Engineer’s errors were not insured
The engineer who exposed Christchurch ratepayers to a $19 millionplus liability by designing a defective eight-storey building in the city’s CBD was not insured against his mistakes.
The owner of the building at 230 High St and two other claimants are suing Christchurch City Council and six other parties over the building, which has stood empty for four years. They claim that negligent consenting by the council contributed to losses of $19m including the cost of a rebuild and demolition.
The superstructure of the building was re-designed by Koreantrained engineer Joo Cho, based in Christchurch, in 2016. Subsequent expert reports found multiple defects with the design and with changes made during construction.
Court documents obtained by The Press reveal the council is counterclaiming against Cho, his company Seismotech and several consultant engineering firms involved in the consenting process.
The council issued a building consent for the building’s steel super structure in August 2016 and then consented major amendments made by Cho.
The court documents show that neither Cho nor his company had professional indemnity insurance despite written statements they did. The council claims he breached his duty of care to it by failing to insure against defects in his work.
A council spokesperson declined to say whether the council’s insurance covered mistakes in consenting. She said the council held ‘‘appropriate insurance for its operations’’. ‘‘Providing more information would unreasonably prejudice the commercial positions of council and/or its insurer.’’
Cho’s lack of insurance means the council will have to look at Cho’s personal assets if it is successful in its counter-claim. He appears not to have any property.
Property records showed the title for his and his wife’s property in Avonhead, worth about $900,000, was transferred to his wife alone on December 23, 2021. A mortgage over the property was discharged at the same time. Cho was removed from the register of chartered engineers in December last year for performing engineering services incompetently and not properly addressing issues with his work highlighted by other engineers.
The court documents show Cho continues to maintain the building at 230 High St complies with the Building Code and that his methodology, apparently misunderstood by other engineers, is sound.
He told the disciplinary committee of Engineering New Zealand last year that he had retired from engineering and requested any fine be kept to minimum. He was first registered as a chartered professional engineer in July 2008.
He escaped a fine but was required to pay costs of $12,458 plus GST.
The disciplinary committee said: ‘‘Mr Cho does not appear willing to accept or give consideration to, feedback from reviews carried out by other professional engineers, even when the same points are raised by more than one independent reviewer. Engineers need to be receptive to criticism and willing to adjust their practice in response to changes in industry standards.’’