Resident angry over appeal | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

The Rotorua District Council is to appeal a determination by the Department of Building and Housing to reverse three building consents.

Council consents for the three properties in developer Geoff Kenny's Oakland Estate on Western Rd in Ngongotaha have been reversed by the Department of Building and Housing.

Subsidence caused damage ranging from out-of-level floors and loose bricks to doors and windows that would barely close and cracks in foundation walls. The properties are owned by Grant Collins and Shirley Vos, John and Eileen Grundy and Katy and Richard Davis.

According to the notice of appeal which The Daily Post has seen, the council is seeking that the court reinstate the building consents and code of compliance certificates for the three properties and is also seeking costs in favour of the council.

On the notice of appeal the council is listed as the appellant while the home owners are listed as the respondents.

Mr Collins said he was very angry the council had lodged an appeal and couldn't understand why he, as one of the home owners, was being listed as one of the respondents when the decision to reverse the building consents was made by a government department.

"We are flabbergasted ... this is another stonewalling tactic."

Mr Collins said he believed the council was hoping the home owners would just walk away but that would not happen.

"We can't afford to walk away."

He had previously said they had been left with few options and had had an engineer's report done, and the only way forward was to demolish the houses and start again.

Council chief executive Peter Guerin said the appeal was by the council's insurers against the Department of Building and Housing's determination.

However as the three Western Rd property owners initiated the department's determination on the council issuing the building consents, the property owners and the council are required to be named on the appeal document. Council's building services manager Darrell Holder said that after advice from legal and insurance advisers the council had lodged an appeal with the Rotorua District Court.

Mr Holder said although the council was appealing the determination, it was important to note that the Department of Building and Housing had made no conclusions as to the civil responsibility of the council in this matter.

"In fact the department specifically stated that the advice it had received from an independent expert was that a council would typically rely on external engineering advice in order to determine whether it should issue a consent," Mr Holder said.

He said the council believed it did not have any responsibility for losses which could be claimed in relation to the construction of the three houses but the council had not received any claims from the owners of any of the properties.

Mr Holder said it would not be appropriate for the council to comment further now the matter was before the courts.

Mr Collins said he had contacted the council last year on how to make a claim.

He said he planned to be at the appeal hearing.

Mr Collins said they had been told it would cost about $150,000 to seek compensation from the council but that had not deterred them. "If we have to spend $150,000 to go to court we will."

A date for the appeal is still to be set.