Owners of leaky homes face ruin

Homeowners have appealed to MPs to help "average Kiwis" affected by the leaky homes debacle.

In May the Government brought legislation before Parliament to improve the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service.

The service was established in 2002 to resolve disputes between owners of leaky homes and developers, but has struggled to resolve disputes.

Janet Pawson told Parliament's social services select committee yesterday that she and her husband were facing a $250,000 repair bill on their "dream family home".

"Someone in authority needs to ensure that your house has been built properly," she said.

Mrs Pawson and her husband also own a 24-unit leaky apartment building . Because both buildings were built more than 10 years ago they are not eligible for mediation services.

Mrs Pawson said they had already spent $40,000 filing compensation claims at the High Court and expected to spend several thousand more.

"I am in a position to spend time on this ... my concern is for the average Kiwis on $40,000 who are already struggling to put food on the table and don't have time [to deal with it]."

Leaky Homes Action Group founder John Gray said the Government had a "moral obligation" to save affected owners from financial ruin.

"If there was ever a need for retrospective legislation, then surely it must be this ... to deal with the scumbag builders and developers who built sub-standard homes."

Mr Gray echoed Mrs Pawson's concerns over the pitfalls facing low-income earners living in leaky homes.

"I am very worried that there are poor [people] out there living in these damp, insanitary homes and are unable to fix them."

Mr Gray and Mrs Pawson urged the Government to extend the claims period on leaky homes to 15 years after completion, in line with other Commonwealth countries.

They also said that home owners should be able to claim compensation for faults that had not yet caused any damage. Currently home owners can claim only after damage has occurred.

Mr Gray said that this regulation made the compensation process expensive and unfair, with home owners having to foot the bill for expensive repairs before making their claim to service.

However, Institute of Building Surveyors spokeswoman Dianne Johnson said that the compensation process was already "very protracted".

"Surely it would be endless if the debate was extended to foreseeability, reasonability and negligence."

North Shore City deputy mayor and Local Government New Zealand representative Dianne Hale said a shake-up of the resolution service's process was required, to ensure leaky homes were properly repaired.

Ms Hale said that under the current system, homeowners awarded compensation by service were under no obligation to spend the money on repairing their homes.

"Changes proposed will be of no long-term benefit if they do not result in repairs being made to the houses.

"At the moment we don't know if people are spending the money on their homes or if they are using it to go to Fiji."

- NZPA