By Andrew Steele - 12 Oct 2012
The towering 22 storey Spencer on Byron Hotel in Takapuna,
Auckland is a renowned luxury hotel 500 metres from Takapuna Beach
with panoramic views of Rangitoto Island, Auckland Harbour and the
Hauraki Gulf. It's perhaps the stand-out building on the
North Shore, but it's carried a dark secret. It's a "leaky
building".
That fact has now caused the hotel to make legal history. A
Supreme Court decision yesterday overturned the Court of Appeal and
the accepted law of many years. The decision opens the
way for commercial building owners throughout New Zealand to take
legal action against their local council. If council inspectors
carry out their work negligently, or issue code compliance
certificates in circumstances where they should not have, damages
may be obtained from the council.
It has been long-standing law that councils owe a duty of care
to building owners when inspecting residential buildings. The
Supreme Court has now decided that there was no principled basis
for distinguishing between the liability of those who played a role
in the construction of residential buildings as against the
construction of non-residential buildings.
Contact:
Leaky
building team