1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,800 Speaker 1: It Now, planning rules are back in the spotlight with 2 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:04,040 Speaker 1: the case of a Mount Eden villa and its windows. 3 00:00:04,960 --> 00:00:08,039 Speaker 1: The council is forcing the owner of this villa to 4 00:00:08,119 --> 00:00:11,120 Speaker 1: take out his newly refurbished windows because they don't comply 5 00:00:11,240 --> 00:00:13,640 Speaker 1: with the heritage protections in the area, because the new 6 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:17,800 Speaker 1: windows have aluminium frames when the traditional ones have timber frames, 7 00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:20,720 Speaker 1: and the new windows open to the outside rather than 8 00:00:20,760 --> 00:00:24,360 Speaker 1: slide upwards like the traditional sash windows. Alex Witten Hannah 9 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:26,280 Speaker 1: is the lawyer for the homeowner and with us. Now, 10 00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:28,400 Speaker 1: Hey Alex, hello. 11 00:00:28,240 --> 00:00:30,360 Speaker 2: Heather or here you're going to give me a brutal grilling. 12 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:31,600 Speaker 1: Who told you? This? 13 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:32,400 Speaker 2: Is? 14 00:00:32,440 --> 00:00:33,920 Speaker 1: This what they say behind my back? 15 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:37,000 Speaker 2: It is exactly. I've got to be prepared for it. 16 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:39,600 Speaker 1: Oh well, you're not going to get a brutal grilling 17 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:41,280 Speaker 1: in fact, but I'll talk to Sam about that later. 18 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:44,279 Speaker 1: He shouldn't give away the secrets of the game. Do 19 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:47,239 Speaker 1: you accept, Alex, that these are not heritage windows and 20 00:00:47,400 --> 00:00:49,680 Speaker 1: like clearly are not heritage windows. 21 00:00:50,200 --> 00:00:52,840 Speaker 2: Well, devil blazing, of course is not a heritage window. 22 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:54,120 Speaker 1: Don't come at. 23 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:54,600 Speaker 2: Mean with that. 24 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:58,080 Speaker 1: You know they're not heritage. They're aluminium and they open 25 00:00:58,120 --> 00:00:59,639 Speaker 1: on those hinges to the outside. 26 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:05,000 Speaker 2: The wooden frame around the windows is the original wooden framing, 27 00:01:05,959 --> 00:01:09,479 Speaker 2: probably however many years old, seventy five years old or something. 28 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:12,800 Speaker 2: It's the original wooden frames. It's only what holds the 29 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:17,640 Speaker 2: glass together to enable double glazing. That's thin aluminium strips. 30 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:20,240 Speaker 2: You can't see them from the road effectively. 31 00:01:21,080 --> 00:01:22,920 Speaker 1: I see, I don't have a problem with the thin eleme. 32 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:24,720 Speaker 1: I'm just going to point out, though, you can get 33 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:30,600 Speaker 1: double glazed sash windows and timber right because of the idea, yes. 34 00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:32,480 Speaker 2: Any idea. What the cost of that is. It's a 35 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:34,279 Speaker 2: exrohibitive cost of most people. 36 00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:37,080 Speaker 1: Not if you actually parallel and pulled them from Australia 37 00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:39,200 Speaker 1: via a particular company. I can send to you, mate 38 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:41,080 Speaker 1: if you want to, just as today do his own 39 00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:44,679 Speaker 1: research on the Googles. But Alex, the problem with them 40 00:01:44,760 --> 00:01:46,920 Speaker 1: is not so much the aluminium. It's the fact that 41 00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:49,760 Speaker 1: the sash windows obviously slide upwards. But these guys have 42 00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:53,680 Speaker 1: a hinge and they open like like a cheap hostel window, 43 00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:55,320 Speaker 1: don't they They look hideous. 44 00:01:56,640 --> 00:01:58,680 Speaker 2: Well, only if you're peering at them, and if you're 45 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:00,880 Speaker 2: driving down the road or walk long the footpath, you 46 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:01,520 Speaker 2: don't see them. 47 00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:03,560 Speaker 1: Oh, I would see it would offend my eyes. I 48 00:02:03,560 --> 00:02:04,960 Speaker 1: know what a villa looks like, don't you. 49 00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:07,280 Speaker 2: Oh well, in that case, we have to put up 50 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:09,240 Speaker 2: a one point eight meter fence, says of right, and 51 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:09,960 Speaker 2: then you won't see it. 52 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:11,440 Speaker 1: You won't be trust You're not allowed to put up 53 00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:12,880 Speaker 1: a one point eight meter fence, are you? 54 00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:16,440 Speaker 2: Of course you are. You love to allow tell them 55 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:18,720 Speaker 2: to one point eight meters without approval? 56 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:21,400 Speaker 1: What about a nice hedge, like a good leafy suburb edge. 57 00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:25,320 Speaker 2: Oh well, I think maybe some fast growing bamboo would 58 00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:28,640 Speaker 2: do the track, and that would avoid people peering in 59 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:32,240 Speaker 2: and getting offended by the fact that the windows open 60 00:02:32,320 --> 00:02:34,040 Speaker 2: about three or four inches. 61 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:36,400 Speaker 1: How much was it going to cost to retrofit them 62 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:38,359 Speaker 1: to the actual to look heritage. 63 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:42,079 Speaker 2: Have no idea except that I did ask a builder 64 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:44,200 Speaker 2: last night, and he told me that you can spend 65 00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:45,760 Speaker 2: tens of thousands of dollars doing that. 66 00:02:45,919 --> 00:02:49,359 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no, absolutely you can. But how many tens. 67 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:51,919 Speaker 2: More tens than it would be with it? I can 68 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:54,720 Speaker 2: tell you this for sure that my client had he 69 00:02:54,840 --> 00:02:59,160 Speaker 2: been told by the retrofit company that he'd have to 70 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:02,560 Speaker 2: get a consent and probably wouldn't get it because the 71 00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:07,040 Speaker 2: windows open outwards a few inches or centimeters. He wouldn't 72 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:08,680 Speaker 2: have done it, and I think a lot of other 73 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:10,880 Speaker 2: people in Auckland with old villas aren't going to do 74 00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:13,520 Speaker 2: it now that Auckland Council has made it clear that 75 00:03:13,520 --> 00:03:15,560 Speaker 2: they have to go through all the costs and humbug 76 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:19,960 Speaker 2: of a resource consent application, no assurance that it's going 77 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:23,000 Speaker 2: to be granted, and then pay a very large amount 78 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:26,640 Speaker 2: of money for these fanciful wooden frames. 79 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:30,760 Speaker 1: Alex, what are you guys going to do? What's the plan? 80 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:39,080 Speaker 2: Well, I'm hoping that given that the Minister has called 81 00:03:39,080 --> 00:03:42,240 Speaker 2: what the council is doing nuts and that's why the 82 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:46,520 Speaker 2: government is replacing the RIMA, that I'm hoping that the 83 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:50,360 Speaker 2: council staff who are responsible for this, it's not the mayor, 84 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:53,240 Speaker 2: it's not the CEO, it's some lowly staff have got 85 00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:56,840 Speaker 2: the idea. I'm hoping that they will realize the common 86 00:03:56,880 --> 00:04:00,520 Speaker 2: sense approaches to etch their back off. If they don't 87 00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:04,000 Speaker 2: and they go ahead an issue abatement notices, then one 88 00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:06,880 Speaker 2: we can appeal to the Environment Court and then the 89 00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:11,640 Speaker 2: whole Environment Court scenario plays out a great cost to 90 00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:14,600 Speaker 2: the taxpayer and cost to my client. I know but 91 00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:17,720 Speaker 2: it'd be environment by the. 92 00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:19,400 Speaker 1: Time he's finished paying for you. He could have just 93 00:04:19,440 --> 00:04:21,120 Speaker 1: retrofitted his own windows, couldn't he. 94 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:27,080 Speaker 2: I don't charge like that. Oh no no, I'm very reasonable, Alex. 95 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:28,680 Speaker 1: It's good to talk to you. Thank you, mate. Look 96 00:04:28,720 --> 00:04:31,400 Speaker 1: after yourself. Alex Witten Hannah lawyer for the Mount Out 97 00:04:31,480 --> 00:04:35,320 Speaker 1: and Mount Eden Villa owners. For more from Hither Duplessy 98 00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:38,160 Speaker 1: Allen Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be from 99 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:41,880 Speaker 1: four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.