A Browns Bay man says he was shocked to discover his $710,000 home had become “worthless” overnight after the council valued the almost identical unit next door at just $165,000.
Matt Weir and his father Jim said that, before checking the recently released Auckland Council valuations, they hadn’t known the two-storey Beach Rd unit next to theirs had been bought out by Auckland Council as part of a $2 billion flood-recovery scheme.
But once they saw the CVs, they were swept by a cold dread that the market value of Matt’s home had probably been destroyed overnight, Jim said.
Jim believed it would now be impossible to sell the unit because any potential buyer would know the adjoining unit was earmarked for demolition and lay in a flood-prone area.
“Matt’s property is worth exactly nothing,” Jim said. “It is unsaleable.”
Weir said they hadn’t applied to have their home bought out because - while it was also flooded in early 2023’s catastrophic storms - they didn’t realise the buyback criteria of “intolerable risk to life” applied to their property.
Their recent discovery shows how the flooding fallout continues to hit in painful and unexpected ways.
Auckland Council and the Government’s $2b buyback has been a lifeline for many, with the authorities making offers to buy up to 1200 homes and properties across the region.
It is also Auckland’s first large-scale “managed retreat” by attempting to move people out of harm’s way ahead of future disasters.
But community groups say some people have been falling through the gaps in the policy, and families have been left in financial turmoil.
RNZ has reported some first-home buyers, who bought at the market’s peak, have been left owing up to $100,000 because the council’s buy-back offers were lower than the prices they paid for their homes.
Others, such as West Auckland couple Tracey and Mike Pilgrim, told the Herald they were “gobsmacked” by a buyout offer that was $180,000 below their home’s CV, highlighting what they called inconsistent and frustrating valuations.
Auckland Council points out on its website that a CV is the value of a property for rating purposes, not its market value.
Some families who did not accept buy-back offers have found the homes around them disappearing.
Auckland Council now owns 260 empty sections after buying and demolishing homes to make way for parks.
For the Weirs, the problems began after the two-storey unit was flooded with about 500mm of water in the 2023 storms.
Jim said they were approached to join the voluntary buyout scheme but the term “risk of life” was so subjective that they immediately thought it didn’t apply, even though Matt is in a wheelchair.
“We didn’t consider that anybody was at risk of life, so we didn’t apply.”
After the family declined the buy-back offer, they say the council did not tell them it planned to buy the next-door unit.
Jim believed the council had an obligation to inform them of the buy-back, given the impact it would have on their property value.
He understood his family wasn’t alone.
He said he had heard of an eight-apartment complex in which the council bought only one unit, which affected the values of the other seven.
The situation also raised questions about what kind of body corporate member Auckland Council would be, given it would have little incentive to take part in the maintenance of properties it deemed worthless.
Mace Ward, the council’s group recovery manager, said it understood the situation was “complex and emotional”.
“We also recognise that, for homeowners in shared buildings, decisions made by other property owners may raise real and valid concerns.”
The buy-back was a one-off programme and was now closed.
He said the Weirs had been told about the programme but did not register for it.
When the council bought apartments or cross-leased properties, it immediately told the other owners, he said.
“Council cannot act as an insurer,” he said, adding that, with the capped amount of funding available, it had no plans for any other forms of compensation.
Wayne Shum, senior researcher for property analysts Valocity, said homeowners such as the Weirs faced a difficult future.
Potential buyers would be bound to find out about the flood risks by looking at property reports and flooding maps, or noticing how other homes in a street seemed to have disappeared.
“How come council took the houses away?” he said, echoing the questions a buyer would be likely to ask.
Lyall Carter, chairman of West Auckland is Flooding advocacy group, said the buy-back policy had worked for most, but the council needed to keep engaging in good faith with those left behind.
“My hope would be that the council and other bodies would work with them.”
Jim Weir, meanwhile, has applied for a rates revaluation, arguing that his son cannot be expected to pay taxes on a $710,000 asset that is effectively worth nothing.
The council’s vastly different valuation of two “identical” properties was “spurious” at best, he said.
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