By Andrew Steele - 10 Jun 2014
The Supreme Court has today opened the door for many more home
owners to bring claims in the Weathertight Homes Tribunal
(WHT). The Court ruled in favour of John and Helen
Osborne who have been battling to have their leaky home claim
declared eligible in the WHT. They brought their claim within
ten years of a code compliance certificate (CCC)
being issued by Auckland Council but their claim was found to be
ineligible.
The decision hinged on when the house was "built". The
actual building work had been completed more then ten years
ago. A High Court judge and the Court of Appeal agreed with
the Chief Executive of the DBH that the claim was
ineligible. The Supreme Court has now overturned those
decisions ruling that if the CCC is in time the claim is eligible
as the certification process is part of the "building
work". William Young J delivering the court's reasons
described the "nasty trap" that the Osbornes had fallen
into. They believed they had done the right thing by filing
their claim less than ten years after the CCC had been issued only
to find that their claim was ineligible and it was too late to
bring a claim in the High Court.
The Council clearly saw the writing on the wall and made a
conditional offer of settlement to the Osbornes: conditional upon
the Supreme Court's decision not being released. Although
aware of the conditional offer the Court recognised the public
importance of its decision even if there had been a settlement.
For all leaky home enquiries contact our Leaky
Building team to discuss your options for recouping your
losses.