A housing lobby group has taken the Ministers of Housing and Finance to court, saying they acted illegally in agreeing to a proposal to sell state houses in Tauranga to a private social housing provider.
More than 1100 houses would be sold under the proposed deal. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Under the proposal, more than 1100 houses would be sold to Accessible Properties, a subsidiary of IHC.
State Housing Action Coalition's lawyer Michael Sharp told the court the contracts for sale of the state houses had not been signed yet and would not be implemented before 9 December.
His clients believed the proposed transfer of the houses to Accessible Properties was illegal, as the ministers had not considered the contracts as they were required to, before signing off on the proposal, he said.
The terms of the sale contracts were so liberal the ministers needed to have knowledge of those terms before signing them, Mr Sharp said.
The Crown's lawyer will make submissions this afternoon.