Leaky building costs $23.7m
Auckland Council will pay nearly $24 million towards repairing the country’s most expensive leaky building.
The council decided at a governing body meeting on Thursday to pay $23.7 million of the total $25.07m in reparations to the owners of the 150-unit Nautilus apartments in Orewa.
The reparation is understood to be the largest amount awarded to New Zealand leaky building owners.
Significant weather-tightness issues were identified at the building in October 2008, less than five years after the complex was opened.
The case ended up in the High Court last year with Justice Murray Gilbert releasing his decision in April this year.
The council was deemed liable in place of the now defunct Rodney District Council, which issued code of compliance certificates.
Chief executive of Centurion Management Services – Nautilus’ body corporate – Steve Plummer said the owners were extremely happy to hear the news.
‘‘Now they can get on with the focus, which is to repair the building,’’ he said.
But with the rebuild comes the issue of where the residents go in the meantime, with some possibly choosing to stay if the building remains semi-operational while others may move out.
The effect of dealing with a leaky building and being locked in a legal battle with the council had more than just a financial impact on the residents, Plummer said.
‘‘It’s the mental impact, the physical impact and the financial impact on people. There’s a multitude of factors that come into this.’’
While the result had been positive, the time it took to get there was unacceptable.
‘‘It had to go to court rather than the council being proactive in dealing with owners.’’
A new design for the building had been drawn up with building consent pending, which Plummer was confident would be approved.
Lawyers for the body corporate, Rainey Law, were preparing an application for costs, including legal and insolvency costs.
Body corporate chairman Trevor Corin said the next step was a meeting with owners to discuss the settlement and rebuild, which was expected to take 18 months to two years.
The council is appealing two minor points of the High Court decision.
However, those do not impact the substantive judgment.
Auckland City councillors at Thursday’s meeting asked officers to continue to explore all avenues to get costs from other possibly liable parties.
In 2008 those parties included builders Brookfield Multiplex Construction, Walker Architects, Downer EDI Works (discontinued), Facade Technologies, tiling specialists Charles Norager and Sons, and Bostik, makers of sealants and adhesives, and Zurich Insurance.