite there being no formal claims against the property.

“We still had tonnes of interest. We had about half a dozen people phoning up a week who were legitimately serious that they wanted to do something, but we couldn’t do anything with squatters on the land.”

The former Tōwai School closed its doors for the last time in 2004. The Ministry of Education sold the land to the then Housing New Zealand, which had plans to build low-cost homes on the site. Those plans were later scrapped following opposition from residents and restrictions preventing multiple dwellings from being built on the rural land.

Before the Government sold the former school in 2013, Ngāti Hau along with two other local hapū put in applications asking the Crown to land-bank the property. Two of the applications were rejected because the groups had no association with the area or property. The third application by Ngāti Hau was declined largely due to the high costs involved with holding and maintaining the property.

A Ngāti Hau spokesman declined to comment about the property when approached by OneRoof this week.