$100k boat carpark fight
A property developer says the council told him only half the story before he spent $100,000 on building a park for his boat.
Now he wants the council to cover the cost of bringing his property up to certification.
Rex Kirby says he spent thousands putting in a retaining wall to create parking space for his three-tonne boat at his Acacia Bay property in Taupo¯.
‘‘We built two retaining walls after getting inspected and after being given resource consent [from council] for the walls,’’ Kirby said.
‘‘Now they’ve come back and said, ‘You need a building consent.’
‘‘They’ve realised afterwards.’’ The building consent needed to be granted before the earthworks began, meaning it was now too late to do, Kirby said.
‘‘[Landscapers] would have to knock it down and start again, which is so expensive you wouldn’t do it.’’
An engineering company has offered an alternative solution to check the foundations and gain the consent, which would cost up to $15,000.
Kirby said Taupo¯ District Council planners had caused the issue by not giving him the full information, so local government should pay for remedial work.
‘‘You’re a solo mun, a pensioner, a single guy, and you go to [the council] for advice. That’s what I’ve done. But they haven’t given me the full advice. Now I have non-compliant retaining walls.’’
Kirby said he listed ‘‘boat parking’’ as the purpose for the resource consent he had sought, which he submitted to council.
‘‘It’s actually there in the documentation. There were 10 to 15 people involved and not one triggered on to what was needed.
‘‘You’d think they’d say ‘aw well, we made a mistake, we’ll fix it.’
‘‘But no, they spend hours and hours ducking for cover.’’
The non-compliant boundaries would reduce the value of his property if he tried to sell, he said.
Taupo¯ District Council’s compliance and regulatory manager Scott Devonport said it wasn’t clear from the resource consent application that the retaining wall was to support load from boat parking.
‘‘A retaining wall built to carry load requires a building consent under the Building Act,’’ he said. ‘‘There was one comment in the application referring to boat parking, but nothing shown on the plans to indicate the location of this parking.
‘‘The planner did not comment on this in the consent application as it was a minor aspect and not relevant to the planning matters.’’
Devonport said there were differences between the planned wall, as discussed with council, and the final construction.
‘‘The wall was altered and built closer to the neighbour’s large retaining wall. Mr Kirby’s builder was told to contact an engineer to assess the impact on the lower wall to ensure no stability issues occurred.’’
Devonport said the council was not liable for bringing the wall up to required certification.
‘‘Mr Kirby engaged a professional to design and build the wall. It is up to property owners to be aware of their obligations, or the agents acting on their behalf.’’
Kirby said he owns commercial property in Thames, Te Puke, Tauranga, Hamilton, and Mt Maunganui and works with tradespeople all the time.
‘‘I’ll fight this right through to the end,’’ he said. ‘‘We go to council to get advice on regulations and they need to be responsible for giving the correct information.’’
To prevent a situation like this happening again, Davenport said developers should talk to council early about the project, but also seek independent professional advice.