First home dream turns to nightmare for couple
New Plymouth couple want council action to help save their home
A New Plymouth couple’s dream first home is teetering on a cliff edge following a massive landslip in their backyard.
David Chen and Jenny Zhang thought life was looking grand after finding and buying the perfect house. Then disaster struck.
Taranaki’s soaking winter has literally taken the ground from under their feet and left them wondering what to do next as they try to get straight-up answers from the landowner – the New Plymouth District Council.
The couple bought the property with expansive views over the Waiwhakaiho River two months ago. The $900,000 home sits on Waiwera Place, voted New Plymouth’s best-kept street in 2003 and 2004.
Their nightmare started when the first of three large slips ate away at large chunks of land owned by the council.
Chen, who works as a geotechnical engineer, said the couple had reviewed a land information report before the purchase, they have insurance, and purchased the property knowing the potential risk of living on a hill.
‘‘That’s why we don’t want to blame anything or anyone,’’ he said. ‘‘What we need and require is . . . some departments should take their responsibilities when something happens, not hide in a corner or in a shadow.’’
NPDC group manager planning and infrastructure Kevin Strongman said while they sympathise with the property owners and were working to assess the situation, they were still working to find a solution.
A team, including a geotechnical engineer, inspected the property on Wednesday.
‘‘At this stage the land movements are not posing immediate danger to the dwelling, but we will do regular visual inspections.
‘‘We have also asked the property owners to let us know if there is any further movement, and we will make another inspection of the bank with a geotech inspector next week.’’
Strongman said the site had been a concern since late July as the region experienced exceptionally wet weather. ‘‘We have been in regular contact with the property owner, including site inspections by Building, Parks and Civil Defence staff.’’
As a precaution, NPDC have also taped off access to the swamp below the property.
Chen said the slips have undermined land underneath their boundary fence which is 3.8 metres from their house, areas of their lawn have sunk, while some ground under the fence has been hollowed out completely.
The slips have made the couple ‘‘very, very stressed’’ which Zhang said has made it hard to sleep at night, and the couple have taken time off work to deal with the slip.
The couple said they’re happy to carry out work to reinforce their land – but as the landslide happened on council land it should do the same.
‘‘I’m quite worried about this area because it continues sliding and eroding. The landslide area belongs to the local council, so if they don’t maintain their land and stabilise their land, my land will be affected.
‘‘I want to request them to do their job as soon as possible to stabilise their land and set some retaining walls at the bottom.’’
Chen said he’d contacted the council a month ago after the first slip, someone from the council came to have a look, but they never heard anything more.
Since then there have been two other slips, the latest one happened on Tuesday.
‘‘This time they respond to me very quickly, they sent an engineer from WSD and a builder to check the surroundings of my house ... I’m happy about that.’’
The couple want more ‘‘positive actions’’ from the council.
They have spread out a gazebo across their lawn to stop the rain from causing further erosion. ‘‘If the water goes into the soil, the soil will become very soft. Maybe several days or several weeks this will go, because there’s no land supporting it.’’