Stepping in to fix leaky homes

Many thousands of New Zealanders and their families are stuck in the dreadful bind of owning a leaky, rotting home.

There are tens of thousands of homes affected across the country. The leaky homes issue is on a similar scale to a major natural disaster.

In human terms, it adds up to thousands of damaged lives. It’s New Zealanders and their families who are suffering health problems caused by stress or by inhaling foul air from their rotting homes.

National is not prepared to stand by and let this awful situation continue. We believe it’s time to stop playing the blame game.

We have taken leadership on this major, long-running problem and stepped up with a financial assistance package to help Kiwis get their homes fixed faster.

The package centres on the Government and local authorities each contributing 25 per cent of agreed repair costs, and affected homeowners funding the remaining 50 per cent backed by a government loan guarantee.

This package is a fair and effective package that will spread the costs as evenly as possible.

This is a major commitment from the Government, especially in today’s tough economic environment. The Government’s 25 per cent contribution towards agreed repair costs is expected to cost about $1 billion over five years.

Our priority is getting homes fixed so owners and their families can move on with their lives. It’s the right thing to do.

Local authorities most affected by the leaky homes problem have already voted to support the package.

The eight major retail banks have been briefed and have indicated their willingness to work with the Government on the detail of the package.

Now the Government has received local authority support, we can continue to work through the operational detail with the parties involved, including councils and banks.

We hope to have the package up and running early next year.

In the meantime, we are encouraging owners of leaky homes to lodge a weathertight claim as soon as possible with the Department of Building and Housing so they can stop the clock on the 10-year liability limit.

It is also important to emphasise that nobody has to take up this package – it is simply another option for owners to get their homes fixed.

If you want for information visit http://www.dbh.govt.nz/ or phone 0800 116 926.