Source: Radio New Zealand
Brendon and Stephanie Deacon at their property that was considered category one by Auckland Council despite their neighbours all being category three following flooding. RNZ / Luka Forman
An Auckland couple who had to kayak from their home in Huapai to escape flash flooding are taking the city council to court over its refusal to buyout their property after the devastating storms almost three years ago.
Brendon and Stephanie Deacon’s home near Kumeu River’s main channel has been hit by flooding multiple times and many of the neighbouring houses have been bought out and removed as part of the $1.2 billion scheme offered jointly by Auckland Council and government.
Two homes either side of theirs are among the nine gone on their street.
But according to council, the Deacons’ house is a low risk to life and not eligible for a buyout.
“You walk out your front door and you see the wasteland and you just get constantly reminded of the situation you’re in. There’s no getting away from it,” Brendon Deacon said.
Brendon and Stephanie Deacon at their property that was considered category one by Auckland Council despite their neighbours all being category three following flooding. RNZ / Luka Forman
They’ve applied to the High Court in Auckland for a judicial review of council’s decision.
“We just want to be treated fairly. We want our category three buyout, like we should have had from the start. Nothing makes sense as to why we’re still there.”
Deacon and his young family have twice had extreme flooding at their property, first in 2021 when they had to escape on a kayak in the middle of the night, and again in January 2023.
They applied for a buyout but the council deemed their property low risk, level one – category three means there is intolerable risk to life and the property meets the buyout criteria.
The Deacons then applied for a buyout under special circumstances but this was also declined.
He said they commissioned a hydrologist to assess their property’s flood risk against the buyout conditions, who found evidence it met the criteria, but council disagreed.
“It’s pretty obvious where we are, you know, like all our neighbours have been taken away.”
Deacon said they could have disputed with council its decision not to buyout their property but any resulting decision would have been binding.
Auckland Council expects to have bought just over 1200 high-risk homes by the end of this year when the $1.2 billion scheme shared with the government draws to a close.
Its group recovery manager, Mace Ward said it is the first judicial review related to the buyouts and the council will not comment specifically on matters before the court.
“We understand how challenging these situations are for storm-affected people, and we recognise that some individual outcomes may not be what people hoped for,” Ward said.
“Our priority is to support recovery in line with agreed government and council risk policies and risk frameworks, which are essential to ensure equity when using public funds.”
The Deacon’s lawyer, Grant Shand, said a judicial review would allow the process to be interrogated.
He said their property was initially categorised as three, eligible for buyout, but this was revised to one when there was a change to the criteria of “island” houses – when those surrounding are bought out.
“This is more about they’ve adopted the wrong process, they’ve used the wrong facts and they haven’t treated people equally or similarly,” Shand said.
“There are probably a lot more people than the Deacons who are in the same boat here, so if the High Court can form a view on the circumstances lots of other people can benefit from that as well, rather than a confidential dispute resolution process.”
Bredon Deacon said real estate agents won’t even list his house.
Heavy rain is forecast for next week and he is already thinking about whether the family will have to stay elsewhere.
“Multiple times this year, first thing we do is take the kids to one of the grandparents’ houses,” Deacon said.
“I guess I’m sitting here a week out worrying about what’s going to happen next week…It’s horrible. At times it’s all-consuming.”
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
