Owners of earthquake-prone buildings in Hutt could face prosecution

The owner of a building on Jackson Street was prosecuted last year for failing to carry out strengthening works. Photo / Google Maps

Owners of 10 earthquake-prone buildings in Lower Hutt could face prosecution for missing the deadline to bring the buildings up to standard.

Action Hutt City Council could take against the building owners ranges from giving them an infringement to taking them to court, general manager of city transformation Kim Kelly said.

"Last year we took a successful prosecution, actually the first one in the country, against a building owner who hadn't done any work," she said.

Alura Ltd was fined $37,500 in July after failing to strengthen its Jackson St building to a safe standard, despite being issued an earthquake prone building notice in 2008.

Kelly said the success had given councils confidence in taking such cases to court.

She was unsure how long exactly the owners of the 10 buildings had had to either bring them up to standard or demolish them, but it was at least a few years.

"You've had a number of years to do something," she said.

"Plenty of other building owners are in exactly the same situation, you know, and got on and did something with their building."

Three of the buildings are in Hutt Central, while there are two each in Petone, Naenae, and Alicetown, and one in Wainuiomata.

Council doesn't yet know what action they'll be taking against the owners.

Their notices expired in December, and council is now assessing the risk factors for each building to decide what should be done.

In a report to the Policy and Regulatory Committee, Kelly said prosecution was "likely" for some of the owners, given last year's success.

Today, she had a message for them: "get on and be a bit sincere about doing something - although it may be too late by now".