Building owners get final warning

Building owners in Wellington have been given a final warning to fix unreinforced masonry issues, or else.

Wellington was found in early 2017 to have almost 100 buildings that posed a danger to the public, due to unreinforced masonry that could fall in an earthquake.

Wellington City Council initially identified 244 buildings in Cuba St, Courtenay Place and Riddiford St, with about 50 more in Lower Hutt, that met the criteria.

After further investigation, the list was cut to 98.

Falling debris from sites with unreinforced masonry caused 40 deaths in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, as well as injuries to more than 100 people.

The Government gave building owners a year to complete the required improvements but many were unable to meet the March 2018 deadline so were given a sixmonth extension.

However, any building owner that had done nothing by the original deadline of March 29 would not have qualified for the extension and faced fines of up to $200,000 and/or prosecution.

After months of concern that a large number of central Wellington buildings may be cordoned off again, the council is now satisfied enough is being done to meet the revised deadline.

Council city resilience team communications manager Jacqui Hastie said as of March 29, all 75 buildings in the unreinforced masonry (URM) programme had some securing work underway.

A third or more of those buildings were expected to complete their work in the next month. While those building owners were completing their securing work, the council would keep monitoring that the repairs were happening at a reasonable speed, Hastie said.

‘‘Building owners have until the end of September to carry out reinforcements, then the council would look at taking action.’’