The ‘flood-prone’ tag that could cost a homeowner $8000 to fight

Wednesday, 11 March 2026

A homeowner who disputes the “flood-prone” label put on her property by Auckland Council faces paying more than $8000 for a report to challenge the tag.

Stephanie Burgess lives in a peaceful, leafy valley in Glendowie, in Auckland’s eastern bays. A gentle stream passes below her neighbour’s property, then enters a stormwater tunnel as it winds its way to the sea, 700m away.

Burgess has lived here for nearly 30 years, with no sign of flooding.

In July 2024, she was surprised to see her property in an area marked “flood-prone” on Auckland Council’s online maps.

Since then, Burgess has been asking how her property received a label she fears will put off potential buyers as she prepares to sell the family home and move on to the next stage of life.

Having worked as a planning consultant for 15 years, Burgess said she was familiar with council maps and planning issues, but was stumped as to how her property came to be marked as flood-prone.

Burgess said the general public’s understanding was low “and any flood risk is seen as negative”.

Andrew Chin, head of strategic initiatives in Auckland Council’s stormwater department, Healthy Waters, said areas marked as flood-prone could flood if stormwater pipes are blocked.

For Burgess, that level of flooding is hard to imagine.

The council’s contour map shows the lowest part of her property is 12m above sea level, with the entry point to the stormwater tunnel about 2m above sea level. There are multiple retaining walls between the stream and her property, she said.

Chin said that flood-prone areas were identified using mapping, not hydraulic modelling, meaning they’re based on the shape of the land rather than detailed water flow studies.

“In this case, the flood-prone areas show potential ponding of water if the stormwater pipes are blocked.”

The flood maps take into account structures that were built when mapping data was collected in 2016 and 2017, Chin said.

Burgess had hoped that recent flood modelling in her area would update the “lay of the land”.

Not so, because the maps record two flood-related layers.

One is flood-prone, the other is floodplain.

The floodplain layer shows areas predicted to be covered by flood water in a 1-in-100-year event, or an event with a 1% chance of occurring in a year.

In Burgess’ neighbourhood, information about the floodplain was recently updated; the flood-prone area was not.

“Taken together, the floodplain, the flood-prone and the overland flow paths indicate the flood risk across Auckland,” said Chin.

“Of course, being outside of the floodplain does not mean any given property does not have an associated flood risk.”

Given the possible impact of the flood-prone label on her property’s value, Burgess is concerned the council’s modelling is not specific enough. She asked the council how she can dispute it.

“They said I need to get my own consulting engineer and get a report written that they can consider.”

An engineer Burgess spoke to indicated such a report would cost upwards of $8000. With no guarantee it would alter how her property appears on the flood maps.

“Where an owner has site-specific information that supersedes the regional study, they are welcome to submit the additional technical reports which can go onto their property files to add site-specific context,” Chin said.

They could also give that information directly to interested purchasers, he said.

Chin said people’s concerns with flood information are more to do with their understanding than problems with the flood information itself. They can talk to the council for an explanation of why their property is impacted.

“A conversation may be a simple way to avoid the expense of engaging an expert to dispute information which is unlikely to change.”