Activist staunch as home threatened
Auckland activist Penny Bright has a message for anyone hoping to buy her house: ‘‘Forget it.’’
Last month the High Court ruled that her Kingsland home – bought by Bright nearly 30 years ago – would be sold by tender on April 24 to recover more than $34,000 of unpaid council rates and penalties dating back a decade.
Bright has refused to pay the rates in protest at various transgressions she alleges against the council – all of which have been rejected by the council and courts. She told the real estate agent charged with the sale that no potential buyers would be allowed inside to view the property.
Nevertheless Stuff understands that at least one offer had been made on the house, which has been listed for sale by tender on Trade Me for one month.
Bright, a 2016 mayoral candidate, has been in a stand-off with the Auckland Council over rates since 2007; she has maintained she won’t pay up until the council makes public how its rate money is spent.
The ad on Trade Me features a photo of her white weatherboard three-bedroom house with cats on the roof, furniture cluttered on the deck, and tarpaulins tethered by ropes to railings. It is valued at about $1 million. Bright said she would be ‘‘urgently seeking’’ yet another interim injunction to halt the sale before the April 24 deadline, as she did not believe the council had followed due process.
She declined to speak about what would happen if she failed to get an injunction and her home was sold – refusing to confirm if she would try to remain and prevent any new owner taking possession. She said she was motivated by ‘‘all the good’’ that would come out of the council making its spending and contracting decisions public, if she succeeded. ‘‘Come hell or high water, that house will not be sold,’’ the self-described scrapper said.