The hedge outside the Chambers & Station apartments in Mt Eden has led to neighbours disputing its height. Photo / Anne Gibson
Should a hedge outside a restored multimillion-dollar Auckland apartment complex be low to allow people to see the beautiful buildings behind it, or should it be tall enough to offer screening and privacy - and who decides?
That question was at the centre of a dispute amongst residents of upmarket Mt Eden property Chambers & Station whose owners went to the Tenancy Tribunal to have a winner declared.
“This is a case about the height of a hedge,” wrote adjudicator R Kee in his September 1 decision.
Resident and apartment owner Christine Graham brought a case against the body corporate of the Chambers & Station complex on the corner of Valley Rd and Sherbourne Rd, opposite Mount Eden Normal Primary School.
Graham wants the ficus and michelia hedge outside her place in the old council building to be allowed to grow to 2.4m high and to be maintained so it gives her privacy.
“At that height, the hedge provides her, among other things, with privacy, a pleasant outlook, security, and noise reduction. If the hedge at this height was a permanent feature of the unit, the unit’s resale value would be greatly enhanced,” the decision said.
Auckland Council’s rating information shows her apartment has a $1.3 million valuation.
The body corporate told the tribunal it only wants that hedge to be 0.8m or 80cm high because that was what was consented when the apartments were developed in the old buildings.
Harrison Sutcliffe of Clendon Webb Lawyers for the body corporate argued for it to be chopped back.
“The resource consent’s landscape planting plan that was approved for the redevelopment mentions that the hedge would be trimmed 0.8m high,” the body corporate argued.
Sutcliffe also submitted that the buildings’ heritage value should benefit the whole community, not just Christine Graham.
“If the body corporate permitted the buildings to be shrouded by a high hedge, it would be in breach of the resource consent and short-change the wider community for the heritage value it is owed,” the body corporate argued.
But Graham countered that, saying chopping the hedge would be an interference with the quiet enjoyment of her home.
That would be in breach of the body corporate’s fiduciary duties, inconsistent with the development’s resource consent, which requires the hedge to be 1.8m and she argued that trimming the hedge to 0.8m would amount to a nuisance.
Last February, the body corporate had passed a resolution to cut the hedge down to 0.8m, so she sought that be declared invalid.
She wanted gaps to be replanted and for the hedge to be treated for pest infestation.
In 2016, the Herald reported how a $15m restoration and conversion of the former Mt Eden Municipal Council Chambers building and the Mt Eden Fire Station was nearing completion.
Prominent developer Nigel McKenna, who has appeared in Society Insider, said nine years ago that he had worked with a team to convert the Heritage New Zealand Category B-listed buildings into six luxury apartments.
Chambers & Station had four ground-level apartments which sold from $900,000-plus to just under $2m as well as two penthouse apartments.
At the tribunal, the adjudicator ruled that the hedge be no more than 1m high.
Graham must allow contractors on to the property outside her place, as long as notice is given in advance.
Kee also ordered the hedge be better looked after.
“Ms Graham provided evidence that the hedge is in poor condition. The photographs bear that out. The hedge was intended to provide privacy for the unit’s patio. It is appropriate to make an order that the hedge is treated for pests and fill any gaps that are compromising Ms Graham’s privacy when sitting on the patio,” the decision said.
Contacted by the Herald after the decision, Graham said she had appealed the Tenancy Tribunal decision to the District Court.
She was dissatisfied with the outcome, she said.
Sutcliffe said: “The decision speaks for itself.”
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.