Mayor Says Papakura Ratepayers Will Be Worst Hit By Leaky Homes Bill

Ratepayers in Papakura should brace for a significant cost burden under the new Supercity if estimates of leaky homes resolution are correct, says Mayor Calum Penrose.

“New costings on repairs needed to the leaky homes across the Auckland region are tipping $11.5 billion, up from the earlier estimate of $3.6 billion. Auckland, Manukau, North Shore, Rodney – it seems they all have major leaky building issues. Papakura has maybe three homes affected.”

Mr Penrose says as the new Supercity is drawn together, the burden of paying for repairs will fall on all ratepayers. He says the blow-out in reported costs is “horrendous” and will place an unfair financial load on Papakura ratepayers.

“Our people have had the benefit of careful management of our building consent activity, and development out here took a different path during the period when most of these leaky buildings were completed. So why should we shoulder an unfair level of the cost to make this right?”

Papakura’s building consent area was one of the first to attain accreditation as a Building Consent Authority as the Building Act was changed to respond to the leaky buildings issue; Papakura was the first BCA to be re-accredited earlier this year.

Mr Penrose said the handful of local cases were being dealt with by Council staff.

The wider region’s leaky buildings were in many cases larger and thus prove both more expensive and more time-consuming to resolve. The cost for this would thus become an issue for the new Auckland Council and would be borne by ratepayers across the region – whether they had a significant leaky building issue in their area or not.

“Local Government Minister Rodney Hide says the new Council will take on all the liabilities of existing Councils. But I think it’s outrageous that we have the Minister talking up “savings” identified by the transition agency one week and then a week later falling silent on this issue, which will cost billions to fix and will hit Papakura hardest of all the regions.”

ENDS

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