Homes suspended over landslides; lives suspended by bodies that can't or won't help

More than a year on from the massive slips caused by Auckland's big stormy Anniversary weekend, hundreds of residents are still in a holding pattern over the fate of their properties. Some are facing bureaucratic nightmares and huge cash shortfalls.

Titirangi resident Catherine Albiston is facing a $100,000 bill - or more - to build a retaining wall on council-owned land so that she can access her home.

Her driveway was swept away more than a year ago in the Auckland Anniversary weekend floods.

Her 1930s art deco house that overlooks a gully of native bush is perched above a slip covered in a large sheet of black plastic. The sheer amount of earth that came down in the landslide was enough to dislodge a big slab of concrete that now sits askew on the edge.

On the other side of the slip a carport juts out, partially hanging in the air. The carport is attached to her basement that is out of bounds for Albiston and her daughter, after a council inspector deemed it too dangerous.

Albiston has been living with this for more than a year.

She wants to fix the bank so that she can drive up to her home instead of parking on the road and climbing a steep path. It would also mean she could get her trapped car out and get into her basement.

But to fix the slip she needs to build a retaining wall on the council-owned road reserve strip next to her property and she's been told she's not eligible for any government or council finance.

Albiston says she is not the only property owner caught out.

"In about June we all got letters saying that Auckland Transport or Auckland Council wouldn't be responsible for any repairs that were needed on their land if the purpose of it was to support our house," Albiston tells The Detail.

Albiston was then told that she would have to find and pay for engineers to assess the land and design the wall, then she would have to apply to the council for permission to build the wall on its land.

She doesn't know the exact cost of the wall because she says she would have to spend several thousand dollars for an expert assessment and quote.

"So, they've basically said we're on our own," says Albiston.

At Christmas she got the "gift" of news that she was categorised as Category 1 by the council, which means her property does not present an "intolerable risk to life" and she does not qualify for "support under the Government's framework". …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details