Leaky Buildings Proposal Welcomed by Local Government New Zealand

Local Government New Zealand welcomes the ‘leaky building’ resolution proposal announced by the Government today. “It is important that there is a measured and appropriate response that helps to restore confidence in the system and helps concerned or affected home owners make progress towards resolution of their problems,” said Basil Morrison, President of Local Government New Zealand.

“Local Government New Zealand supports the proposal in principle, recognising that it is consistent with the first two parts of the four point plan that we promoted on Monday 23rd September,” he said.

While supporting the proposal Local Government New Zealand recognises there are still issues to be worked through to get this scheme successfully underway and Local Government New Zealand has offered to work with officials to address these and other issues to refine the proposal.

For example – the sorts of issues that will require clarification:

The position of second and subsequent owners of homes. What if any user charges would be made? The relationship between the inspection service and the mediation service. The degree of uncertainty over the size of the task that inspectors and mediators will be required to deal with.

Basil Morrison said that Local Government New Zealand is confident that the local government sector would provide some support for this proposal. However, he said, “Local Government New Zealand is not in a position to contribute financially to such a scheme without securing funding from our member councils. To do so will take time and, of course, Local Government New Zealand has no authority to require councils to contribute to such schemes.”

Local Government New Zealand will now seek views from all the relevant councils in New Zealand about this proposal.

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