KEY POINTS:
A marathon leaky building case heard in the High Court at Auckland has resulted in a big win for owners of a North Shore housing estate.
The court sat for 29 days last year, in one of the most complicated weathertightness cases to reach the justice system.
A group from Sunset Terraces apartment on Sunset Rd in Mairangi Bay fought for justice over major leaks to their properties, built in 1997 and 1998.
Justice Paul Heath has released an interim decision in favour of the owners and against developers Robert Henry Graham Barton and Kay Barton, who he described as having done an extremely poor job.
"Some of the work was shoddy at best and appalling at worst," Justice Heath wrote.
"Much of the building work on site was carried out to a standard significantly below what would ordinarily be inspected.
Mr and Mrs Barton fell well below the standard of care owed to individual plaintiffs."
The Bartons decided not to participate in the proceedings. Mrs Barton said last week that developers were usually blamed for leaky buildings.
Yet she said they had simply followed building regulations.
"There is an appeal process," she said, refusing to clarify whether a Court of Appeal action was planned.
A small number of owners did not join in the action, but the large group who did sued North Shore City Council.
The judge said it was most likely the council would have to shoulder the bulk of any settlement which is yet to be decided.
"The council, unfortunately, is likely to be left with the sole liability for the loss due to the apparent insolvency of the developer," he said in his decision.
"I have no doubt that the primary cause of the successful plaintiffs' loss was bad building."
The third defendant named was R.F. Coughlan & Associates, who designed and prepared plans and specifications on the housing estate.
Justice Heath ruled the designer was not liable for any losses claimed against him.
The two-level apartments cost about $2.2 million to develop and were clad in monolithic Harditex.
Thirteen units were sold to Porchester Ltd and Blue Sky Holdings, part of the failed Blue Chip residential property investment group.
But a report by building consultants Prendos showed the units had many defects, including problems with the cladding, leaks in the roof areas, faults in waterproofing membranes beneath balcony tiles, problems in the junctions between the balconies and outside walls and severely damaged timber.
The owners rejected using the state system, which ultimately ends in a case being heard by the Ministry of Justice's Weathertight Homes Tribunal. Instead, they opted to go through the courts.
Matt Josephson from lawyers Grimshaw & Associates acted for the townhouse owners who took the case. Partner Paul Grimshaw said the High Court decision was a significant win.
"The legal issues raised in the case were largely resolved in favour of the homeowners, and the decision is a huge step forward for the owners of the Sunset Rd apartments in their battle for compensation for the costs of repairing their units," he said.
"It has been a long and difficult case for the owners and their battle for compensation is an on-going one.
"There is a real human cost to owners and we have immense sympathy for all victims of the leaky building fiasco."
Greg O'Sullivan of Prendos said the decision was important because it clarified the issue of whether multi-unit buildings were classed as residential. This was a challenge to councils which had claimed large buildings were commercial rather than residential.
Prendos had also recommended full repairs but the owners did a "patch-up", spending $800,000, but a full recladding is now needed for about $1.9 million, he said.
"They might as well have put that $800,000 in a sack and burnt it."
IN DEEP WATER
* North Shore unit owners sued because of leaks.
* Severe decay was found in many parts of the units.
* North Shore City Council made about 120 inspections.
* It approved the units 10 years ago.
* The council and the developers were sued.
