James Hardie loses last bid to stop class action suit from leaky-home owners

Monday, 27 November 2017

James Hardie is preparing to fight a class action suit.

It was when workers started taking the cladding off Meredith Osmond's Wellington unit that she realised the extent of the damage.

Because it was built with untreated timber, as soon as water got into the unit, it started to rot. Dangerous mould grew.

James Hardie denies its products caused the faults.

Now, the back and front has to come off the leaky home, including the outside of a study, garage and large deck. It's a project that will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Osmond is the owner of one of a group of six units.

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The Supreme Court has just backed her, and other owners, in their bid to launch a class action suit against building manufacturer James Hardie over its products, which they say contributed to the leaks.

The court dismissed the firm's attempt to fight a Court of Appeal decision that allowed homeowners to bring proceedings on behalf of others whose houses were also built with Harditex and Titan board.

James Hardie and Studorp were asked to pay costs of $2500 to the respondents.

But the biggest pain for the building firms will come in the form of the looming class action.

There is now an opt-in period until the end of January, in which other affected homeowners can sign up. Thousands could potentially take part.

Osmond said she hoped to see a large number of homeowners join. 'There are a lot of people in New Zealand who have bought properties that have James Hardie Products, whether that's Harditex or Titan, and have suffered a great deal as a result. They've needed to do extensive repairs and those repairs have failed because they weren't substantial enough and they've had to look at fixing failed repairs. Everyone but James Hardie has paid the price for this.'

She said even homeowners who had not yet discovered leaks could suffer because of the stigma associated with owning such a property. 'If you were going to see the value of your property decline by two-thirds when you wnt to sell, you'd want to do something.'

The lawyer representing the homeowners, Dan Parker, of Parker & Associates, said people who thought their properties were affected should act quickly.

'We are dealing with a large number of enquiries, many from people who have seen and are responding to the claim for the first time,' he said.

'A number of owners have approached us unaware of any problems with their properties until expert investigations identify issues. They have subsequently joined the claim.'

'We will be pushing forward now to deal with owner enquiries and to get as many owners signed on as possible. As it is a self-funded action, the bigger the group is, the lower the costs per owner.'

The group first brought a product liability claim against James Hardie New Zealand and James Hardie-owned Studorp in 2015.

They allege that leaks in their homes are attributable to inherent defects in cladding systems manufactured by James Hardie. They also claim James Hardie made misleading statements about its cladding systems in its technical literature. James Hardie denies the allegations.

Thousands of properties were built using Harditex from 1987 until the early 2000s. Titan board was widely used from 1995.

Parker said owners of monolithic-clad buildings built since 1987 using Harditex and Titan board should contact his firm. Experts could be arranged to investigate whether the materials had been used and what damage had been caused.

Auckland law firm Adina Thorn has also launched a class action in Auckland to help owners of leaky homes that councils signed off.