Flooding in Dunedin on 4 October. Photo: RNZ/Nathan McKinnon
A Dunedin solo mum is at breaking point, with her family spread across three temporary homes, after her Clyde Hill house was red stickered following the flood earlier this month.
Krystal Brens' house has pile damage and is situated on a slip that is still moving.
She has shared custody of three daughters aged nine to 14 years old, but they're having to stay fulltime with their dad at the moment, while Brens is staying with friends and the family dog is farmed out somewhere else.
Her Clyde Hill house is insured but the cost of alternative accommodation is capped and she could be out of her home for a year or more.
To complicate things further, because the damage has been done by a slip, it falls under the Natural Hazards Commission (NHC) not private insurance.
Brens told Checkpoint her situation was a "living nightmare, to put it mildly".
"It's the unknown, it's not knowing if I'll step foot back in my house and when I'll be back in my house because it's NHC. I don't know how much it's going to cost, what they're going to cover," she said.
"The only way I can see is going into a massive amount of debt just to keep my home."
She said she was still paying for the mortgage on her house although she could not live in it currently.
"I have a mortgage holiday. I applied for that, but the interest is still added on. So, when I go back to repay my mortgage, my repayments are higher, I still have to pay rates on a house I can't live in," she said.
"I have turned the power off at the mains, but I cannot disconnect the power. I would rather pay the line charge because disconnecting just feels like I'm saying goodbye forever."
If there was an opportunity for a buyout she wouldn't want to as the house meant a lot to her, she said.
"That's not just a house, that's a home for me. There are so many emotional connections and attachments to that home, I worked my ass off to get into a position to buy a house.
"A buyout would mean I still have to pay that money back to the bank or the mortgage and I'm gonna end up in a worse position and may not be able to buy a home for a long time."
The damage to the house was significant, she said, as the house was on a hill and were the land has slipped was directly in front of the house.
"The land is still moving 'cause I go back and have a look every now and again. I'm not allowed inside the house, but I'm allowed outside.
"I don't go near the land [as] it's still sinking, and I believe what I've been told to stabilise the land, I'm going to have to build at least three metre high retaining walls and we all know how expensive retaining walls are and then re-pile," she said.
A Givealittle page has been set up for her and she has insurance, however, the situation was complicated due to the moving land.
"Luckily I am covered for accommodation by my insurance, but there is a cap to that and if I'm out of my home long term the accommodation cover is not going to last."
Currently, her family was spread across three houses, and she was separated from her children.
"It's really difficult. I don't get to see my kids. I don't get to cook for them, I try and see them as much as possible, but I can't have them with me, with school and everything, I don't have any of their belongings with me and then I don't see our dog," she said.
When she left the house, she was only able to take a suitcase full of clothes.
"Most of my clothes were in the washing pile and some friends came to the rescue straight away. They tore through the kitchen and the bathroom. Things like my hair dryer, I don't have. My plants will die. Those tiny little insignificant things, they're just gone."
'I just froze inside the bedroom'
She said her daughters were unable to take anything from the house.
"They weren't there, and I tried to grab their stuff, but I just froze inside the bedroom and a friend had to get me out.
"It's very difficult. I don't have my dog sleeping on my bed with me each night, I don't have my dog to go and walk. I can see him at any point of the day, but I have to work that around work. My mental state, everything that's going on and then finding a rental that will accept pets is very difficult."
Receiving full cover for the landslide and the repair would help her, she said.
"This was out of my control. I did my due diligence knowing that they were only covering the cost of the affected land value or the repair, whichever is less.
"It's not fair, it's not okay, I don't come out of this unscathed or at the same point I was before it all happened."
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