Cracks around Anthony Stringer's condemned house is getting larger by the day while authorities dither over who is responsible for his family's predicament.
Photo / Michael Cunningham
Cracks around Anthony Stringer's condemned house is getting larger by the day while authorities dither over who is responsible for his family's predicament.
Photo / Michael Cunningham
Whangārei District Council believes work carried out on a development by former mayor Stan Semenoff resulted in slumping of land that forced a homeowner to move into temporary accommodation.
It's been more than one year since Anthony Stringer and his wife moved out of their Manuka Pl home and intoa flat owned by his employer Culham Engineering while WDC, Northland Regional Council and the Earthquake Commission decide on how the slip happened.
Stringer didn't return messages and phone calls. Semenoff declined to comment, saying his company was going through a process.
WDC has issued a Dangerous Building Notice on the Stringers' house after extensive cracks were discovered by an engineer who went to initially check on part of the road on Manuka Pl that had slumped on August 29, last year.
In March 2016, Northland Regional Council issued a company owned by Semenoff consent to undertake about 152,000cu m of cut-and-fill earthworks, including within the bed of an unnamed tributary of Limeburners' Creek, for a subdivision development on land below Manuka Pl.
Following the discovery of the slumped land, both councils and the EQC began monitoring the site and collating data. That process has only just concluded.
At one stage during the drought early this year, WDC was waiting for heavy rain to see if it resulted in more slips as part of its investigation.
WDC group manager infrastructure Simon Weston this week said his council believed Semenoff's development was responsible for the slip but would await the final report before deciding on any remedial work that needed to be done.
"After we get good, heavy rain we assess what happens with the slip in conjunction with the land developer and the EQC. We share information between those parties to be able to get as much information as possible.
"The method of remediation rests with the developer who'll provide a design report in terms of mitigation and then we'll do a peer review of that report which will discuss findings from all the instrument surveys and provide an option on how best the site can be remedied," he said.
Weston sympathised with the Stringers that it has taken this long for the matter to conclude but said technical assessment of large, difficult sites like this took time.
Anthony Stringer not long after moving out of his Manuka Pl house. He still hasn't been told who's responsible for the land slump. Photo / John Stone
An Earthquake Commission report in September found a combination of rain and earthworks led to structural damage on the Stringers' property and slumped land around it.
The EQC last week said it was engaging outside geotechnical experts to summarise and analyse the monitoring data it shared with WDC and the developer, as well as other existing geo-tech data of that area.
Their report, solely for the purpose of settling a claim for the house, would still be a few weeks away.
However, the maximum amount a residential building with a single house with a valid contract of fire insurance that qualifies for EQCover is $150,000 excluding GST.
If the residential building is covered by EQCover, then certain land on which the building is located also has that cover.
The maximum amount EQC can pay for a land claim is determined by factors such as the extent of the damage to insured land, the location of the land damage in relation to the insured residential building, and the value of that land.
The EQC Act 1993 does not specify how a customer must use their claim payment, however, if they do not use it to repair the damaged property then EQC will need to consider how this may affect any future claim that may be made for that property.
"EQC recommends that customers contact their private insurer to find out what additional cover they may have for their loss," a spokesman said.
Culham Engineering managing director Rob Kirwan said the Stringers could live in the company house for as long as they wanted.
"We'll keep supporting Tony as long as it takes for the issues to be resolved. He's under no pressure from us. It's a shame that the matter has dragged on for so long and it can't not be a worry for him.
"He's got good support around him and he doesn't need to worry about accommodation," Kirwan said.
Northpower's Raj Singh (left), Steve Macmillan and Rachel Wansbone at the end of Manuka Pl with the slumped land and condemned house in the background.
Photo / Michael Cunningham
Meanwhile, power disruptions may affect wider areas in Raumanga and Otaika as Northpower re-routes lines running off two poles sitting on unstable land that slumped more than a year ago.
Because of the instability of the land, the powerlines between Lancaster Pl and Kotata Rise have been decommissioned and work on the re-routing is expected to start in two weeks.
Northpower says safety is a priority.
The poles are on land developed by Semenoff and help supply power from Northpower's Maungatapere sub-station to 3600 businesses and residential customers in Morningside, Raumanga, Port Rd and parts of the CBD, using six feeders out of the Whangārei South substation.
They also include the Whangārei Hospital.
Geotech experts are assessing the slumped land and their report will dictate what remedial work needs to be carried out.
Northpower operations and engineering delivery manager Raj Singh said initially, lines crews were to have re-routed the lines along High St but unstable land prevented them from doing so.
Work will start around mid to late September and is expected to be complete by Christmas. It will involve some planned electricity outages, which customers will be advised of ahead of time.
Singh said if a car hit a power pole in the area, power outage would take longer to fix as there is no back-up line with this one out of action.
