KEY POINTS:
Angry Apartment owners are accusing developers of leaving their complex in a dangerous state and ducking for cover to avoid paying their share of a $3 million repair bill.
The balconies of the three-storey Auckland suburb complex have been declared unsafe by the city council, and the fire
ledges overhanging the windows on top storeys are propped up so they will not fall on residents.
Yet the frustrated body corporate committee, made up of owners, cannot engage a company to fix the problem. They claim the original developers still own 24 of the 67 apartments - making them part of the body corporate - and are either refusing to pay their share or being elusive.
Apartment owner Ljubisa Pavic, an IT consultant, says the wood securing the balcony handrails is rotten and will collapse if leant on.
The six-year-old building needs to be reclad but the body corporate cannot start work because it has not collected enough levies to pay for it.
Instead, the body corporate committee has uncovered a paper trail after the original developers wound up their companies when the complex was complete, and set up in different ones. The body corporate has started legal proceedings to try to force the developers to pay up or put their companies into liquidation.
So far, the body corporate has spent more than $100,000 on legal and investigation fees, and $30,000 trying to collect outstanding levies.
It expects the bill to be considerably more by the time they get to court. The body will also try to recover a share of legal costs from the developer owners.
In a bizarre twist, the developers will effectively be required to pay a share of a legal bill to sue themselves.
The body corporate fears the original $3 million estimate will have escalated by the time work can start.
In the meantime, owners are stuck with sub-standard apartments and balconies. Those who have paid money towards the levy needed are paying interest on loans, and those wanting to sell cannot.
The leaky building problem surfaced in 2005 and the committee has been trying to collect levies towards the work since June last year.
Pavic, chairman of the body corporate committee, says it is too risky to start the recladding work without the ability to pay the full amount.
"There is so much work around the builders could just remove the cladding and then leave."
The apartment owners are running out of people to pursue. The architect has gone into liquidation, Auckland City Council has backed away because the private certifier, ABC (Approved Building Certifiers) was deregistered in 2004 by the Building Industry Authority (BIA) and went into liquidation. And the developers have closed down the original companies.
"We couldn't go to mediation because there was no one to mediate with," says Pavic. "You can't pursue someone if there is no one to pursue."
Pavic is angry the Government is not doing more to help the owners of leaky homes left high and dry, in terms of claiming the cost of repairs.
The BIA was a Government body before it was dissolved in 2004 and its functions transferred to the Department of Building and Housing.
Pavic says the Government should take some responsibility for certifying negligent private building certifiers in the first place.
