Body lay in council flat for eight months

Inside Newtown Park Flats, where Michael Clark lay for a year before his body was discovered. A second similar case has now come to light. Photo / NZ Herald

A pensioner's body found in a Wellington council flat is believed to have been there for at least eight months.

Wiremu Whakaue, 68, died in the flat suburban Newtown in 2009 but his body was not discovered until March 2010, Fairfax reported.

The coroner is trying to establish exactly how many months he lay dead.

The council declined to comment on when and how it finally learned of Mr Whakaue's death.

It is the second such case to come to light in only a few months after pensioner Michael Clark, 88, was found dead in his council-owned flat in Newtown in August 2011.

Council staff made the discovery while visiting tenants to make future accommodation arrangements ahead of the demolition of the apartment block.

His body is thought to have been there for more than a year.

Mr Clarke had lived in the block for 30 years.

Both deaths will be the subject of an inquest next month.