A commercial landowner in Wainuiomata operated part of their site for their own business and subleased the remainder to a separate tenant. When the tenant undertook building work without the necessary consents, Hutt City Council issued a dangerous building notice and a notice to fix. The notices applied across the whole site, which meant our client — who had done nothing wrong — was unable to continue trading from their own premises.
Two problems running in parallel
The immediate problem was practical. The landowner's business was halted, revenue had stopped with existing bookings backing up, and the regulatory issues sat with the tenant rather than the landowner. The longer-term problem was relational. The landowner needed a way to hold the tenant to account and protect the site from further unauthorised work, without becoming entangled in their tenant's compliance failures.
Separating the site, in council's eyes
Derive worked directly with council to separate the two parts of the site. We presented the operational arrangements, identified appropriate mitigations for our client's portion of the building, and negotiated for the dangerous building notice to be lifted from that area. The notice and notice to fix remained in place over the tenant's part of the site, where the unconsented work had occurred.
Outcome
The outcome let our client resume trading with appropriate safety measures in place. It also strengthened their position as landlord, giving them a clear regulatory basis to require the tenant to address the outstanding compliance issues before reoccupying the leased area. A difficult situation was contained, and the landowner regained control of their site.