The Leaky Homes Crisis Needs To End

The leaky home crisis has been around for so long that it has become part of the Kiwi vernacular. It's hard to find a person today that isn’t aware of this blight on the New Zealand building industry, and even harder to find homeowners or potential buyers that outright fear it. That is quite an extensive span of time, considering that the leaky home crisis was associated with buildings constructed between 1988-2004, yet in 2021 we are still feeling the devastating effects of it. But this doesn’t come as any surprise, considering that leaky home remediation costs were estimated to be $11.3 billion dollars in 2009. Unfortunately leaky homes and building issues are slow burning, over a decade later and there is still the chance that they might pop up. Leaky homes are the boogey man of the New Zealand housing market...except it exists.

New Zealand homeowners are still discovering, years after the fact, that they have leaky homes. Unfortunately many times homeowners only notice the symptoms of a leaky home once they are visible, and usually by the time they are apparent extensive damage has already been done to your home. This has been devastating for families and business owners who suddenly need to reclad their home, plunging them into significant debt. The type of debt that most Kiwi’s don’t have the means to service easily, leading to a struggle that can follow them for the rest of their lives.

While the most of the focus on the leaky home crisis is centered around the financial cost, what is often overlooked is the emotional toll it can take on people. For the vast majority of homeowners, when they buy a home they do so not just to acquire a new asset. There’s no doubt that most people have a unique emotional attachment to their home - it is supposed to be their safe place, their anchor, a place where they recharge from the stresses of the day. This is why when leaky home symptoms strike their property, the tangle of unforeseen financial impact entangled with feelings of betrayal and broken trust can make the ordeal completely overwhelming.

The NZ Herald recently reported on the story of Lesley Wheatley, a leaky building owner located on Auckland’s North Shore. Wheatley had done her due diligence when purchasing the property, initially motivated by the chance to provide her brother a home to rent. There had been no mentions of weathertightness issues, but this was not enough. Her act of kindness towards a beloved family member would turn into a nightmare.

"Never did I think that this property would cause so much heartache."

Four years after purchasing the property, the leaky home issues began to emerge. Lesley’s unit was one of 14 that required recladding. Each resident had to dish out $300.000, adding to over $4 million in repair costs. Wheatley was chair of the body corporate, so the cost of her own property wasn’t the end of it. The issue created a huge amount of tension through the body corporate board, and Lesley was unsuccessfully sued by two of the owners of the units.

"I can honestly say that the impact that cancer has had on my life was incomparable to the stress this [caused]."

Wheatley's story is just one of many you can find of the devastating effects the leaky home crisis has had on people’s lives. There seems to be no real direction to follow once your home has succumbed to it’s symptoms. Often the course of action they choose is to take to the courts, and sue whomever they think is responsible. Hundreds of homeowners have put together a class action lawsuit of $220 million, pointing their fingers towards Harditex monolithic cladding as being the cause of their building’s weathertightness issues. A group of companies under James Hardie is in the crosshairs for the lawsuit, but the building materials company denies the claims. They claim that if their guidelines for installation had been followed correctly, there would be no issues with weathertightness, going on to say the fault lies on the building companies and building inspectors that approved the construction. They claim that the only reason they are being targeted is because they are one of the few companies left from the era of leaky home building that still has value, and are blamed purely on this basis alone.

While the High Court is yet to decide on James Hardie’s level of culpability (if any) there is truth in their current statements, and this is part of the reason the leaky home crisis has to end. One of the major factors that led to the crisis was changes made to the 1993 Building Act. This turned governmental oversight for new builds into a self regulatory scheme. Private inspection companies were set up that gave out compliant certificates to buildings that should never have received them, leaving the owners of these buildings to believe that everything was perfect. When things eventually went pear shaped, many of these companies were dissolved, essentially vanishing into thin air, leaving the bag in the hands of the homeowners.

With the amount of time that has passed, the window of finding the people directly responsible for your leaky home has likely closed. Legal recourse against the past owners, or anyone else you believe may be responsible is looking like a never ending legal battle. One that everybody loses. An ouroboros of litigation, forever eating it’s own tail in an attempt to find closure on the matter. Closure that may no longer exist.

It's now up to Kiwis to be vigilant to end the leaky home crisis once and for all. The earliest you can detect potential issues, the less chance you will face an expensive uphill battle. We have far too many stories of the victims of the leaky homes crisis and your best protection against it is letting a leaky homes remediation specialist inspect your home. it’s better to be safe than sorry. Renovation Works are Auckland's leading specialist in recladding and leaky home remediation. Tap into our 25+ years of experience, and let our expert eye help determine if your home may be affected by the leaky home crisis. Get in contact today for a free consultation.

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