KEY POINTS:
Leaky building victim Wilna White gets her final crack at justice today.
An adjudication at the Weathertight Homes Tribunal will be held in an attempt to settle her battle for compensation which started seven years ago.
But any delight she takes in resolution is eclipsed by memories of
a 6-year-old almost falling through the deck of her Army Bay home.
In 2004, Ms White's daughter Shani and a friend were playing on the upper-level deck when she heard a loud crack. The mother rushed outside to find the friend had almost fallen through a hole which had appeared in the deck.
"The friend was down as far as her knees into the deck before I got her," she recalls.
The untreated, uninsulated rotting wood of the deck had given way under the weight of two 6-year-old girls and it was only through sheer luck that the mother was close enough to fall flat and reach out and grab the friend from dropping on to the concrete below.
"When we arrived in New Zealand and went about buying a house, all the available advice we received from mortgage brokers, conveyancing lawyers, financial agents and new friends had the same conclusion: make sure your house has a code compliance certificate because that is your guarantee your home has been built properly.
"We moved in at the end of January 2002. After that we began to experience leaking and water damage and thus began the weary and soul-destroying journey known to hundreds of leaky home owners in New Zealand. The building company had long since gone under and the developers/vendors refused to consider assisting with repair costs."
Close study of the property packet began to reveal a picture of flawed procedures all through the consent, inspection and approval stages. Rodney District Council issued an official statement that it was a good house because "that's what our code compliance certificate represents".
"Something - besides our deck - was very rotten here. Then one horrifying day in 2004 the real consequences of those flawed procedures became apparent when the deck gave way," said Ms White.
"We decided to approach the council directly with photographs and an account of the story so far in an attempt to keep everyone's costs down. We arranged a private meeting and were completely taken aback by the casual contempt of their response. Framed inside a contract that demanded absolute confidentiality, unrealistic timeframes, a promise of no legal action against any other party and total indemnification of the council against any future damages was an offer to pay approximately 15 per cent of what it would cost to remedy the damage resulting from their neglect," she recalls.
The house will cost somewhere around $450,000 to repair and the family has suffered asthma and depression, forced to live in three rooms on one floor of an unsafe five-bedroom house.
Leaky building lawyers Grimshaw & Co attempted resolution by private negotiation. Ms White praised their efforts but said they eventually referred her to the public system. Last January, proceedings were instigated with the state-funded Weathertight Homes Tribunal and the case went to mediation in June. That failed, hence Tuesday's date for adjudication.
The council is not discussing the case, referring to the matter being before an arm of the Ministry of Justice and being confidential.
The tribunal said that between April 1, 2007 to September 30 last year, it received 338 applications.
"Of those, 131 have been resolved with the average length of time between filing and resolution being 19.8 weeks.
Settlement rates are still high with approximately 85 per cent claims being settled either at mediation or by direct negotiation between the parties prior to a formal adjudication," the tribunal said.
