🏗️ New Zealand’s Building Crisis: My Personal Experience

The recent OneRoof investigation into potential new leaky building scandals hits close to home. This crisis is very real, and we need to do better.

When issues appeared in our buildings, I approached the builder’s board for help. Rejected – “issues present but not serious enough.” I tried another public body. Trivialised again.

Our residents’ society finally realised we wouldn’t get help until we spent thousands on major testing. We did. The results were far worse than I imagined.

✅ Defective metal cladding
✅ Illegal product substitutions leading to cladding failure
✅ Major fire paint failures
✅ Multiple other defects (more minor though)

Those responsible continue operating in the industry. The same metal cladding crew morphed into another company. Meanwhile, property owners face major challenges getting remediation if at all.

The correct answer was it had to be stripped back and reclad. My opinion is that the builders board did not do what they should have done. They were not serving the public’s best interests and should have proactively asked more questions.

Getting the new Building Consent has been slow but full of learnings. Our 2020 consent became “not right” and required changes – until we discovered this only applies to fire and accessibility issues. What was good enough then remains good enough now. Just another ‘hoop’ we have been jumping.

I’m fortunate to have developed an active working relationship with our head contractor. It’s tense (from me) but amicable, and we’re getting through this together.

To all others who have been caught, keep your eyes on the build. Watch what’s behind the walls. Those caught in this situation should stand up and put things right.

Some cowboys are still out there, they will stay there… I wonder what damage they caused to others before me?

https://www.oneroof.co.nz/news/has-new-zealands-next-leaky-building-crisis-already-begun-47912