CanterburyRebuild
Resolving rebuild issues
By Amanda Douglas hat rebuild, you say? Well, we have seen many new commercial buildings pop up, particularly on Victoria Street. Of course, Wynn Williams House, the building that our firm will move in to this year, is making great progress beside the Christchurch City Council on Hereford Street. However, there is still a lot of vacant land around the central city. Some of this is because insurance claims have taken time. We have worked with many commercial building owners to progress and resolve their insurance claims but some are still not settled. In other cases, the central city rules, geotech issues and funding are making it harder to jump through the hoops to build new commercial buildings. The rebuild litigation dealt with by our teams has ranged from
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to be accommodating and pragmatic around the interpretation of existing use rights, there are still a number of technical matters that need to be worked through to obtain authority to rebuild. Existing use rights still remain a useful tool to deal with many rebuild and repair issues, where a building stood on the site before the earthquakes. While mentioning the Christchurch litigation from insurance claims on City Council, it has been through its houses through to the Christchurch building consent issues also, with a new Cathedral.On the domestic housing general manager now appointed to front, many homeowners have work alongside the crown manager. struggled to rebuild even a replica of Additional resourcing and processes their previous house, to get over are being added to address these changes to issues. We hope to city plan rules “We have worked very closely see that building since the consent issues are original house companies to bring their behind us, with procedures and documentation up increased numbers was built, as to date. This lessens the chance well as any of consents being challenges that these companies will be faced issued next year to with EQC and with personal grievances” enable the rebuild their insurers. to reach its full Existing use potential. rights are very handy for this – but this Many of those working in the rebuild process is not always straight forward sector - contractors, construction and we have dealt with many companies, professionals and other challenges with this over the year. Whilst industries working in, and affected by, the Christchurch City Council has tried the rebuild– have increased their
employee numbers. We have worked with a number of employers who have dramatically increased their numbers of employees. With that, comes the need to update employment agreements, and practices and procedures. We have worked very closely with a number of companies to bring their procedures and documentation up to date. This lessens the chance that these companies will be faced with personal grievances, which many of them simply do not have the time to deal with. Of course, in the midst of all of this, the market for undamaged or repaired houses has been booming. Our conveyancing team has been flat out dealing with the huge number of house sales and purchases. These have been more complicated with the insurance issues mentioned above, as well as the planning issues that sit alongside them. Those looking to purchase need stamina to navigate the increased detail required. Amanda Douglas is a Partner at Wynn Williams, specialising in Resource Management, and Employment Law. She has a lot of involvement in the rebuild sector, where she often combines her two areas of expertise.
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E N V I R O N M E N T A L L Y S U S T A I N A B L E D U R A B L E P O L I S H E D C O N C RCanterbury E T E Rebuild FLO O R2014 S7 January