Auckland Council's bungling of hundreds of homeowners' resource consent applications has been labelled a "tragedy".
On Wednesday the council said 430 homeowners had been notified they'll have to reapply for consent for work on their properties - around five of which had already started construction.
"It's a tragedy," Homeowners and Buyers Association president John Gray told The AM Show on Thursday.
"All those owners that have received that letter in the post, I cannot begin to imagine how they felt - having gone through the process to obtain the consent in the first place and the relief that they obtained it, and embarking on the project - many of them have started."
The problem stems from two conflicting sets of rules in the city's complex Unitary Plan. Auckland Council approved resource consent applications in central city suburbs like Ponsonby, Grey Lynn and Parnell under the rules for special character areas, which allow taller structures closer to property boundaries for example.
But the affected owners' properties are also located in 'single house' zones, which have different rules about how close to the boundary and how tall structures can be.
"Legislation generally is poorly drafted, and we get these conflicts," said Mr Gray.
The council knew the rules were inconsistent, and Mr Gray says it took a "very pragmatic approach" and approved consents based on the special character rules.
But neighbours objected and the issue ended up before the Environment Court, which ruled the council should have taken both sets of rules into account when deciding whether or not to issue consents.
In the meantime, hundreds of owners' plans are in limbo. While only five have started work, another 130-odd have obtained building consent, RNZ reported.
"To down tools, or put their project on hold if they haven't started the build, is a very dramatic outcome," said Mr Gray.
"[Council] are the ones that should have foreseen the potential conflict and dealt with it a long time ago."
His own application - to build a garage - took 18 months to get. While that seems like a long time, Mr Gray says the delays worked in their favour.
"We were able to capture the change in the rules. Our resource consent documentation went through a redraw to capture that. Very lucky - very close."
The council has mooted compensation for affected owners, and Mr Gray says this could be expensive - some owners might have contractual obligations to pay contractors, whose staff might be left without work until the mess is cleaned up.
"The losses will be considerable."
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