City homes go on leaking while Council mulls offer

Hamilton people with leaky homes are waiting for the city council to decide whether it will join the Government's resolution scheme.

Another two leaky home claims in Hamilton have been lodged with the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service, boosting the number of active claims in the city to 29. But Hamilton City Council has not yet considered whether it will buy into a scheme which would see it match the Government's offer of paying 25 per cent of the repair bill. The home owner would pay the other half although government-guaranteed loans are available.

Council spokeswoman Monica Holt said the council would miss the Government's May 31 deadline because it was preparing a report to be considered at a council meeting in the next few weeks.

A Building and Housing Department spokesman said the local authorities most affected were due to discuss whether they wanted to be involved in the scheme at meetings this week. Other councils could sign up at a later stage. For the package to work, the councils with the largest number of complaints, such as Auckland, would have to participate, he said. Hamilton did not fall into this category.

Prime Minister John Key said this week there had been a slight spike in claims. Fifteen more had been lodged nationally since the offer was tabled.

Wellington City Council and North Shore City Council both voted in favour of the plan on Wednesday night.

Hamilton City Council building control manager Phil Saunders said the number of claims was low compared with other parts of the country such as Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

"Hamilton isn't the same as Auckland; we don't have cowboy builders and never have," Mr Saunders said.

A total of 67 claims had been lodged in Hamilton and of those 38 had been settled.

Of the 29 active claims, most were minor. "It is everything from small targeted repairs to recladding the entire building, although the latter is not that common in Hamilton."

Mr Saunders said any claims would come as a significant cost to the council because they were unbudgeted. He said it was impossible to attach a dollar value to the claims at this stage.

The council does not expect any new claims to be lodged after 2013. Claims must be received within 10 years of the houses being completed. Most leaky homes were built between 1997 and 2003.

Homeowners and Buyers Association New Zealand (HOBANZ) president John Gray said councils would be crazy not to accept the package, but homeowners with large claims could be better off favouring the tribunal or court system.

"In most cases even after legal and expert fees where HOBANZ has assisted home owners have been awarded between 70 and 80 per cent of the total repair costs," he said.

A Hamilton solicitor specialising in litigation and construction law, Victoria Whitfield, thought some of details of the proposal were "somewhat sketchy". She said the Government had not revealed how the repair costs would be assessed and it was not uncommon for estimates provided in assessor's reports to be undervalued.