Council well placed to fund its share of leaky home repairs

Auckland City Council is in a financially sound position to meet its share of the financial assistance package for owners of leaky homes, announced this week by the Government.

Finance and Strategy Committee chair Douglas Armstrong says the council has been allocating funding for the leaky home issue since 2003, and has earmarked significant funding in its budgets for the decade ahead.

“The good news for leaky home owners and ratepayers is that most of the council's leaky homes fund will now be directly funnelled into helping people rebuild their homes, rather than spent on costly legal bills,” says Mr Armstrong.

“The package means that both the council and owners of leaky homes can plan better for the future. Instead of spending about one to two percent of each rates bill on funding leaky home claims and associated legal bills, the burden on ratepayers will be eased thanks to the Government's financial support.”

The new assistance package centres on the Government and local authorities each contributing 25 per cent of agreed repair costs and affected homeowners funding the remaining 50 per cent backed by a government loan guarantee.

ENDS

© Scoop Media