Leaky homes crisis hitting poorer families
Radio New Zealand
Phil Pennington, Reporter
18 September 2017
Photo: 123rf
Sixteen families face losing their homes at a townhouse complex in
Manurewa, as the leaky homes crisis takes more of a toll on poorer
neighbourhoods.
Two of the families have been unable to make the initial downpayment of
more than $100,000 for repairs, due to begin next year after eight
years of wrangling.
"My bank has turned us down. So we're in big, big trouble," a mother of four children said. RNZ has agreed not to name her.
Last Monday's unpaid bill was for $124,000, but the total will be at least $199,000.
"If I can't get this money up the body corporate will possibly take our
house and sell it to the highest bidder ... and we could end up with a
$130,000 mortgage that we have to pay off without the house as security.
"There's a possibility they could bankrupt me."
The body corporate has asked the Home Owners and Buyers Association for help.
It is one of the association's first-ever cases in a poorer
neighbourhood. Association chief executive Roger Levie said the
Manurewa case was the tip of the iceberg of leaky home cases in poorer
neighbourhoods.
"That stuff sits there, deteriorating, it's moist, it's overcrowded but
they're either rentals or it's people who could never conceive of
spending a couple of hundred thousand dollars to reclad and repair
their houses."
'We risk losing everything'
Mr Levie, the anonymous townhouse owner, and Manurewa body corporate
chair Donna Killian all called on the next government to face up to the
problem and provide more help.
The townhouse owner said the bank had told her to approach family for a loan.
"We've asked our immediate family for help but no-one's in a position to help us with that sort of money.
Even repaired, the house would be worth $465,000 and their mortgage after 10 years owning it would be $489,000.
Ms Killian's family had been able to help her with the $200,000 repair bill, and she would get to keep her home.
"I'm probably in a very, very lucky position.
"Other people are borrowing from family and have to sell their property at the end of it to pay it back," she said.
The government's leaky home assistance programme covers a quarter of the repair bills.
Auckland Council might have been liable for another quarter if it had
signed off the townhouses; but it used a private certifier to do that,
back when that was allowed in the period of the 1990s to mid-2000s when
the regulations also permitted the leaky cladding.
The mother-of-four said it was "robbery".
"It's not my fault that it was leaking in the first place but yet it's put on me."
She said it was very different for richer areas where the capital gain
from selling a repaired house could often more than cover the bills.
Mr Levie pointed out repair costs were the same, whether a house was in South Auckland or Parnell.
"But the values aren't there, so what do we do?"
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