Homeowners think Govt just sent a 'coded' rebuke on pace of flood work to Auckland Council

Wednesday, 14 June 2023

Owners of flood-affected homes in Auckland fear they are still many months away from learning whether they will qualify for taxpayer-funded buyouts of their homes, and what prices they will be offered.

Following devastating flooding in January, and then again in Cyclone Gabrielle in February, the Government said it would create a scheme to buy homes so at-risk of future flooding they are no longer safe to live in.

On Tuesday, Cyclone Recovery Minister Grant Robertson “welcomed” Auckland Council’s announcement that it had begun “initial” engagement with owners of homes damaged in flooding in January.

But the frustrated and stressed owners of homes inundated in the Auckland Anniversary Weekend flooding read Robertson’s statement as a “coded” rebuke to Auckland Council, according to Lyall Carter, chairman of the West Auckland is Flooding group of homeowners.

Carter said flood-affected homeowners were left shocked by Auckland Council's announcement, which seemed to indicate the council had made less progress on risk-categorising properties than they would have expected.

Auckland Council said on Tuesday that it would send out its first tranche of letters to flood-hit homeowners during the week, which Robertson said was “a useful initial step”.

But, Robertson continued: “However, it is imperative all councils in affected areas, including Auckland, provide certainty to affected residents on what category their properties will likely fall under as soon as possible”.

The Government has created three categories of homes damaged in the extreme weather events of January and February.

Category three, in which 700-odd houses will be able to be voluntarily bought out; category two, where flood remediation work needed to happen to prevent future flooding; and category one, which can be repaired without work to prevent future floods being needed.

The Government has signalled it will make offers to buy category three homes from owners, with the costs shared with local councils, in a scheme that may cost more than $1 billion.

Carter said June 12 was the day homeowners had hoped to learn what category their home was in, only to learn the council was far less advanced in its categorising Auckland flood-hit homes than they had expected.

“June 12 was supposed to be a day of hope, but it turned out to be a day of disappointment,” Carter said.

“It reinforces in people’s minds that the council can’t do this process well,” Carter said.

He said West Auckland homeowners’ trust in council was broken.

Homeowners say the council failed to take flood-risk into account for decades when consenting development that saw large swathes of land concreted, creating an increase in run-off in storms.

They also say the council failed to maintain and clear the streams and gulleys meant to carry off flood water.

On Tuesday, the council’s group recovery manager, Mat Tucker, said the council was asking homeowners to provide more information about their properties, so it could “more quickly work through the risk categorisation process”.

The council had set up a secure online form for homeowners to provide information about their properties the council did not hold, Tucker said.

A spokesperson for Auckland Minister Michael Wood said the details of a buyout process for category three homes were still being worked through with the Government, following a commitment to support a buyout scheme.

That included how much of the bill would be paid for by local councils, how much by taxpayers, and what part insurance payouts would play in the scheme.

“Decisions on the details of how the voluntary buyout process will work will be made in the coming weeks. This will include the valuation of category three properties, the split of costs between councils and central Government, and how offers made for insured and uninsured properties will differ,” Robertson said.

Carter said many people were unable to stay in their homes, and were currently paying not only their mortgage, but rents for emergency accommodation.

Insurance was covering many of the extra accommodation costs, but not all, and some people’s accommodation cover was coming close to running out.

Some people flooded out of their homes had decided to give up on the country, and had left for Australia, Carter said.

“There are people who have already moved to Australia because they can’t deal with the uncertainty any more,” he said.

Homeowners felt forgotten, Carter said.

Looters had broken into empty homes, he said, and thieves continued to return to streets where many residents had been forced to move out.

Wood also urged speed on Auckland Council, saying: “I acknowledge that this is a significant exercise for Auckland Council, where the majority of category two and three affected homes are located.

“While Auckland Council has chosen to focus on high risk, potentially category three properties initially, it is critical that Auckland Council also looks to complete assessments of category two affected properties to provide further certainty to affected property owners as quickly as possible.

“For properties Auckland Council designates as Category 2 the Government will work with councils to help them build flood protection and other resilience measures. This support is already in place with $100 million initial funding announced in Budget 2023 for all affected regions,” Wood said.

Because of climate change, the cost-sharing arrangement that was being developed would be the basis for dealing with future flood and cyclone events, Robertson said.