Threats, feuds, violence: then ‘execution’ Apartment hell brings huge claim
Homeowners’ lobby group says case highlights careless attitudes in construction. Maria Slade reports.
Natalie Avery’s dream was to set up a horse-trekking business on her property in the rugged Karangahake Gorge near Paeroa.
Instead she fell out with neighbours, argued bitterly with the local council over nine years and on Friday watched as police shot dead her partner, Mike Taylor, 57.
Avery and her children Carlin, 21, and Amy, 14, claim police ‘‘executed’’ Taylor – that he had thrown a machete and sickle at the police car.
Acting Assistant Commissioner Bruce Bird said last night a postmortem examination had confirmed Taylor was shot in the torso as he approached the vehicle armed with a machete.
‘‘A number of shots were fired from the front seat of the patrol car at short range. [Taylor] has then moved back from the officers away from the patrol car where he attempted to follow police instructions, however collapsed from his injuries.’’ Officers then began CPR. ‘‘We can appreciate that this was a fast-moving and traumatic event for those involved, including family members who were present.’’
Avery disputed the police version, and said she and her children, who saw events unfold, would testify to what they saw.
They claimed Taylor had been walking away with his hands in the air and dropping to his knees when he was shot from behind.
The mixed family – Amy is Taylor’s biological daughter and Carlin his stepson – lived in a caravan and huts with no electricity.
Avery revealed that it was not the first time armed police had visited her hillside property on County Rd. About five years ago, an officer holding what appeared to be an assault rifle came looking for a supposed dangerous dog – the family’s old British bulldog.
It was all part of an ongoing feud with locals, the council and police.
She was disgusted at the way people in the small community had reacted to the death – one telling media that police had ‘‘done us a favour’’ and another saying Taylor ‘‘got what he deserved’’.
Taylor had a number of convictions for threatening locals who’d crossed the property and did jail time when he was younger, but had turned his life around, Avery said.
‘‘I know a lot of people who hated the old Mike and they’ve got to know the new Mike and he’s not put a foot wrong for 19 years. He knew he had to turn his life around and he did, it’s something I’m proud of him for.’’
Avery said the stress of the disputes and health problems – Taylor had an arterial disease which meant blood didn’t flow to his legs – had led her partner of 19 years to snap on Friday morning.
‘‘We were arguing over something day’. He said ‘they’ll get me one trivial. He hadn’t threatened us with the weapons whatsoever. He hiffed a hot cup of coffee at me, believe me, it f ...... hurts. I called police but I wish I hadn’t.’’
She and Amy were leaving the property in a ute when police came up the drive.
Taylor spotted them and threw the weapons, then ‘‘surrendered’’ and walked away, Avery said.
She bought the property in 2007, hoping to start a horse-trekking business, but became embroiled in an access dispute over the popular Hauraki rail trail’s use of the road on the property.
Hauraki mayor John Tregidga said the council had spent an ‘‘enormous’’ amount of public money investigating the issue and the fact was ‘‘it’s a public road and always has been’’.
He said the family had previously had the road to themselves.
He felt for her family, saying it was ‘‘a tragedy’’, but he had never been able to understand Avery’s problem with the route.
Avery said the council had ‘‘opened up our property to riffraff’ – two weeks ago we had the Mongrel Mob on motorbikes’’.
Locals tell a different story, saying Taylor terrorised people who went near the public road, on one occasion sending an elderly man and his daughter jumping for their lives when he allegedly tried to run them down in his truck.
But Avery says her family are the victims – Amy was almost hit by a motorbike while riding her horse and on another occasion, shot at while out riding.
A close friend of Taylor’s said his mate always feared his life would end like it did. ‘‘He said ‘they’ll get me one day’.’’ Owners of an Auckland apartment complex have launched a $60 million claim against the council and others in New Zealand’s biggest leaky building case by far.
The 280-unit St Lukes Garden complex in Mt Albert has a litany of problems, from cracking facades to dangerously substandard foundations.
Many owners have already borrowed heavily to pay for repairs, and face five years of remediation work.
Malcolm South is wheelchairbound and escaped the trauma of the Christchurch earthquakes only to encounter stress of another kind when he bought his apartment at St Lukes Garden.
Despite pre-purchase checks revealing nothing of consequence, South and his partner soon noticed mould in their lounge and bedroom. The membrane on the deck above them had failed and water was seeping in.
‘‘I’m due to retire next year, my whole KiwiSaver is going to be going into fixing that, so I’ll have nothing left,’’ South said. ‘‘We can’t afford to keep this and pay the mortgage, and we can’t sell.’’
Other residents talk of weathertightness issues, regular breakages of cheap fittings, and the insomnia-inducing stress.
The Home Owners and Buyers Association, which is helping the owners with their claim and the repairs, said the High Court action was against Auckland Council and a number of parties involved in the planning and construction.
Private building certifiers oversaw the early stages, while the council did aspects of the certification as the project progressed.
Association chief executive Roger Levie said the issue was far deeper than ‘‘leaky building syndrome’’ and revealed a lack of care and indifference towards future owners.