Proline Advice on Landslides

Ross Sudds has written this article offering advice for those of you who have had your land slip away.

Following the terrible storms over the past few weeks, I feel prompted to write as some of you may have suffered some form of earth movement or landslip on your property and are not exactly sure of how to proceed.

I’m sure many of you would have contacted your insurance company who in turn may have contacted the EQC, local council, or their contractors, but you may be wondering where to from here?

In my experience when dealing with these situations it is very easy to become the forgotten party although you are almost certainly the person that is being impacted the most.
My recommendation in this instance would be to contact an independent, specialist company to complete an assessment. Companies, for example, like Ormiston Associates, specialise in geotechnical/geological problems and particularly landslip investigation will be able to provide you with an expert, unbiased, factual assessment of the damage sustained to your property. It is likely they will be able to determine the reasons why it happened i.e. blocked stormwater drains and provide solutions to rectify the problem along with the costs involved. This will give you as the homeowner an independent report highlighting from an educated perspective what, how and why the problems arose, and from this you will be in a much better position to talk to the powers that be regarding how to fix it, and more importantly who is going to pay for the repairs.

The length of time it took to get the work started on repairing the slip on Forest Hill Rd, should be reason enough to start expediting the problem yourself, as in my experience, if you are waiting for the so-called experts from council/insurance etc you may find yourself waiting for a very long time.

I hope this may be helpful and if you need some further advice please contact Ross Sudds at Proline Plumbing & Gas Ltd, 5 Brabant Road, Waiatarua  or call 0800 10 20 11, email office@prolineplumbing.co.nz