Heritage trees put homeowner in a tangle

Roots from a grove of heritage-listed totara trees on Nola Buckley's Whangarei section have damaged her home and she is wondering why she should have to pay for part of the repairs.
While heritage-tree roots have in the past damaged homeowners' paving and water and sewerage lines, Mrs Buckley's is the first case on record with the Whangarei District Council where the roots have caused structural damage to a house.
She has paid $2000 for an engineer's report on the root damage to a terrace and brick wall of her home in Parahaki St at the Regent.
Mrs Buckley has also paid a builder more than $6000 to remove part of the terrace and dig a trench between the trees and the wall so the extent of the root damage could be assessed by council building inspectors and arborists.
The council has agreed to pay for the engineer's report.
Council parks technical officer Stuart Jackson said the inspection had found substantial roots growing into the foundations of the house.
It had been thought non-terminal root trimming could fix the problem, but after the inspection it was considered cutting off major roots would destabilise the trees.
As a result, council contractors have removed the two totara closest to the wall.
"It's an emergency situation. We've come to the party and are dismantling the trees at council expense," Mr Jackson says.
Council policy and monitoring manager Paul Waanders said the Whangarei district plan contained provisions for the council to carry out emergency trimming or felling of heritage trees to protect life or property.
But there was nothing in the rules about who should pay for repairs, he said.
However, Whangarei District Council group manager environment Paul Dell said there were policies in the district plan which covered the situation.
"They are not our trees, we didn't plant them," he said.
The owner had paid for building repairs and the council was paying for the engineer's report ($2000), waived the resource consent fee ($597) and covered the cost of felling the trees and clearing up (about $4000).
"That seems like a pretty even split of the costs to me," Mr Dell said.
"The lesson for everyone here is that if you notice roots from a heritage tree are getting into your foundations or putting life or property at risk you should contact council as quickly as possible so the problem can be addressed early.
"In this case it was some time before the building owner noticed the issue and when she came to us we acted promptly."
Mrs Buckley and her late husband Dr Tim Buckley bought the house in 1958 when they returned to New Zealand after spending several years in London.
She said she had hoped that when the council saw the trees were damaging the house they would fix the problem.
The council has rules to prevent home owners from impacting on heritage-listed trees on their property and Mrs Buckley said she considered it reasonable under these circumstances to believe the council would fix any problems caused by the trees.
"Surely they should have something in the rules which say it is the homeowner's responsibility to pay, if that is the case," she said.
"A tree doesn't just consist of branches and foliage. There are roots as well, so care of the tree roots is part of the tree maintenance."
Whangarei has about 300 heritage-listed trees, most of them on private property, according to Mr Jackson.
There are also about 17,000 trees in the Whangarei district, most of them on roadside reserves, which have obtained heritage status by default, simply by exceeding 6m in height and with their trunks exceeding 600mm in circumference 50cm from the ground.