leaky homes

[troyvdh]

Giday....I live in CHCH...have a few rentals....thankfully...we have no complaints....but what does alarm me is that the Earthquake damage in dollar terms is huge ...no question....probably around 20 billion...dollars...,,,,,however but if you beleive what has been reported in the media...that the leaky home fiasco could result in total costs between $20-40 billion...then ...what is going on....where i live (St Albans)...there are hundreds of houses that are rotting from the inside....no doubt this is being replicated around NZ....I have seen these "polly palaces"..all over the place...with pillars.....long drive ways...you know the look.....can folk...some elderly...accept that "their castle"...may be worthless....there are numerous multi block apartments ..around CHCh....that are "poly"....you can spot them when it rains..you can see the timber framing outlined ...I do not rejoice in posting this at all...it is so very very sad....

[troyvdh]

....you are the man.....go for it.....you looser...but you probaly know that already.....

[troyvdh]

....that is a fantastic story....man you and your brother in law are trully living the dream...wow being able to sell a leaky home on quickly to someone....else...wow words fail me...what a ingenious example way forward for this nation....well done....I am trully envious...this story / endavour should be reported to the nation....in fact...I am tempted to make you guys superstars...

[Pumice]

How exactly.......would you...... make......them....superstars......?....
You should..... put more effort....into....getting....educated.

[slimwin]

There's always going to be winners and losers. You just have to try your best to be on the right side of the ledger. Sad to see somebody lost but good on your bro in law making something good out of it.

And life goes on...

[airedale]

How exactly.......would you...... make......them....superstars......?....
You should..... put more effort....into....getting....educated.

Pumice, your spelling might be A+, but your manners are D-.
Play the ball in this game.....not the man.

[Pumice]

That was my thought on his/her comment. It seemed rather insulting.
Maybe I inferred too much.

[karen1]

"You should..... put more effort....into....getting....educated"

That could be said for you too, Pumice, at least in the manners department.

I fully agree with airedale on this, and as I have said before on this forum, let us all on ST rise above our politicians, who on any given day can be heard to resort to the pettiness of name calling or ridiculing others. Members do not come here for this nonsense.

[Pumice]

....that is a fantastic story....man you and your brother in law are trully living the dream...wow being able to sell a leaky home on quickly to someone....else...wow words fail me...what a ingenious example way forward for this nation....well done....I am trully envious...this story / endavour should be reported to the nation....in fact...I am tempted to make you guys superstars...

Like I said, I felt this was a rather poor comment and gave a dig back (not in defence of myself).
If I have offended anyone, then I apologise.

[troyvdh]

...wow...Im probably guilty here as well....re AA's comment re repairs being extremely high standards...I have heard that it is not uncommon for repairs to be done once...twice..thrice.....

..this whole issue really guts me....good people have invested not only money...but dreams and aspirations have been dashed by basically everyone ..ranging from architects,builders,suppliers,govt policy makers,local councils and realestate agents...many folk have commited suicide ...imagine the dilemma...your pride and joy..an accumulation of a life time of working,dreaming in your home...then you discover the place is rotting...slowly...it still looks great but is basically worthless...I know folk who loath rain....I could go on...

[Pumice]

I wonder if this will scare off a lot of first home buyers? It doesn’t appear to be.
Imagine ploughing half a million dollars into your home and years later finding out its one giant liability with little recourse on getting it fixed.
There appears to be too many people at fault here or they have ltd liability. There’s not a lot anyone can do.
I wonder how many of these “builders” are the same guys that built the leaky homes in the first place, struck off their company and re registered another...

I’m almost blessed to be excessively ignorant when it comes to property. I’ve been hoping for a property market crash since 1990...

Commited suicide? gees i hope not.

[karen1]

Pumice, troyvdh is correct when he mentions suicide in connection with leaky homes, this from an old news clip: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/leaky-buildings/news/article.cfm?c_id=562&objectid=10462521. There may well have been more by now. The whole situation, for an owner, is horrendous, and does affect health. I have watched friends go through this for the last two years, working with the correct specialised people, and they are now in the final steps of correction, which has been inspected every step of the way.

As for first home buyers, I would like to think that they would be well informed by now, and would seek the right advice, plus there are, I believe, moisture detection tests available now.

Regarding aa's post above, I imagine the builders who repaired the leaky home well knew what they were doing - red tape is rife in Mt Maunganui, and they wouldn't have been able to put a foot wrong.

When you get around to buying a property, it's always a good idea to have a builder inspect it with you.

btw, apology noted! Keep posting, I enjoy them.

[Pumice]

Sure builders have taken on the risk of doing up leaky homes, whether this is admirable or opportunistic is debatable.
There’s no doubt most would now know of the problem and take steps to avoid buying a problem house.
But if we go back a step, there must be a swathe of bonafide buyers ($20 bil?) who did not intend to buy leaky homes and who don’t have the resources to fix them.

I would hate to think that some of these building outfits are doubling dipping. Selling leaky homes, buying them up cheap, fixing them up and selling them on again.

[Halebop]

A former neighbour of mine in Auckland recently put their modest 90's townhouse on the market. They decided to get a weathertightness report done to help prospective buyers, not expecting any issues from their well maintained home of almost 20 years. Of course it was poked.

After getting past the emotion of financial loss and working out they couldn't risk/afford to fix it, they did a deal with a builder. The builder paid for the fix and accepted any risk of unexpected costs, they split the sale proceeds 50/50. The house sold recently, my former neighbour pocketed around $300k (They hoped to get about $700k pre leak).

I think they did the right thing, biting the bullet on the loss and putting themselves in a position to get on with life. Time between first discovering the issue and selling was around 10 months. Helped by the fact they only had a modest mortgage but very dissapointing for their future plans. At least they got to move on quickly though.

[darksentinel]

Been looking at buying a place. Did a chunk of reading on it.
One take on where the "fault" lies (but take it with a tablespoon of salt): http://pc.blogspot.co.nz/2009/11/leaky-homes-part-1-myth-of-deregulated.html.
Part two covers the technical details pretty well: http://pc.blogspot.co.nz/2009/11/leaky-homes-part-2-whats-going-on.html.

My personal conclusion is that even if you find a place that is weathertight (moisture reports are really good), there's a good chance problems will occur over the next thirty years. If I was going to buy a house built 1990-2004 I'd get a moisture report every 1-2 years. Costs ~$500 every time, but you can fix problems as they arise and save yourself a fortune.

[root]

Dark Sentinel:

Caveat: All houses leak to some degree.

The correct use of treated framing timber and a cavity is a step in the right direction. Avoiding complex roof breaks, small soffits, multiple claddings, and enclosed decks/balconies will also ameliorate the buiding risk envelope. Drainage and correct window/door installation, flashings and air seals also play a part. There are a lot of things to get right.

Luckily most of this information can be found in E2/AS1 "External Moisture" and it's amendments. Unfortunately a lot of builders (speaking from experience after "educating" my labour-only builder) have never seen it. My advice is unless you know something about the builder/building company, or have had a very detailed/invasive inspection, build your own home through one of the big/reputable building companies. Or research and build your own house, talking to the council inspectors before starting is very informative.

In a subdivision where I recently built a house (2008), a builder built 2 leaky homes and then managed to build a couple more while still arguing with the council about the first 2. Don't be fooled into believing that a house is Ok just because it was built after 2006. New leaky homes are being finished every week, some with CCCs.

Good luck with the house hunting.

PS The link is spot on, untreated timber and "modern" claddings which were not installed correctly or inspected correctly make up the bulk of the problems. Ca*ters lobbied hard for a lot of these changes and had the clout to make it happen.