Bella Vista residents left in limbo

Photo: RNZ / Sophia Duckor-Jones

The owners of 21 properties at a Tauranga development who will not be able to return to their homes because they have been deemed too dangerous to live in, say someone needs to take responsibility for the debacle.

The developers of the Bella Vista Homes development went into liquidation in December leaving about 30 properties unfinished.

The Tauranga City Council had been assessing the properties since early February due to major construction failings in all of the properties.

Based on the findings of geotechnical, structural, and compliance experts, the council deemed that all of the 21 properties are 'dangerous and affected', or 'affected' under the Building Act 2004.

In March, 13 families were forced to evacuate with only 24 hours notice amid fears Cyclone Hola could do serious damage and they have not been back since.

The owner of one of the homes said his family remains in limbo.

Andre Stewart and his family are living in rental accommodation but still have a mortgage to pay, as well as rates.

He wants to be able to move on.

"But how long is that going to take and at what cost until we are basically completely broke."

He's applied to the council for relief from rates but was turned down.

Andre says a number of homes were issued with a council code of compliance and that is the big issue for them.

"How has Tauranga City Council allowed that to happen?

"They have put people in a position of being unsafe for the last 18 months," he said.

He says it does not make sense.

"Will that mean they will at some stage admit negligence, that they were at fault, because right now there is nothing."

Andre and the other owners are leaving their options open and not ruling out legal action.

Jenny Coffey moved into her home in 2016 and had a full code of compliance.

"I want someone to take responsibility for what has happened."

The council is proposing an independent inquiry.

Jenny wants a say in who does the inquiry.

"It's our properties and our livelihood that is being dealt with here. This is our money."

Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller says it's a dreadful position for the homeowners to find themselves in.

He says the council needs to first find out the extent of the problem and the cost to remediate.

Todd says the council should continue looking after the families by providing the cost of rental accommodation which is likely to stop soon.

"These are exceptional circumstances."

The council says it's working on four options, including remediation and buying the properties in order to demolish them.

-RNZ

You may also like....

7 comments

Tauranga Council.

Posted on 18-04-2018 16:32 | By tundra

Come on! You are up to your necks in this and you still have the gall to not give these poor home owners rate relief! Absolutely shameful.


What happened?

Posted on 18-04-2018 18:00 | By The Sage

To the $2 million that Danny Cancian paid his business partner before the proverbial hit the fan? Very convenient timing I have to say. It is my opinion that Cancian and the Council are both culpable. This will be one of those "I have money ferreted away for a rainy day" stories. Shame on the Council for making the victims keep paying rates. If it was USA those Building Inspectors would be up before the Courts and so would Cancian.


Rates really

Posted on 18-04-2018 19:40 | By Sg1nz

Given no one has had a rates bill yet, how would anyone know if these poor people are paying rates or not.


Bella Vista

Posted on 18-04-2018 21:19 | By surfsup

Difficult to know where to begin with this fiasco. I hope the council has insurance to cover this negligence by it's staff or people contracted to work for them. They need to simply pay the families out and then look for scapegoats afterwards, call in the police if they thinks it's needed and then front up to the ratepayers with the full story of how this whole affair got to this stage. The people who should not be impacted anymore are the homeowners.


Move things on

Posted on 19-04-2018 12:56 | By The Sage

This needs to be resolved sooner rather than later. Time for it to hit Fair Go or something similar. That way the whole country will know how poorly this has been handled by the Council, how the building inspectors have performed so poorly, they should be named. Also Cancian should have his face out there as he will probably try and do it again down the line.There has been a lot of dishonesty here and the Councils excuse to evacuate those people from their homes was just that an excuse. They should have been upfront with them from the start.


CEO

Posted on 19-04-2018 17:01 | By Told you

As CEO POOLE is captain of the ship he is responsible for this fiasco but he continues to to say a decision will not be made before 9th June, not good enough this time frame is far too long to leave the owners of these homes in limbo more action is required and stop this pussyfooting around.


Dodgy dealings...

Posted on 19-04-2018 21:36 | By groutby

...all round really, wonder if the CCC were issued by the TCC or a company 'acting' for them?...AKA worst homeowners nightmare...'leaky homes' ?


Leave a Comment


You must be logged in to make a comment.