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The chairperson of a body corporate claiming $163 million for leaky building repairs from the Queenstown Lakes District Council says they only want a fair outcome.
The council has said the Oaks Shore claim could result in each ratepayer having to pay $305 more in rates each year for 30 years.
… View moreThe chairperson of a body corporate claiming $163 million for leaky building repairs from the Queenstown Lakes District Council says they only want a fair outcome.
The council has said the Oaks Shore claim could result in each ratepayer having to pay $305 more in rates each year for 30 years.
Oaks Shore is an 84-unit apartment block developed by well-known Southland developer Ross Wensley and opened in 2005.
About 74 owners launched legal action against the council and parties including architects and structural engineers in 2015 when extensive water and structural issues were discovered – including to balconies, roofs, cladding and bathrooms.
Wensley – who was responsible for hundreds of new upmarket apartments in Queenstown before the global financial crisis hit in 2008 – could not be sued as six of his companies were placed in liquidation.
His daughter-in-law, Olivia Wensley, is a mayoral candidate for the Queenstown Lakes District this year.
The apartment owners were in a “horrific” situation, body corporate chairman Graeme Kruger said.
“All we want is our building to be fixed as it was meant to be in the first place.
“It’s broken owners’ hearts.”
A High Court hearing date had been set for February 2023, but he hoped the case would be resolved earlier through mediation.
Kruger said the owners of the apartments were mostly New Zealanders purchasing a holiday home or investment property.
“No matter what the outcome is we’re going to have to contribute to it.
“We just want natural justice and fairness for all parties.”
This month, the council made a submission to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) urging it to include risk, liability and insurance in the scope of its review of the building consent system.
The existing rule meant if one party was insolvent or had no insurance, other parties remained responsible.
The council was often the only party left to compensate homeowners when building defects arose.
Under the current system, the council had experienced an increase in the number of claims by property owners for weather tightness and other building defects, the submissions says.
In the 2021-22 year, the council spent about $40m defending and/or resolving claims, which led to a median $50 rate increase for every property.
The council was disproportionately exposed to claims due to its small ratepayer base and large number of developments, it says.
Between 2003 and 2006, Queenstown Lakes issued the highest proportion of new dwelling consents per ratepayer in New Zealand, with 31.7 new dwelling consents per 1000 residents – about four times the national average.
The next closest district was Thames-Coromandel, issuing 18.9 per 1000 residents.
If successful, the Oak Shores claim would be one of the largest single claims in New Zealand.
“This would increase rates by an average of 9.6% and would cost $305 per property every year for 30 years,” the council’s submission says.
That could result in a loss in borrowing capacity for the council and would mean less investment in community assets such as parks, libraries, performing arts and recreation facilities.
The submissions also urge MBIE to consider funding support for the council.
“It is council’s position that requiring ratepayers to pay compensation where defendants are missing is unjust,” it says.
Kruger said the interest of ratepayers needed to be protected.
“It’s unfortunate that around the country the last party standing is the council or building authority.”
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NZ Gardener has all the step-by-step DIY projects you’ll need to achieve just that. As well as incredible photography, spectacular garden stories, recipes and more. Subscribe before 26 September and you’ll receive a $25 gift voucher to … View moreWant your garden to be the talk of your neighbourhood?
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Looking down from the top of Queenstown’s Cecil Peak, drinking gin infused with thyme plucked from bushes in Arrowtown, Stu Clark admits to feeling proud of his award-winning drink.
Clark and his mate Hamish Bourke were working as builders in Arrowtown when they one day got “yarning” about… View moreLooking down from the top of Queenstown’s Cecil Peak, drinking gin infused with thyme plucked from bushes in Arrowtown, Stu Clark admits to feeling proud of his award-winning drink.
Clark and his mate Hamish Bourke were working as builders in Arrowtown when they one day got “yarning” about how good it’d be to own their own gin distillery, a dream not uncommon for the Kiwi bloke.
In 2018, the mates had been doing some building work on Clark’s shed, which wasinitially intended to be a workshop, but became a distillery where the friends now make their Rifters Gin.
By 2020, the pair had bagged a gold medal at the San Fran Spirit Awards, followed by a silver the year after.
They have also won medals at the London and New Zealand Spirits competitions.
“We just got on really well and both love gin and wanted to try this thing. We haven’t balanced [the books] out yet, but it is about going for it. We are proud of what we’ve done so far,” Clark says.
Rifters are makers of small-batch premium gin, which uses botanicals and local herbs like thyme, mānuka honey, coriander and mint.
They started trialling recipes for their mates and after loads of good feedback, Clark says they “gave it a crack”.
The men are passionate about bringing people back to their region after a tough couple of years for hospitality during the pandemic.
Clark says lockdowns and low visitor numbers to the region affected sales, but numbers are on the way back up with the help of local tourism.
On Saturday, the company took two competition winners from Mt Maunganui up to Cecil Peak in a helicopter to taste their gin at height.
They wanted to showcase the area that initially inspired them to make gin.
Clark says the dream is to one day open up a public distillery allowing people to visit and have a taste of what their region has to offer, and perhaps link up more with tourism operators like they did over the weekend.
The inspiration behind the name “Rifters” and their bottles, comes from Arrowtown’s gold mining history, he says.
A visit to the local museum showed a connection between Arrowtown's gold mining history and gin, a drop the foragers made for themselves while panning for gold 150 years ago.
“Our bottle is a representation of this Arrowtown history and the land that surrounds us, coloured to match the lakes and rivers that flow through Central Otago,” Clark says.
"The mountains, lakes and rivers that surround us have captured our imagination for years. They provide the purest ingredients used to make our gin.”
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From reporter Debbie Jamieson:
June Baptista has spent three years singing the praises of Queenstown’s bus services. Six weeks ago that stopped.
The retired teacher doesn’t have a car so relies on buses to get to appointments and to the local high school to do relief teaching. But … View moreFrom reporter Debbie Jamieson:
June Baptista has spent three years singing the praises of Queenstown’s bus services. Six weeks ago that stopped.
The retired teacher doesn’t have a car so relies on buses to get to appointments and to the local high school to do relief teaching. But suddenly the buses stopped turning up.
“One evening I waited for more than an hour at the bus stop.
“Later I was told there was a reduced timetable, so I looked at the new timetable when I had to get a booster shot in town. It still didn’t come for an hour and I missed the appointment.”
Baptista is among the many bus users complaining about changes that have led to less frequent services, irregular arrivals and sometimes no buses not turning up at all.
Those affected include school children, workers, tourists and Otago regional councillor Alexa Forbes.
The regional council is responsible for providing bus services and Forbes, who lives in Queenstown and is a regular bus user, is chairperson of the Otago regional transport committee.
She said she was “nice and early” to catch a bus to an event in Arrowtown from the Frankton bus hub, but it never arrived.
“Despite the website saying it was 10 minutes away, nothing happened.”
The next bus was running 40 minutes late because of congestion from skiers coming down from Coronet Peak, and she ended up getting a ride with a friend.
Bus driver shortages are being felt across the country. In mid-July, the Otago Regional Council introduced a temporarily reduced timetable for Queenstown and Dunedin services.
This week, it said it was short 39 public transport bus drivers.
A full timetable would not be reinstated “in the short term”, transport manager Doug Rodgers said.
Queenstown Lakes mayor Jim Boult put the problem down to wages, which were about $23 an hour.
“A cleaner around here can get $27 to $28 an hour these days – no wonder they are having trouble getting drivers.”
In Auckland, bus drivers’ pay was bumped up in July to an average of about $25.62 an hour. In Wellington in December, the rate went up to $27 an hour.
The regional council and Waka Kotahi provide the bulk of bus driver wages, but bus contractor Ritchies sets the pay rate in Queenstown.
The company manager could not be reached for comment.
On Wednesday, the regional council agreed on an unbudgeted increase to ensure all drivers are paid at least the living wage as of September 1 – $23.65.
It was an increase of 90 cents, according to Rodgers, and would cost the council almost $500,000 a year.
Rodgers said the driver shortage was the sole reason for the reduced timetable, but Boult and Dunedin mayor Aaron Hawkins saw wider problems and wanted their councils to have more control of local bus services.
Control of bus services currently sits with regional councils.
Last week, Transport Minister Michael Wood announced a new “sustainable public transport framework” would replace that model, opening the door for more involvement from district and city councils.
This was welcomed by Boult, who provided much of the momentum behind the new, cheaper and more frequent Queenstown $2 bus service, which started in 2017.
“I’d have to say that I’m disappointed, particularly post-Covid ... that the ball has been dropped and we’re seeing services curtailed and I’m getting complaints.
“When the $2 bus was introduced we probably had a public transport system that was envied by every council. That has been eroded.”
After months of waiting, the mayors have secured an informal meeting with Otago Regional Council officials later this week.
However, Forbes warned that there would not be a quick fix.
A new governance structure would be needed, then funding would have to be considered.
“There won’t be more money in the public pot. Somehow or other the councils involved are going to figure out how this will be funded,” she said.
In Wellington and Auckland, driver pay rises were achieved by increasing rates.
Baptista hoped changes would be made soon, so she would no longer have to wait an hour for a bus that may never come.
“Can you imagine wasting all that energy and time waiting when you could have done something more productive?”
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