Sydenham home ‘sinking’

Press, 9 December 1982, Page 6

Sydenham home ‘sinking’

Taking the Christchurch Drainage Board to court was the only way to settle damages for a Sydenham house which was sinking on its foundations, said a board member. Mr J. F. Davidson, yesterday. The house owner, Mr S. C. Anderson, asserts that the damage was caused by the renewal of a drain outside his Huxley Street property more than two- years ago. Both the board and the Christchurch City Council, which allowed part of the house to be built over the drain easement, had legal opinions clearing

them of any responsibility. The board’s development and construction committee was reluctant yesterday to take .‘ any action contradicting the legal opinion, and recommended refusing a City Council suggestion that the board offer' some assistance to Mr Anderson. Mr Davidson said that he would tell Mr Anderson to seek legal aid and take the matter to court. He believed that unstable soil beneath one of the house foundation pillars was subsiding and vanishing through a hole in the covered drain.

“When the house finally subsides, as no doubt it will do, there will be many red faces round both the council and the Drainage Board,” he said. Mr R. Stewart said that the board apparently could not offer to buy the property without casting doubts on its earlier denial of responsibility, made after an engineer’s report that there had been heavy flooding in the area. The City Council has also denied responsibility, saying that the house foundations were piled and sited clear of the actual drain.