Anna Bush bought the property with her son, Adam, in the past few years.
A Wellington homeowner is frustrated after being told he must foot the bill to replace a fence built beyond his boundary line nearly 60 years ago.
Adam Bush and his mother bought the property in the northern suburb of Newlands within the last few years and were unaware that the fence on their front lawn was encroaching on public land.
As it turned out, Wellington City Council was also unaware of it, telling Bush in an email that it had no record of the encroachment before December 10 this year.
The pair have been told it’s their responsibility to pay for the fence’s replacement after it was ripped down to make way for an electricity transformer on the footpath.
Bush was also told they must pay for an annual encroachment licence if the new fence is also beyond the boundary, but said the council had since agreed to waive that fee. However, he feared any future owner could still be liable.
“Despite the fence predating modern mapping, predating my ownership, and being accepted for decades, I’ve now been told I must move it — and pay for everything myself," he told the Herald.
“If one homeowner is being hit with unexpected costs due to gaps in old council records, how many others could be next?”
He said thousands of Kiwi homeowners could be unaware that they had encroaching fences, driveways and retaining walls.
A council spokesman said Bush and his mother were given a “generous” amount of time to consider their options, and that the incident illustrated the need for homebuyers to do their “due diligence”.
But Bush said that, short of hiring a surveyor to check that existing structures were within boundary lines before buying the house, there was nothing he could have done, given that the council itself had no record of the encroachment.
He said the fence was built in 1967, according to records he found at the library.
He and his mother received a letter on December 8 about the fence needing to be moved. By December 13, Wellington Electricity had taken the fence down.
“There was no clear notice period or opportunity for meaningful engagement,” Bush said.
“We are not opposing infrastructure upgrades and co-operated fully. Our concern is about process, accountability, and fairness – particularly when the council acknowledges it had no record of a structure that has existed for decades.
“If there was some more clarity and more communication, rather than rushing the whole process, it would have been easier to engage meaningfully with them.”
He did not understand why the work needed to be carried out urgently when the transformer had been faulty for months.
The existing fence was ruined during the removal, as was part of the lawn, and Bush expects it to cost a couple of thousand dollars to replace it.
“It sucks, really ... I don’t want it to happen to other homeowners.”
A council spokesman said the fence had encroached about 1.5m onto public land.
“Given the council has no record of any formal encroachment agreement, we can only speculate that the fence was located on public land either accidentally or on purpose many years ago.
“The owners were given the option to either take up a licence or relocate the fence onto the property boundary. A generous amount of time has been given for them to consider their options.”
He said the short notice was because Wellington Electricity had to do urgent work on the transformer, requiring the removal of part of the fence.
“The situation demonstrates the need for property buyers to do proper due diligence before purchase.
“If a property owner wants to avoid nasty surprises, then they should get a land information memorandum [LIM] or hire a surveyor prior to finalising a purchase. However, we do recognise that a large proportion of property purchases are completed with these actions not done.”
Wellington Electricity said it initially tried to do repairs in a way that would be “less disruptive” while it carried out a full investigation into the issue.
“Our investigation confirmed that the fault couldn’t be resolved through repair alone. We made a decision to replace the substation. This is being done under urgency to maintain a safe and reliable electricity supply to the area, reducing the risk of future outages.
“We acknowledge that the urgency of this work regrettably shortened the timeframe for notifying affected residents. We understand this has caused inconvenience and stress, and we are committed to working with the property owner and council to minimise further impact.”
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 12 years.