KEY POINTS:
Legislation to improve and speed up leaky homes resolutions was passed yesterday.
The Weathertight Homes Resolution Service (WHRS) was set up in 2002 to resolve disputes between home owners and developers, but has struggled to be effective.
The Weathertight Homes Resolution Service Amendment Bill aims to improve the
process.
The bill allows for a class action to be taken for multi-unit buildings and makes WHRS more accessible to this type of claim.
Green MP Sue Bradford told Parliament she was suspicious about massive housing redevelopments in Auckland in the 1990s.
"I will never profess to be an expert on building materials or construction issues, but even so I remember how at the time I was totally suspicious about the nature of so much of what was being built.
"So many of those new housing developments looked inadequate and shonky, and ill-suited to the wet reality of Auckland's weather.
"They were real disasters waiting to happen."
Ms Bradford said the bill would reduce the time it took for claims to be resolved, thereby cutting the costs for homeowners in taking claims.
It also encouraged the resolution of disputes through early negotiation between parties as much as possible - especially for lower-value claims.
It removed some existing barriers to the registration of claims and resolution of disputes by owners of units within multi-unit apartment complexes.
"We believe it is critical that the existing resolution service processes are improved so that in the end people's homes can be repaired more quickly and the associated trauma brought to an end with as much speed and as much support for the home owners as is practicable.
"I know that this bill is not perfect but I think it's incumbent upon Government to do what it can."
The Greens supported the extension of LIM notifications to existing active claims already in the system.
Ms Bradford said she had been concerned about the 10-year limitation period, which meant any leaky building claim must be brought within 10 years of the home being built or altered.
However, she had learned there were good reasons for the limitation - including that it was very hard to determine liability after 10 years. It would be difficult if not impossible to keep evidence after such a long time. That limitation also applied to other claims concerning building work.
If there was a problem with a home, signs would be showing within the 10 years.
National MP Nick Smith said the WHRS had been a "total failure" and the Government was window dressing by changing the service's name to the Weathertight Homes Tribunal under the new act.
But Building Issues Minister Clayton Cosgrove said the changes would benefit homeowners.
"WHRS claimants will receive a more comprehensive assessment of, and be able to claim for, actual and potential weathertightness damage to their house and the work needed to repair it. Claimants will also benefit from faster claim resolution and lower legal costs," he said.
National MP Paula Bennett said the bill did not work for anyone.
Ms Bennett said that for multi-unit claims, 80 per cent of members of the body corporate had to agree before taking a claim to the WHRS.
She said 87 people owned apartments in her building complex.
"How are 80 per cent even of 87 of us going to agree on what the costs are, we don't all have the same concerns, not all of them are leaking in the same way in the same place in the same areas for the same things. Yet we are expected to agree and then take our case."
She also noted that only 7.6 per cent of claims had been resolved by the service.
- NZPA
