By BERNARD ORSMAN
Residents of Auckland City's rental housing can sleep easy after an advertised fire-sale of their homes turned out to be a blunder.
The council yesterday placed a public notice in the Herald listing 138 tenanted houses to be signed off for sale on February 28.
It intended to
list just a dozen empty flats.
The mistake cast a cloud over council housing estates.
Tenants had been adjusting to reports before Christmas that the new John Banks-led council would sell their homes, but not before they had been consulted and their needs had been addressed.
Initial reaction to the public notice was summed up by Christine Bookhorn, who said she thought she had another 12 months in her home in Hepburn St, Freemans Bay.
Finance director David Rankin last night apologised for the error, which he played down as a "process error" that could be easily fixed.
"It is regrettable that the advertisements convey something happening faster than it is," Mr Rankin said.
He said the council would not be taking immediate action to write to tenants and explain the error, saying it would be of more value to wait until more information on the sales strategy had been discussed by the finance committee next Thursday.
Mr Rankin said the "misunderstanding" over the public notice occurred in the property group but no disciplinary action had been taken.
Mr Banks said he had been told of the error.
He wanted to assure tenants that he was committed to seeing that the council, as a landlord, acted in good faith when it came to selling residential property.
