"Gail McDonald should be about to move into her brand-new house.

Instead, the Canterbury nurse has a bare section, an unwanted commute and rising legal fees.

McDonald’s house has not been built because the property next door was mistakenly built across her boundary."

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/124881202/woman-in-limbo-wi
th-no-home-after-neighbouring-house-built-across-her-boundar
y

sparkychap - 2021-04-21 08:30:00

I see the problem. "Dean McGuigan, owner of Golden Homes in Christchurch, said it was the first time they had encountered the problem. Builders knew to check exact locations and not rely on fences or survey pegs, he said."

pauldw - 2021-04-21 08:42:00

That’s unfortunate.
Seems like all the parties involved haven’t quite got together yet to resolve it. I suspect the different insurers will have lots to say.

pico42 - 2021-04-21 08:44:00

Maybe just lift the other house and move the foundations a little?

tygertung - 2021-04-21 08:59:00

pauldw wrote:

I see the problem. "Dean McGuigan, owner of Golden Homes in Christchurch, said it was the first time they had encountered the problem. Builders knew to check exact locations and not rely on fences or survey pegs, he said."

I had a bit of a laugh when I read that. What else are survey pegs for then?
I wonder who is going to pick up the tab? Golden Homes dont employ carpenters. Their guys are all contractors that get paid on a m2 rate. Who will be liable here, Golden Homes or their builder?

stevo2 - 2021-04-21 09:02:00

stevo2 wrote:

I had a bit of a laugh when I read that. What else are survey pegs for then?
I wonder who is going to pick up the tab? Golden Homes dont employ carpenters. Their guys are all contractors that get paid on a m2 rate. Who will be liable here, Golden Homes or their builder?

Golden Homes did not build the house. The section was sold off to a private buyer who had his/her own builder.

captaingraham - 2021-04-21 09:04:00

I remember seeing a similar story on Fair go years ago.
House was in Wellington.I think Beasley homes was builder.
From memory some money changed hands and they did some sort of boundary move.

mrsvonflik - 2021-04-21 09:17:00

tygertung wrote:

Maybe just lift the other house and move the foundations a little?

What, hook the floor slab up to the builder's 4x4 and pull it away from the side a bit?

apollo11 - 2021-04-21 10:04:00

This also happened years ago in Chch the house was built on the wrong section .

martin11 - 2021-04-21 10:10:00

apollo11 wrote:

What, hook the floor slab up to the builder's 4x4 and pull it away from the side a bit?

You would have to replace the foundations, but really I think concrete slabs are a bad idea for a house.

tygertung - 2021-04-21 10:25:00

tygertung wrote:

You would have to replace the foundations, but really I think concrete slabs are a bad idea for a house.

Why they are warmer quieter ,whats wrong with them ?

martin11 - 2021-04-21 10:49:00

They are a big heat sink, and the heat tends to radiate into the ground, unless they have a lot of insulation. Concrete will absorb a lot of heat, as it has a lot of thermal mass.

Also they tend to be difficult to repair if the ground shifts. This has been seen in the earthquakes. Piles can easily be adjusted or replaced with a little ground movement.

tygertung - 2021-04-21 10:55:00

tygertung wrote:

They are a big heat sink, and the heat tends to radiate into the ground, unless they have a lot of insulation. Concrete will absorb a lot of heat, as it has a lot of thermal mass.

Also they tend to be difficult to repair if the ground shifts. This has been seen in the earthquakes. Piles can easily be adjusted or replaced with a little ground movement.

Concrete is a heat sink, which is a good thing. With proper design( orientation, window placement) they can make a significant difference to the energy efficiency of a house.
All modern slabs are well insulated- usually 100mm poly.
Rib raft style slabs are very strong.
A concrete slab is cheaper than a piled floor.

apollo11 - 2021-04-21 11:08:00

It sounds like the lady in question will be happy if the boundary etc is changed and someone picks up the tab for her additional direct costs. In the first instance the tab should be picked up by the chippie / builder who made the mistake and measured the concrete slab position incorrectly.. once he / she have picked up the tab, then the ball is in their court to get someone to perhaps reimbursement them. The lady should not have wait around while everybody runs for cover and hides behind lawyers / insurance companies... All these other players are hoping that the lady will give up because it is all too hard, and take her ball on go to another playing field !!!

onl_148 - 2021-04-21 12:04:00

apollo11 wrote:

Concrete is a heat sink, which is a good thing. With proper design( orientation, window placement) they can make a significant difference to the energy efficiency of a house.
All modern slabs are well insulated- usually 100mm poly.
Rib raft style slabs are very strong.
A concrete slab is cheaper than a piled floor.

Quite right these comments ,much better than timber and plles for warmth,quietness and ribraf are easy to fix after eathquakes if they move . .

Edited by martin11 at 1:46 pm, Wed 21 Apr

martin11 - 2021-04-21 13:44:00

Why does it matter if the houses are close together? Parnell and other suburbs have houses very close together. She could be given a concrete block wall for fire resistance.

trade4us2 - 2021-04-21 14:05:00

trade4us2 wrote:

Why does it matter if the houses are close together? Parnell and other suburbs have houses very close together. She could be given a concrete block wall for fire resistance.

No No No !
It is the next door house which is wrong. If there is a need for a fire wall the existing house is the one which should be altered, not hers.

perfectimages - 2021-04-21 14:30:00

Put up a large building in Selwyn District a few years ago. Building Inspector came out to check location and depth of foundations.

He said "you have put it a couple of metres too far from the neighbour's boundary, but that is OK". My response "That boundary fence is 2.3m inside the neighbour's boundary". He measured from the fence, never looked for survey pegs, unlike me.

Edited by tony9 at 3:13 pm, Wed 21 Apr

tony9 - 2021-04-21 15:12:00

sparkychap wrote:

"Gail McDonald should be about to move into her brand-new house.

Instead, the Canterbury nurse has a bare section, an unwanted commute and rising legal fees.

McDonald’s house has not been built because the property next door was mistakenly built across her boundary."

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/124881202/woman-in-limbo-wi
th-no-home-after-neighbouring-house-built-across-her-boundar
y

this is an old trick.
"mistakenly" built it in the wrong place. yeah right. they probably got some significant advantage by doing so. all that will happen is there will be a boundary change and a few dollars for the land.
they get a better property and screw over the neighbour, win win.

tweake - 2021-04-21 17:42:00

tweake wrote:

this is an old trick.
"mistakenly" built it in the wrong place. yeah right. they probably got some significant advantage by doing so. all that will happen is there will be a boundary change and a few dollars for the land.
they get a better property and screw over the neighbour, win win.

Doubt it would work if it was my land.

smallwoods - 2021-04-21 20:09:00

I built a shed close to the boundary last year. Even though I own both properties the council took photos of the boundary pegs as well as the foundation pegs with the tape measure on the ground to confirm the distance from the boundary. I tripped myself up when I ran the storm water into a drain on the other side of the boundary. No, No, No, you can't do that. It is hard to imagine how this actually happened.

laurelanne - 2021-04-21 21:06:00

Stories are around where the wrong home was demolished.

keys - 2021-04-21 21:32:00

If you want a really messy one, the boundaries for almost every property in the little beachside village of Koitiata are wrong. Just about everyone has a structure on a small bit of their neighbours land, or on road reserve. The Council has been trying to sort it out the last 50 odd years, but still haven't quite managed it.

justinian1 - 2021-04-21 22:58:00

building 101, is that before you have permision to pour any concrete you have to prove to the building inspector that the house is sited correctly according to the building consent plans and the boundary pegs. A wrongly sited house should never happen if every one has done their job properly and how they sort it from here is how lawyers make their money. Mrs Mc Donald and Golden homes are innnocent parties and should be fully compesated. I am aware of this happening over the years and it has resulted in a lot of tears to put it right.
Posted by Judi's husband an old school builder.

Edited by judiju2 at 12:03 am, Thu 22 Apr

judiju2 - 2021-04-21 23:59:00

When we did major renos here, amongst other things, we added on at the back for a dining room. We got a worker from student JobSearch to dig the post holes. He dug all of them in the wrong place!

princess52 - 2021-04-22 00:40:00

A boundary readjustment takes time but not that long, they have farted around way to long, should have been in court for directions long ago.

gabbysnana - 2021-04-22 08:37:00

tweake wrote:

this is an old trick.
"mistakenly" built it in the wrong place. yeah right. they probably got some significant advantage by doing so. all that will happen is there will be a boundary change and a few dollars for the land.
they get a better property and screw over the neighbour, win win.

Article says that the problem was discovered when the house was 505 built. Why was it finished? Gail should not lose and or house size and should be compensated for rent until her house is finished.

amasser - 2021-04-22 08:40:00

We watched an Apartment complex build that had to remove and reinstall all their laid out foundations because they were too close to the boundary. Wasn’t out by a very big amount (I suspect the builders and overseas owners/ developers thought they’d get away with it by simply paying out a few dollars to their neighbour...)

lovelurking - 2021-04-22 09:24:00

The builders of the incorrectly placed house should be responsible for Gail's rent until it is sorted. Unfortunately a court case would eat all of her money.

voyager4 - 2021-04-22 09:41:00

voyager4 wrote:

The builders of the incorrectly placed house should be responsible for Gail's rent until it is sorted. Unfortunately a court case would eat all of her money.

I agree with you, that’s the elephant in the room...
Innocent people often can’t afford to take court action.

lovelurking - 2021-04-22 09:46:00

Golden Homes did offer her a refund or another section, but she declined..... I bet she wished she'd taken the offer now.

or, she could go live in the bit of the neighbours house that's on her land.....

dazarae - 2021-04-22 09:55:00

justinian1 wrote:

If you want a really messy one, the boundaries for almost every property in the little beachside village of Koitiata are wrong. Just about everyone has a structure on a small bit of their neighbours land, or on road reserve. The Council has been trying to sort it out the last 50 odd years, but still haven't quite managed it.

Similar happened in Mahia Beach, at the back of the camp ground.
Our bach had the back fence checked by the FiL (when he owned it)and was a few feet nearer our bach than all the others.
New campground owner did a survey and made everyone move their boundaries to our line.
Some further up all of a sudden had a fence right next to their bach, and one had to remove their water tank stand and lean-to.

smallwoods - 2021-04-22 11:03:00

onl_148 wrote:

It sounds like the lady in question will be happy if the boundary etc is changed and someone picks up the tab for her additional direct costs. In the first instance the tab should be picked up by the chippie / builder who made the mistake and measured the concrete slab position incorrectly.. once he / she have picked up the tab, then the ball is in their court to get someone to perhaps reimbursement them. The lady should not have wait around while everybody runs for cover and hides behind lawyers / insurance companies... All these other players are hoping that the lady will give up because it is all too hard, and take her ball on go to another playing field !!!

So where does the Council come in all of this??? What is the point of legally being required to have an ultimate 'sign off' by Council to certify that everything is correct if they are not even in the picture when things go pear shaped????? Also where is the Insurance that the Builder who built the incorrectly located house should of had ???? Sounds like there is something not being disclosed - perhaps a survey peg was actually in the incorrect place ???? Doesn't take much for a person in a piece of machinery working on the site to bump one out of the ground then once they realised bang it back in where they thought it came from ... Only needs one peg out of place to cause havoc, especially when sections are so small and boundary distances so critical.

brouser3 - 2021-04-22 11:38:00

"All care" no responsibility

loose.unit8 - 2021-04-22 13:18:00

amasser wrote:

Article says that the problem was discovered when the house was 505 built. Why was it finished? Gail should not lose and or house size and should be compensated for rent until her house is finished.

why was it finished? because it was intentional.
cheap and easy to do a boundary change rather than delay construction.
they know full well that the cost of going through courts etc is so high that people will simply settle and do the boundary change. if they fight it, they just go nasty as hell.
unfortunately we live with mongrels that exploit this.

tweake - 2021-04-22 19:47:00

stevo2 wrote:

I had a bit of a laugh when I read that. What else are survey pegs for then?
I wonder who is going to pick up the tab? Golden Homes dont employ carpenters. Their guys are all contractors that get paid on a m2 rate. Who will be liable here, Golden Homes or their builder?

Exactly on the pegs.
I would of thought it should of been picked up at footing stage, I know on the first inspection on walls they want to see boundary pegs and set out before anything else.
There might be some sad faces at the county as it may come back on them for not checking properly.

mrcat1 - 2021-04-22 20:51:00

mrcat1 wrote:

Exactly on the pegs.
I would of thought it should of been picked up at footing stage, I know on the first inspection on walls they want to see boundary pegs and set out before anything else.
There might be some sad faces at the county as it may come back on them for not checking properly.

thats assuming the boundary pegs are in the right place to start with.
ie that no other person moved them to benefit themselves.

tweake - 2021-04-22 21:04:00

My neighbours boundary still has a peg in the ground which is next to the main post. .But when it was sold a survey team put the boundary marker a metre into my drive.Nothing happened and the property has been resold five time in the last two years..The latest survey team put the boundary in a totally different place. I don't think they have much idea on what they are doing. Perhaps in China they do it differently.

androth2 - 2021-04-22 21:14:00

She needs to go golden homes, and the council for all her costs. Idiots. They can fight it out between themselves later.

Any half decent lawyer would have sorted this out by now.

And then some for her stress and loss of value on her house.

Get someone with some morals to sort it out otherwise tick tock that’s more money they can pay her.

Edited by lakeview3 at 9:41 pm, Thu 22 Apr

lakeview3 - 2021-04-22 21:35:00

Golden Homes are going to build her house,they had nothing to do with the build next door.
The council will have relied on the work done by the surveyors, so not sure why she would chase them.
As mentioned above,my feeling is either the surveyor has stuffed up or the builder has possibly purposefully built into her property.

Edited by apollo11 at 9:57 pm, Thu 22 Apr

apollo11 - 2021-04-22 21:56:00

apollo11 wrote:

Golden Homes are going to build her house,they had nothing to do with the build next door.
The council will have relied on the work done by the surveyors, so not sure why she would chase them.
As mentioned above,my feeling is either the surveyor has stuffed up or the builder has possibly purposefully built into her property.

well go the builder for costs especially since it has been completed AFTER the problem was highlighted, and the council. Both muppets. The council needs to reimburse her and then they can sort the issue re who pays with the builder/and or surveyor and as I saidat a later date and nothing to do with the woman who has nowhere to live, any good lawyer would have gone in like a pitbull and told them this is what would be happening. Sort it now or be prepared to pay more every day. Personally I would have camped on the house and stopped any further construction.

Won’t someone grow some ⚽️ ???? s

lakeview3 - 2021-04-22 22:09:00

apollo11 wrote:

Golden Homes are going to build her house,they had nothing to do with the build next door.
The council will have relied on the work done by the surveyors, so not sure why she would chase them.
As mentioned above,my feeling is either the surveyor has stuffed up or the builder has possibly purposefully built into her property.

the builder continued the build to completion after he became aware of the encroachment.

lakeview3 - 2021-04-22 22:11:00

The owners of the stuffed up house can have great trust in the support process their house was built under. It would have been built by a Licensed building practitioner [LBP] so he is in the gun and will put it right . It was probably built with a master build guarantee, so they will put it right.
The house will have a code of compliance, so it must be right and the council have a liability because they said it was right,so they will make a payout of ratepayers money to get off the hook. With all of these putting it righters involved the problem should have been sorted by lunch time yesterday and why hasn't it ? because every man and his dog are ducking for cover and playing the not me game. Bstds.

hammer23 - 2021-04-22 23:40:00

Wouldn’t the surveyors be liable and the others question is
If the new house going to be to close wouldn’t that mean the next door
House is to close to the boundary. ?
So that house shouldn’t have been signed off.

rodeorunch - 2021-04-23 06:50:00

The council is withholding final approval for the encroaching house and denying any responsibility. In Stuff comments it's suggested the fence between the 2 properties was built to the wrong peg. Everyone after that just saw that peg and assumed it was the right one.

pauldw - 2021-04-23 07:36:00

hammer23 wrote:

The owners of the stuffed up house can have great trust in the support process their house was built under. It would have been built by a Licensed building practitioner [LBP] so he is in the gun and will put it right . It was probably built with a master build guarantee, so they will put it right.
The house will have a code of compliance, so it must be right and the council have a liability because they said it was right,so they will make a payout of ratepayers money to get off the hook. With all of these putting it righters involved the problem should have been sorted by lunch time yesterday and why hasn't it ? because every man and his dog are ducking for cover and playing the not me game. Bstds.

yes well summarised. As I said any half decent lawyer would have gone in like a pitbull and told the muppets who enabled it to happen to get it sorted ASAP or their damages bills would be increasing by the day and charging interest, and that not only would they be paying the costs incurred to date but also future loss of opportunity and emotional stress as well.

Won’t someone help this woman?

Edited by lakeview3 at 8:04 am, Fri 23 Apr

lakeview3 - 2021-04-23 08:02:00

If someone built on my property and didn't correct it to my satisfaction I would give them a set amount of days to sort it otherwise I'd get a bulldozer and demolish the bit on my property.

loud_37 - 2021-04-23 08:35:00

Gail has the next door neighbours by the short and curlies [builders speak].
The stufferuppers involved in the wrongly sited house have created a property with a defective title. They are sitting in their nice new home all nice and comfortable playing the not me game UNTILL they decide to sell or the bank finds out what has happened, then even more s!!!!!! will hit the fan, who is going to purchase that house with those problems? it is basically unsaleable,so Gail if you are reading this reluctantly you are in the strong position and can dictate the terms of settlement. Things will only happen if you make it happen so get out the wooden spoon and start slapping some arse.

hammer23 - 2021-04-23 09:04:00

Here is another point raised in todays stuff article. It is suggested that the builders took their measurements off the fence,how dumb is that,no great LBP would do that would they, yeh rite, what happened to the boundary pegs? and what about all the other houses behind the fence? have they also been sited off the fence line,the mind boggles. I sense a royal commission of enquiry coming on.

hammer23 - 2021-04-23 09:21:00

Supposedly there was a peg at the end of the fence but it was not the one the fence should have been lined up on. 2 fence lines should have been offset by 3m instead of meeting.

Edited by pauldw at 10:45 am, Fri 23 Apr

pauldw - 2021-04-23 10:44:00