A red stickered home in Nelson. Photo: RNZ/ Samantha Gee
Nelson City Council has spent nearly $10 million buying out 16 homes that were damaged in the August 2022 storm, more than two years on from the worst natural disaster to hit the region in 50 years.
Council's infrastructure group manager Alec Louverdis said it a had been a "long yet very rewarding process with many challenges".
There were 11 properties in The Brook, four in Tāhunanui and one Bishopdale.
Of those, 10 were yellow stickered over the risk posed by slips from council-owned land and six were red stickered after being damaged by slips from private land.
Louverdis said negotiations for the properties began last July and the final property on Rocks Road was settled this month bringing the total cost of $9.64m, including transaction and ancillary costs.
Nelson City Council recovery taskforce members from left, councillor Trudie Brand, Mayor Nick Smith and councillor Matty Anderson in front of one a red-stickered Rocks Road house that has been bought by council and will be demolished. Photo: Nelson City Council
In addition, the council had purchased a section in The Wood where the home had been damaged by a slip from council land, and the demolition of the house had been paid for by the owners insurance company.
Louverdis said the estimated cost of remediating the slip affecting that property exceeded the value of the empty section but it would not reveal what the council paid for it.
The council previously said 33 homes were damaged by landslide debris from council land during the August 2022 storm, with many more damaged by slips from private land.
Mayor Nick Smith said buyouts had been made possible by the $12.3m central government flood recovery package, with $6m earmarked to buy properties affected by the August 2022 weather event.
Nelson Mayor Nick Smith. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
The government made the offer more than a year after the August 2022 storm, after several homeowners - unsure of what would become of their damaged properties - spoke to RNZ about feeling forgotten about in the wake of buyout offers made in the North Island following Cyclone Gabrielle.
Nelson City Council staff and elected members raised concerns at the time that accepting a property buyout deal from the government for slip-affected homes would set a precedent in future natural disasters.
The council accepted the offer in October 2023, subject to consulting with the community on the buyout element as part of the council's 2024 long-term plan.
It was not known at the time exactly how many properties would be eligible and what the total cost would be.
More than 850 people submitted on the issue, with 56 percent supporting the proposal to accept the government offer and buy the properties out.
In November 2023, geotechnical investigations in The Brook after further heavy rain earlier that year revealed 10 properties were at higher risk of being damaged by slips originating on public land than previously thought.
"This was a very difficult situation where council had received professional geotechnical advice that these homes may be impacted by future major weather events and that the cost of stabilising the landslides from council land exceeded the properties' values," Mayor Smith said at the time.
The red sticker on Julie Ambrose and Geoff Moffett's home. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
The council offered to buy them out and Smith said it came as a surprise to homeowners, given the properties had not been red stickered after the August 2022 storm.
Six months later, all 10 had agreed to sell to the council for a combined cost of $6.7m.
The council then recovered $80,651 by selling the homes for relocation.
Three of those houses have been relocated from The Brook so far, with the deadline for their removal extended to April 2025.
Three of the remaining homes that have been bought by the council are currently listed for sale by relocation with a deadline of March 3, while there is a tender out for the deconstruction of two homes on Rocks Road and Seymour Avenue with a deadline of February 27.
The cost of deconstructing the homes is estimated to be up to $100,000 for each house.
Smith said changes were needed to better manage future risks from storm events.
"We are changing our natural hazard management rules through Plan Change 29, so we are more careful in future about where we allow homes to be built.
"We also need reform of our insurance and EQC coverage, so councils and ratepayers are not having to fill the gaps in coverage.
He said the system was flawed when a homeowner paid their insurance and EQC levy, but their home could not be lived in after a storm event over increased landslip risk and they could not get their property fixed or receive compensation for it.
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