Zuru billionaires mired in tower woes
Family own units in block facing $16m leak repair bill
The Mowbray family, whose wealth from manufacturing is estimated at $3 billion, have units in Mount Maunganui’s The Pacific leaky apartments where father Harry Mowbray has been involved in discussions on litigation and repairs.
Documents which record owners show family members own units in the block, reported last month to cost at least $16 million to fix.
The Mowbrays’ enormously successful company is prominent for its toy empire and its popular water balloons. Siblings Mat, Nick and Anna Mowbray are estimated to employ 5500 people in 18 global offices.
The siblings are already highprofile in property here due to their ownership of Coatesville’s Dotcom mansion, previously known as the Chrisco home.
They have Pacific units, giving them the right to vote at body corporate meetings but some owners oppose a strategy Harry Mowbray has backed, to fix the places before longrunning litigation begins.
At the May 27 body corporate extraordinary general meeting, records show father Harry voted proxies for children Anna,
Mat and Nick Mowbray.
Owners are divided on the best strategy and are in one of two camps:
● the fix-first camp which has tried to persuade others that the total amount of money sought in litigation won’t be known until full repairs are completed;
● the litigate-first camp, which includes less wealthy owners who don’t have the ability to pay for repairs. They want to sue for the money in court, then use that to fund full repairs.
One owner in the fix-first camp said the Mowbrays had voted in favour of the litigation-first camp but that would mean many people would struggle to fund repairs.
Harry Mowbray declined to provide details in public about the issues.
Nick Mowbray said last month:
“We do have . . . places there. I have no involvement in this but Dad does.” Mowbray asked Zuru Auckland office manager and executive assistant Lydia Harris to respond to an inquiry about the family’s involvement with units and their repair. Harris said she would look into matters, then last week said the family had nothing further to report. Harry Mowbray said yesterday he “was buried sorting out a $40,000 theft from an historic building I am restoring”. Owners are set for a 10-week hearing in the High Court at Auckland over those involved in designing, building and certifying their block.
Decisions from the High Court at Auckland and Court of Appeal reveal the scope of the litigation involving allegations of serious issues with the 68-unit block at 8 Maunganui Rd, overlooking the waterfront.
Last month, the appeal court heard the case of body corporate 417948 v Watts & Hughes Construction, Tauranga City Council, Avery Team Architects, MPM Projects (2003), GMR Holmac, Tile Trends, Armstrong Plumbing (BOP), Holmes Structures (in liquidation), Omaha Investments No 1, Robert James Foster and Bay of Plenty Asphalt.
The owners sought to defer the trial until full repair costs were determined but parties including the council represented by Amy Davison opposed that.
Last October, the High Court allocated a trial date of July 13 next year for 10 weeks but indicated long-term repairs. It noted that it was unlikely repairs would be finished by then.
“Indeed, they may not be finished until July 2021 or later,” said Justice Matthew Downs.
The owners have engaged Grimshaw lawyers Bryan Easton and Andrew Hough to represent them.
The property is not identified or named in any of the court documents, nor is its address given.
It is only referred to as a Mount Maunganui apartment building which suffers from defects. The only way to identify it is to match the body corporate number with its deposited plan number on property records, which led the Herald to discover which building it was.