Suburban eyesores: Homes left to rot
The council is cracking down on derelict buildings in the central city but what can be done about suburban homes in a similar state? Liz McDonald investigates.
Almost every neighbourhood has one – a damaged and dilapidated eyesore left to rot. Tagged walls and fences, smashed windows and an overgrown garden quickly follow as things deteriorate.
Derelict houses that are abandoned can attract trouble in the form of rodents, fire risk, visiting drug uses and prostitutes, and discarded junk and dumped rubbish.
In what Councillor Jamie Gough this week labelled a war plan, council staff have identified their ‘‘dirty 30’’ sites and written warning letters to owners threatening consequences if they don’t shape up.
But what of the suburban homes in the same state?
On Hills Rd, a house abandoned for many years is a long-standing example. The windows are boarded up and it is often tagged. Owner John Conlin owns several properties in the city and once planned to build units on the Hills Rd land.
He could not be contacted for comment, but a relative said Conlin would not sell the property to anyone.
‘‘Lots of people ring up,’’ he said. ‘‘He tells them no.’’
Next-door neighbour Lucy Morgan said the house had not changed much for 20 years.
‘‘We’ve had to call the council about tagging and the long grass when it gets really high in summer. It worries us because it comes right up to the fence.’’
The worst was when obscene graffiti was spray painted over the house, she said. Other times, taggers started on the abandoned house then moved on to theirs.
Sometimes someone came and cut down the grass, she said, and the tagging had been painted over even when it went right up the house and across the windows.
Another neighbour, Brian Brodie, said the house had sat there for decades and over the years had been set on fire, and attracted break-ins.
‘‘It’s sat like that for about 39 years. I don’t think there’s anything you can do about these derelict homes. They just stay there.’’
Some abandoned and derelict homes have owners mired in insurance, family or other disputes.
One is the historic Englefield on the corner of Avonside Dr and Fitzgerald Ave.
The house is badly earthquakedamaged and fenced off, with broken windows and tagged walls.
Owner Shaun Wylie said that after a long insurance battle, he had at last been paid out ‘‘a hefty sum’’ but was now in a drawn-out relationship property dispute.
Wylie bought the house in 2008 and had been trying to fix it up even before the earthquakes. He acknowledged it was dangerous and said he still intended to repair it when he could, but in the meantime it was securely fenced.
He estimated it needed $2 million worth of repairs.
‘‘It needs a huge amount of work. The house could be demolished because it’s a total loss. But I still think it can be saved.’’
Wylie said the house had been broken into a few times.
‘‘It’s a real mess, it’s a nightmare,’’ he said.
Wylie did not know when he might be able to start fixing the house. ‘‘It could be another year,’’ he said.
Other derelict houses around the city look abandoned but are still occupied.
One home in a tree-lined Mairehau street is almost completely overgrown and broken.
An old car in the garden is completely covered with lichen and ivy. Roof tiles have collapsed into a hole.
No-one answered the door when The Press visited, but neighbours confirmed the owner, although rarely seen, still lived there.
The owners of a rental home on one side have contacted council several times over the state of the property and garden. There has been little action.
A resident directly opposite did not want to be named, but said she was used to looking at the house and it did not bother her.
‘‘It’s just part of the street, now. At least they are not having rowdy parties.’’
Of neighbours of broken down homes we spoke to, homeowners seemed more bothered than tenants. As well as gardens and rubbish, maintaining boundary fences had cause problems, and some worried about the effect on their property values.
Inspector Derek Erasmus, Canterbury response manager for the police, said abandoned homes could be ‘‘crime attractors’’.
‘‘People use them to sleep rough and you get a problem with arson, particularly if they are drunk or affected by drugs,’’ he said.
‘‘The other problem is they make an area look uncared for. They drag down a neighbourhood and you are more likely to get more crime.’’
Typically, police would contact the property’s owner to secure it, and if they did not co-operative pressure could be applied pressure through the property’s insurer, Erasmus said. Absentee owners could be problematic.
Sometimes police contact council if the problems fall under their jurisdiction.
A Christchurch City Council spokeswoman said that in the past 12 months, council had received 76 complaints about dilapidated buildings.
Staff assess the complaints to see whether they are covered by laws including the Building Act, Health Act and Local Government Act.
They can then take action, such as giving an owner written notice to cutting overgrown grass by a certain date.
If the notice is not complied with, council can commission the work and bill the owner.
The council also has an earthquakeprone, dangerous and insanitary buildings policy which it introduced in 2010. The policy is currently under review.
But in its present form the policy appears to offer little hope for neighbours of residential eyesore sites.
It requires dangerous buildings to be shored up or fenced off. Its rules on sanitation refer mainly to the wellbeing of occupants. Property owners or occupiers are responsible for rodent control on their properties.
The earthquake-prone piece of the policy will be replaced by new laws in July, while the dangerous and insanitary building clauses are being reviewed but legally can only be changed after public consultation.
Ron Andrew, president of the Christchurch Beautifying Association, said council was not doing enough.
‘‘They are meant to be an enforcement body. But they are under-funded. There are so many buildings where action has not been taken,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s a policy issue, about where resources are allocated’’.
The association, which advocates for underground wiring, does planting projects for the city and runs street pride competitions, has noticed the problem of abandoned houses worsening since the earthquakes, Andrew said.
‘‘There are a surprising number of them out there. They have been bought by someone and just let go. Discarded cars sitting on the lawn, grass almost up to the roof,’’ he said.
Andrew said that surprisingly, derelict homes were not uncommon in even leafy suburbs, where owners were paying high rates but doing no maintenance.
‘‘People are very disrespectful. But nothing gets done,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s an absolute shame.
‘‘It doesn’t reflect us as a Garden City at all.’’
‘‘They drag down a neighbourhood and you are more likely to get more crime.’’ Inspector Derek Erasmus, Canterbury response manager for the police, on derelict houses.