There was a random Thursday about a year ago when, unbeknown to thousands of homeowners, property values across Auckland were essentially frozen.
It was the day before the rains fell – January 26, now the point assessors look to when evaluating the cost of a buyout and exactly how much money the worst-hit in the Auckland floods can expect from Auckland Council’s financial support scheme.
A full year on, many owners of briefly underwater real estate are still living in uncertainty.
But according to the council there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for them as the recovery office shifts up a gear and starts making decisions at pace.
The vast majority of properties still awaiting post-flood categorisation in Auckland can expect a ruling by the end of next month – but for the minority of more complex situations, the limbo could continue until mid-winter.
With 12 months passing since Auckland’s devastating flood and Cyclone Gabrielle, the recovery office at Auckland Council has announced faster paced categorisations, with new decisions expected every week from now.
Only 530 out of a total of 2400 categorisations have been completed, with the council ruling whether home-owners can bank on a buyout, financial support to mitigate risk to life on the property, or nothing at all.
Finalising a co-funding agreement with the Government in October meant the council could start work in earnest, with the first buyouts happening in December.
And now, with processes in place, deputy group recovery manager Mace Ward said Aucklanders could expect most of them done by March.
“Finding a balance between support for affected residents, what is possible, and within the funding envelope, has presented some challenging decisions,” he said.
“But the result of this is that with these foundations in place, we can move faster with our programme. While we only had our co-funding agreement with the Government confirmed in October, we managed to start our first buyouts in December, which was a key milestone and a signal of progress to come.”
That optimism will be hard to share for those still waiting.
Speaking on the anniversary of the floods, Lyall Carter, chair of flooding support group West Auckland is Flooding, said the milestone was a sobering reminder that many remained displaced.
“Flood-impacted people from across our city are still displaced from their homes,” he said. “Many are still bearing the brutal brunt of the financial, emotional, and mental burden that the floods brought to their door.”
Carter said in the short-term, people needed categorisation to finish so they could have certainty and move on with their lives.
So far, 90 homeowners have been confirmed as eligible for a buy-out. Sixty are already moving through the process, with the first four buyouts made just before Christmas.
Once these houses are in council hands, assessors will decide whether they need to be fully demolished or whether they can be deconstructed or relocated.
The categorisation process has taken around 19 weeks on average, depending on the complexity of the damage and its priority level.
Staff in Auckland’s recovery office have been clear over the past few months that while progress has been steady, it will always take longer to work through the most difficult cases.
“The more complex cases are where there might be a community-level solution and there is some further work needed to confirm these,” Ward said.
“This is highly detailed and technical work. It takes time and can’t be rushed because we must get it right. It’s about people’s safety first and foremost. It will also signal the future liveability of a home and neighbourhood, and inadvertently impact things like insurance too.”
If events like this continue, it appears those in power want to make sure private insurance covers as much of the damage costs as possible.
In the handbook given out to homeowners granted a buyout, Mayor Wayne Brown stresses the one-off nature of the buyout scheme.
“I am also acutely aware that these events will become more apparent in our city; extreme weather is going to be an ongoing feature of our lives now,” he said. “With that knowledge in hand, I cannot stress enough that rates are not an insurance premium, and we cannot continue to pay for these events. I have already been vocal about the need for central government to plan ahead for this.”
Buyouts are for the market value of a property the day before the flooding, minus any insurance settlements or homeowner contributions.
With almost every aspect of the region’s infrastructure impacted by last year’s severe weather, Auckland Council has had a full plate of repairs to complete – and decisions to make.
Almost three quarters of 2000 identified transport repairs have been made – with 64 percent of 1500 park and facility repairs and 87 percent of more than 11,000 stormwater service requests.
After the flooding, stormwater service requests increased by 65 percent.
However, even a year on, new damage is being uncovered. Watercare has continued to lodge new damage reports, with more than 200 individual cases now on the docket.
Ward said the infrastructure focus would be on projects that “reduce life-threatening flooding risk.
“The aim is to allow people to live in their homes without a risk to life, and to reduce general flooding for hundreds more,” he said.
