Uncertainty for owners over fate of slip-hit homes
Nelson man Caleb Harcus used to get asked several times a day what was happening to his derelict house.
The distinctive red house on Rocks Rd lay empty along the busy stretch of iconic coastal highway like an “exposed carcass”, after being hit by a slip during extreme rainfall 20 months ago.
Waist-deep mud went through the rental home he had lovingly restored before prolonged downpours in August 2022 brought down the hillside behind it.
The property had since been targeted by vandals, with windows smashed; the result in plain sight of the motorists often crawling along Tāhunanui beach.
“It’s such an eyesore; it should be an embarrassment to the council,“Harcus said.
The home needed to be demolished; it had moved off its piles with damage at the back that made it “not worth saving”, he said.
But the house remained red-stickered by the Nelson City Council – meaning he wasn’t allowed to enter the property – and he hadn’t had a clear answer from the council about whether he would be able to build there again.
He had been told his property, on an active landslide known as the Tāhunanui slump, could be among homes proposed to be bought out by the council.
The council started community consultation last month on a Government offer last year to help buy up to 14 eligible homes impacted by slips from private as well as public land.
The Government and council would pay $6 million each under the proposal to buy the properties where the repair cost outweighed the value of the home.
Buying homes at risk from slips on private land would be a “significant new activity” for the council, with the council having no obligation to get involved, the authority said.
But the voluntary buy-outs would provide certainty for affected property owners, who were unlikely to be able to afford the repair costs, and wouldn’t be able to live in the properties because of the risks, it said.
Councillors agreed to the offer in October, subject to the consultation.
But some councillors expressed concerns the buyouts would set a precedent amid forecasts of more extreme weather due to climate change, opening ratepayers up to further costs.
The council’s consultation document stressed that whatever council chose to do was a “one-off response to a specific situation“.
Taking over the property owners’ liabilities on the slip-prone land risked creating “an unrealistic expectation that council would take the same approach to damaged properties in the future”, the consultation document said.
There were also as yet unknown risks, including potential future costs to manage ongoing instability.
But not to accept the Government offer meant losing the other funding in the Government support package – $6m for repairing slips from public land, and $300,000 towards ongoing monitoring of the Tāhunanui slump – which the council would have to fund itself.
Slip-related issues on the private properties were also unlikely to be resolved, with properties left derelict, with the potential to cause additional damage to the community during future storm events.
Nine homes remained red-stickered in Nelson, and 59 properties had yellow stickers, signifying areas that could only be entered temporarily.
Owners of some previously redstickered homes on the Tāhunanui slump had started repairs, but said the fate of their homes remained uncertain.
One said he wouldn’t build the retaining walls, totalling $1m, recommended by costly geotech engineers, and insurers had indicated they may not insure the property for anything beyond a fire.
Another said the council just decided a resource consent was needed for his repairs and he was frustrated with conflicting advice from professionals, “endless” paperwork, and delays.
He said the situation was impossible to manage on the slump zone.
The council said it was looking at how slip risks could be better mitigated, including improving planning rules.
It would ask the Government to hold a national conversation about how severe weather events were paid for in the future, particularly in respect of the role of EQC where properties were undamaged but unsafe to live in due to landslide risk.
Nelson mayor Nick Smith said last year the government support package followed “extensive lobbying” for similar government support to North Island communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland rainfall events.
If there were more than 14 houses identified for purchase, then the council would need to go to the Government for extra support, he said.
Council group manager infrastructure Alec Louverdis said the buy-out proposal could include undamaged properties that had the potential to be affected by slips.
Draft eligibility principals included maximum payment of 95% of the market value pre-August 2022 for insured properties, and 80% for uninsured properties.
Payments would be less any EQC or insurance payouts the owners had or would receive.
Final costs would vary depending on eligibility buy-out principles, and what work needed to be done on purchased properties to lower the risk of future slips.
The council estimated it would have to pay about $2.5m to remove the structures, $4m-$8m for slip remedial works and $1m for administration costs – taking the overall estimated cost to $13.5m-$17.5m over the 10-year period of the Long Term Plan.
The council recently bought 10 homes threatened by slips from one council-owned hillside in The Brook, after the risk increased and the slips couldn't be fixed.
The approximately $6.7m cost would be paid for out of $17.3m ratepayerfunded repair package.
Council said it had an obligation to homeowners affected by public land.
If the buy-outs in the Government support package were approved, some of the funding may go toward offsetting council’s costs in purchasing the Brook St homes, it said. Submissions close on August 28.