Leaky-home victim: Overhaul tribunal

Wilna White. Photo / Dean Purcell

An Auckland leaky-home victim wants the Government to overhaul the Weathertight Homes Tribunal.

Wilna White has complained to Courts Minister Georgina te Heuheu about the tribunal.

Mrs White and her husband Paul were awarded $173,801 to fix their leaky house. But the High Court at Auckland has overturned the tribunal's low grant, criticised adjudicator Kevin Kilgour for making mistakes and awarded the Whites $346,002.

Mrs White said her bad experience should serve as a warning to others to avoid the tribunal.

John Gray of the Homeowners & Buyers Association said this week that 13 of the tribunal's 17 decisions this year were either being appealed or about to be challenged.

The tribunal was failing, he said, although its chairwoman Trish McConnell has leaped to its defence, saying it is quicker than the courts and does not make awards for general damages any lower than other courts.

Mrs White said the number of tribunal decisions being appealed was shocking.

"And for all the people pointing fingers and saying that lawyers are raking it in as a result of the leaky-home crisis, well, the Government created that system with the tribunal. Now, the tribunal is creating yet another market for the same lawyers by dishing out injustice," she said yesterday.

"The replies I had from [Building and Construction Minister] Maurice Williamson, Trish McConnell, my MP Lockwood Smith and Georgina te Heuheu all agree on one vital detail: if there are errors in your adjudication, it is for you to take it to an appeal hearing. There is no other option," Mrs White said.

Mrs te Heuheu told Mrs White she could not comment on specific cases because judicial decisions must be kept separate from the political system. She referred Mrs White back to Ms McConnell.

Paul Grimshaw of leaky building specialist Grimshaw & Co defended his firm's fees.

"Our chargeout rates vary from $100 to $395 per hour. Our rates are well below the big firms around town. We could charge more, but we don't because we realise that we are acting for the average guy in the street who can't afford much.

"In the case of the Whites, we felt sorry for them as they were recent immigrants who knew nothing about the leaky-building problems when they first came to see us in 2005.

"We didn't charge them at all until 2009 and we only charged them at that point because we were obliged to commit resources to a four-day adjudication hearing," Mr Grimshaw said.

"And at the end of the hearing we wrote off $79,000 in fees."