Brutal blow for apartment owners lurks in quake plan

• Published date: 26 April 2024
• Publication title: New Zealand Herald, The (Auckland, New Zealand)

It turns out that Cabinet ministers also decided to end a scheme offering deferred repayment loans of up to $250,000 providing a lifeline to owners struggling to pay for strengthening their homes

This has pulled the rug from beneath owners relying on these loans to remediate their earthquake-risk buildings after years of pain and sleepless nights.

Construction on one Wellington building was due to start in June with four apartments counting on the government loan scheme to pay for it. These owners now find themselves in limbo.

They were so close to finally seeing the light at the end of a long and dark tunnel, only to have the door shut on them.

The Government should be credited for bringing forward a review of earthquake-prone building rules and extending remediation deadlines by four years.

Those in multi-owned residential apartment buildings have long argued this legislation is being used as a “blunt instrument” and that they are funding public safety outcomes even though the public does not use their buildings.

However, ending the loan scheme is unfair.

More than 50 owners have conditional eligibility approvals. The Government should reconsider its decision and give them the option of drawing down a loan or waiting for the review’s outcome in case it changes their circumstances.

Owners have already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on engineers and obtaining consent for planned work. They had every right to do that on the basis they could trust the Government’s loan scheme.

The uncertainty is the worst thing.

As one body corporate chair so eloquently said: “If, after the review, we are still found to be required to strengthen, we will need something like this scheme to help get owners over the line.”

Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk said the review will consider the role of these schemes in the future.

When he announced the review, he encouraged building owners to “use this time to continue to make improvements to their buildings, particularly due to the positive impacts that remediation has for insurance and their ability to get tenants”.

Commenting on the end of the loan scheme, Penk said: “As a review could result in changes to the obligations and timeframes earthquake-prone building owners face it would not be...