A sinkhole on Scenic Drive in West Auckland's Swanson developed during the January 2023 storm. Photo: RNZ / Mohammad Alafeshat
An uninsured Auckland homeowner displaced since last January's flooding is relieved to be among those offered a buyout.
Auckland Council's recovery office said it has so far confirmed 187 storm-damaged homes are eligible for buyout, of which seven have been settled.
The homeowner, who wished to remain anonymous, said when her house in Swanson flooded last January, it was temporarily uninsured because of damage caused by previous flooding.
"We've been given Category 3 which is just such a huge relief, it's really taken a weight off of our shoulders. We're just going through the process now and it's pretty straight-forward."
She said they are waiting for the council to provide a valuation but had applied to be put into the insured homeowner category due to their situation of having been through two natural disasters.
"We were only uninsured due to a previous flood that we went through in 2021 and we were actively trying to get insurance prior to the 2023 flood, we just didn't have time before it hit," she said.
"We'd been in contact with insurance brokers and they came back to us saying that the insurance company wanted to see the repairs completed and flood mitigation completed before they would consider insuring us.
"There was a lot of work to be done and then we got taken out in the January 2023 flood."
Of the 187 properties confirmed eligible for buyouts so far in Auckland, 60 are in Muriwai, 24 in Rānui, 16 in Henderson, 11 in Milford, 10 in Swanson, nine in Grey Lynn, eight in Epsom, seven in both Karekare and Piha, six in Mt Eden and less than five in a number of other suburbs.
More than 2500 homeowners have signed up for their property to be assessed and the recovery office said more categorisations will come through this month, including in the West Coast communities of Piha and Karekare.
Group recovery manager Mat Tucker said there was still a lot of work taking place in those coastal communities.
"We are finalising the majority of risk reports for the Piha and Karekare areas and will be confirming categories for most of these properties this week," he said, adding that calls have started.
"It's a week later than expected for this community, but this will be our biggest batch of confirmations so far, providing certainty for homeowners and the community."
Tucker said most work has been assessing landslides, but a small number of properties have also required additional flooding assessments, and these were underway.
The recovery office was also assessing 17 other homes in the area not at risk of landslide for just flooding risk.
He said they were still actively monitoring movement on a few sites because the land stability continued to change.