Source: Radio New Zealand
The half-finished apartment building in Auckland’s Epsom has been left derelict for the past six years. MELANIE EARLEY / RNZ
A man whose business sat right next to a half-finished apartment block is still waiting to be paid $30,000, after ageing concrete collapsed and blocked his driveway.
The Epsom Central Apartments Project halted six years ago, after Auckland Council found it had not complied with building consent.
The original partnership, Epsom Central Apartments LP, was put into receivership in 2022, and purchased by Xiao Liu, the director at the time, of a company named Reeheng Limited, in September 2023.
In September 2024, RNZ spoke to community members and business owners who described the building as a “blight on the Epsom landscape“, which at one point attracted rats and squatters.
Since then, Forrest Tan, who owned neighbouring business Just Laptops, said, not much had changed to the building – but he did take Reeheng Ltd to the disputes tribunal.
In 2024, Tan said ageing scaffolding and unsafe pieces of metal had started falling from the building. He said this included steel bars falling into his carpark and skewering a worker’s car.
Tan said his Manukau Rd shop had to close for three months until metal shuttering that was a further fall risk could be removed.
Since then, Tan said he and several affected parties took Reeheng Ltd to the disputes tribunal, but days before the hearing one of the directors got in touch wanting to settle.
“We agreed on a $60k group settlement,” Tan said, “but none of us ever received a cent.”
“Since then we had to each pursue a case individually.”
Tan said his business Just Laptops was awarded $30,000 by the tribunal in a ruling that has been seen by RNZ but there was still no payment.
The unfinished apartment block. MELANIE EARLEY / RNZ
The ruling ordered Reeheng Ltd to pay Just Laptops by October 17, 2024. A second ruling from July 30, 2025, said the money needed to be paid “immediately”.
“On an undefended basis and what was said today and supplied with the claim form, I have been satisfied Just Laptops is entitled to the loss of profits portion of its claim,” the ruling said.
This covered the loss of income from May 15, 2024 to June 21, 2024, while the shop was closed after a row of formwork for concreting collapsed over the driveway blocking entry, it said.
In August, Tan demolished his building in part to prepare for his rebuild, he said, and in part due to damage caused to the building by the concrete collapse.
“This would be an ideal time to demolish the next door building too if they were willing to act,” he said.
The lot next to the unfinished block is now empty. MELANIE EARLEY / RNZ
“My site is now clear, open space. I asked one of the directors to pass on the suggestion of demolition but no response.”
Tan said once his building goes up if any demolition for the apartment block did end up happening it would be “extremely difficult”.
“It’s a boundary-to-boundary structure on a busy stretch of road. Removing it safely will be a major challenge. I don’t know how this will end.”
Tan had been planning a new building on his site for years and said he received resource consent approval back in 2020 for a four-storey building.
“Due to skyrocketing costs we’ve had to scale back to three-storeys,” he said.
The stretch of Manukau Rd where the apartment block sits. MELANIE EARLEY / RNZ
Lack of progress ‘disheartening’ for local businesses
In the past year, Greenwoods Corner Epsom Business Association president Dominique Bonn, said scaffolding at the site had been largely removed along with the immediate risks to public safety – but no “meaningful” progress seemed to have occurred.
“Local businesses, including Exhibit Beauty, have observed a slow but steady dereliction of the property since construction ceased in 2019. The prolonged abandonment is not merely an eyesore-it actively affects nearby traders, residents, and how people perceive safety and security in our neighbourhood.”
Yvonne Sanders Antiques, who neighboured the site, had been broken into three times since then and there had been a rat infestation tracked directly to the site, he said.
“This lack of progress is hugely disheartening for local business and the wider area, which has so much local charm and character.
“Several stalled developments such as this cast a shadow over the area’s reputation and vitality.
“Greenwoods Corner Epsom Business Association is calling for greater clarity, accountability, and constructive intervention so that communities are not left to bear the long-term consequences of failed or abandoned private developments.”
Reeheng Ltd has been approached by RNZ for comment.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
