More leaky homes covered by Act

Changes to law extend government support for homeowners

Three changes to the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services Act (WHRSA) will ensure homeowners who would otherwise have been excluded are able to receive assistance.

The WHRSA came into law in 2007, to help owners of leaky homes seek compensation. Weathertight Services was also created to assess claims and provide mediation services to eligible homeowners.

The first change to WHRSA extends the definition of the ‘built’ date to align with a 2014 Supreme Court decision, which determined that it is when the code compliance certificate was issued rather than when the last building inspection was carried out (as previously ruled by the High Court and Court of Appeal).

“Given the ten-year limitation on claims, this will affect who is eligible for assistance. The change will enable about 70 homeowners previously deemed ineligible to be able to pursue their claim without the expense of individually taking each case through the courts,” said Building and Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith.

FAP extended

In 2011, the Financial Assistance Package (FAP) was created to help eligible owners of leaky homes with the cost of repairs; it is due to expire on 23 July 2016.

“It is possible that by this date, some claims may still not have reached the ‘notice to proceed’ stage, which is the critical point of the claim progress,” said Dr Smith. “As part of the changes to the act, homeowners actively progressing claims will be able to do so, rather than have the expiry date arbitrarily prevent a claim from proceeding where good progress is being made.”

Under the FAP, the government and local council each pay 25% of the cost, with the homeowner paying the remaining 50%. However, if the council didn’t sign off the work or chose not to be involved in the FAP, the homeowners need to pay 75% of the cost.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Building, Innovation and Employment said that, as of 29 February, 1,453 homeowners had repaired or started repairing their homes with FAP, with the government having contributed $33.7 million, homeowners $87.2 million and territorial authorities a further $13.9 million. At 17 March, Weathertight Services has 789 open claims covering 4,073 properties.

Dr Smith said that the third change was made to remove doubt about the validity of the eligibility criteria for access to FAP.