Thousands of dollars will be spent correcting legally uninhabitable flats in a Marlborough senior complex.
There are 26 units at Andrew Place, 10 of which are legally uninhabitable. The Marlborough District Council plans to change that. Photo: SCOTT HAMMOND/STUFF/SUPPLIED
The Marlborough District Council has agreed to spend $44,000 to bring five vacant flats in its Andrew Place, Blenheim complex up to "a suitable standard to be re-tenanted".
Some of the flats have sat empty for years, worrying neighbours, who claimed both the council and the council's housing manager had hinted their homes might be bowled.
Two studio apartments sit empty at the entrance of Andrew Place. Photo: SCOTT HAMMOND/STUFF/SUPPLIED
But the council said it was not renting five of the apartments because they did not meet the government's new "healthy home" standards, launched earlier this year, which set stricter rules for heating, insulation, draughts and drainage in rentals.
This left the council with two options: leave the flats empty until July 2024, when the grace rule period ended, or fix them.
A council spokeswoman said the council decided to refurbish the apartments before the end of the year to extend their life.
The five homes would be given a new lick of paint internally, re-carpeted, and given new heat pumps and draught stoppers.
The council did not have to check whether the occupied flats met the new rules until the July 2024 deadline, but had already finished its heating, insulation and ventilation audits.
It had installed new heaters, upgraded insulation, and put down new extraction units in every kitchen and bathroom.
Andrew Place residents think their flats are “wonderful”, “sunny” and well-insulated. Photo: SCOTT HAMMOND/STUFF/SUPPLIED
The council was still wondering what to do with five other flats that had "slumped" down, making them "non-habitable".
Councillor Cynthia Brooks, chair of the sub-committee that looked after the council's senior houses, told tenants earlier this year that repairing the flats would be "uneconomic", so had been ruled out, but removing them wouldn't come cheap.
Reports from that same committee - the housing for seniors sub-committee - showed the council had looked at bowling the units in 2018, but later asked if anyone wanted to relocate them. A couple had expressed interest, but then pulled out.
Most people on the council's senior housing wait list were after accommodation in Blenheim. There were 68 people aged 65 and older on the list in July, 22 more than in 2015.
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