Nor'West News: May 15, 2018

NOR’WEST NEWS Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Tuesday May 15 2018 3
News
Row over historic St Albans villa settled
• By Kurt Bayer
A LEGAL row over the
potentially multimillion-dollar
repair bill to a quake-damaged
historic St Albans villa has now
been settled.
The debate over costs to repair
Elizabeth Drayton’s beloved
category one-listed property
reached the High Court last
week after nearly six years of
wrangling.
Drayton
claimed her
insurer, IAG New
Zealand, the
parent company
of State, offered
Elizabeth
Drayton
a strategy to
repair the badly
damaged house
with a fixed quote
of $1.84 million.
However, she said reviews of
the repair strategy, which took
into account associated costs,
put the rebuild at $3.1 million.
However, the dispute was
settled after the first day of the
hearing.
Ms Drayton refused to
comment about the settlement.
She became emotional
in court last Tuesday when
describing how the heritage
property was devastated in
the September 4, 2010, and
February 22, 2011, quakes. The
double-brick villa was built in
1899 by master builders and
bricklayers, brothers Harry and
Philip Soanes, as a luxury show
home to exhibit their high-level
workmanship.
Ms Drayton fell in love with
the house, with its Kauri floors
and doors, Victorian veranda,
Marseille roof tiles, stained
glass, arches and detailed brick
corbels, after returning from
London where she had renovated
three Victorian properties.
She bought the property in
2004 and moved in soon after,
naming it “Soanes House”
and sculpting award-winning
gardens. With her father being
a founding member of the
New Zealand Historic Places
Trust, now known as Heritage
New Zealand, Drayton told the
court she had a “strong sense
of responsibility to its heritage”
and carried out $250,000 in
renovations from 2007-2009,
including strengthening its roof.
But when the magnitude 7.1
earthquake struck in 2010, the
villa suffered extensive interior
and exterior damage.
The Boxing Day, 2010,
aftershock caused more cracking
before the deadly 2011 jolt
smashed it even more.
HISTORY:
Elizabeth
Drayton’s
beloved
category one
listed property
was devastated
in the quakes.
PHOTO:
HISTORIC
PLACES TRUST
In 2015, a quantity surveyor
assessed the repairs to be $1.5
million, the court heard.
An original peer review
put the repair costs at $1.9
million before escalating to $2.6
million.
But Ms Drayton says in May
last year, IAG came up with a
new strategy for repair with a
fixed quote of $1.8 million.
She ordered a review of the
strategy by the original quantity
surveyor who took into account
associated costs that Ms Drayton
says were not considered by IAG,
which spiralled the repair bill to
$3.1 million. - NZ Herald
Local
News
Now
In Brief
Fire rages, homes at risk
BUS LANE PARKING
The city council is currently
reviewing options to address
the feedback it received about
bus lanes and car parking on
Main North Rd. A city council
spokeswoman said there were a
lot of comments about parking
options for Harewood Rd and
right-turn access into and out
of Grassmere St. It will look
at options to address these
issues white meeting safety
standards, and present these to
the Papanui-Innes Community
Board in the next few months.
STYX MILL PLANTING
About 140 volunteers took part
in the first community planting
event at Styx Mill Conservation
Reserve earlier this month. More
than 1900 natives were planted
at the event run by Trees for
Canterbury.
PAPANUI MITRE 10 BAGS
Mitre 10 MEGA Papanui will
ditch single-use plastic bags
on July 1. It is one of 128 stores
around the country which has
pledged to ditch plastic bags
at the checkout, including
Hammer Hardware. Mitre 10
general manager marketing
Jules Lloyd-Jones said the store
takes its duty to be socially and
environmentally responsible
seriously.
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