Court of Appeal decision on leaky homes raises wider issues says North Shore Mayor

Today’s decision of the Court of Appeal involving the North Shore City Council and two multi-unit apartment developments on the North Shore, Byron Avenue and Sunset Terraces, raises wider issues over the need to arrive at an enduring solution to this national crisis, North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams said tonight.

“The Court of Appeal decision and possible implications are being reviewed by council, its indemnifiers and their legal advisors and no decision has been on whether to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. However, the decision makes some valuable comment about the source of the leaky homes crisis and the way forward in a wider sense,” Mayor Williams said.

“The Court of Appeal decision makes it crystal clear, even to the lay person, that the leaky homes crisis is the result of a systemic failure occurring at all levels of the building industry, in both the public and private sectors, stemming directly from the deregulation of the industry in the 1990s.”

“In my view, the court decision makes a compelling argument that although the central government may have in the past been found not liable in a strictly legal sense, there is a strong moral case for the government to accept responsibility on both its own behalf and on behalf of the private sector builders, designers and certifiers who have either gone broke or closed up shop in order to avoid liability.”

“This is precisely what our Council has been saying for some time now, and despite being ridiculed for saying so in certain quarters, the Court decision in this respect vindicates our position that the government must accept significantly more of the repair cost than the miserable 10 percent it was reluctantly prepared to offer leaky home victims.”

“The Court decision also echoes what we have been saying for some time now, that there is little doubt that litigation is a poor instrument to provide appropriate remedies to people affected by large-scale systemic failure of the type that has occurred with leaky homes.”

“North Shore City Council, like many other councils in Auckland and around the country, have ended up being the ‘last man standing’ which means that our ratepayers have been forced to accept a disproportionate share of the burden of settling leaky homes disputes, while the government and the building industry largely get off scot-free.”

“It is now time for the government to reflect on the issues raised by the Court of Appeal in its decision and to reconvene serious discussions with local government and the most affected councils to hammer out an enduring solution to this government-made crisis,” Mayor Williams said.

ENDS

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