A Squeeze On Tiny Houses
Fair Go’s Gill Higgins looks into the complex issue of building a tiny house in New Zealand.
Caroline Smith is worried about being forced off her own land.
She sits on the top step of the colorful tiny house she owns and says she gets anxious thinking about what might happen to her ponies, goats, ducks, and dogs if she has to leave.
This was supposed to be her forever home, nestled among the rolling hills of the Manawatu.
It was affordable, simple living. Until now.
Tiny homes an ‘obvious’ answer to our housing crisis Dec. 12th, 2020
Nelson woman Eva Pomeroy was sick of being nitpicked at three-monthly flat inspections, so she decided to build her own house.
“I was also sick of asking for permission to do anything in a house,” Pomeroy says. “I wanted my own place where I could make it my own.”
A friend studying design at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology drew up plans for a tiny house on wheels.
And in what initially felt like a stroke of luck, the polytech’s building department also took on the project for its carpentry students.
Trying to build legally leaves tiny home couple ‘worse off’ March 23rd, 2020
Tiny-home owners and councils are calling for simplified resource consent rules as owners trying to do the right thing get caught up in red tape.
Tasman-based couple Mohammad and Leela Aboubakr found themselves in trouble, despite consulting their district council, when they built what they believed to be a vehicle not subject to the Building Act, not requiring resource consent.
Mohammad Aboubakr now says they are being punished for trying to do the right thing, as conflicting advice from the council and confusion over what rules should apply have left them with potentially thousands of dollars of unplanned expenses.
“Going to the council has put us worse off than if we had just gone and built this up in the bush somewhere, illegally.”
Big Future In Tiny Homes, says New Zealand Expert March 17th, 2020
Some call them small homes, while others prefer ‘tiny homes’ or ‘tiny houses’.
Whatever the terminology – which, like the homes themselves, is evolving – more and more people are getting their heads around the idea of creating living spaces that depart significantly from the consumption-oriented large-footprint model that has been considered the norm in recent decades.
With thousands worldwide building and living in their own ‘tiny homes’ – often off the grid, and usually off the radar of local authorities – the idea has transcended what some critics decried as a fad to become an international movement with both economic and ecological advantages.
At the same time, there are roadblocks to full acceptance of tiny homes – including a lack of formal recognition by governments on a local, national and regional level – that have made most tiny home dwellers virtually rebels by default.
Tiny homes seen as big solution to New Zealand housing crisis March 10th, 2020
BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A petition calling for rules on small houses and mobile homes to be eased was submitted to New Zealand’s parliament on Tuesday, as residents piled pressure on the government to address a chronic shortage in affordable housing.
Tiny houses and mobile homes – including upgraded caravans – can be an “effective, low-cost solution” to the lack of affordable homes, but are regulated as regular homes with high taxes and bureaucratic red tape, said Andrew Crisp, who launched the online petition.
“New Zealand has a serious housing crisis,” said Crisp, whose petition was signed by more than 4,000 people and presented to parliament by opposition lawmaker Andrew Bayly.
Tiny house or mobile home? Owner takes march for justice to Parliament March 7th, 2020
A woman embroiled in a legal battle with a council argues her tiny house should not require a building permit because it is a vehicle.
Caroline Smith is taking her fight to Parliament after receiving a notice in the mail from Manawatū District Council officials who say her tiny home violates building laws and requires consent.
Smith, who lives in Halcombe, says tiny houses are an obvious part of the solution to New Zealand’s housing crisis.
However, their viability may be threatened by uncertainty and confusion over the regulations governing them, specifically, whether a structure on wheels, which can be moved, should be defined as a building and subject to the provisions of the Building Act.
Good thing for small packages: tiny homes movement wins big in New Zealand March 6th, 2020
Owner of a home that measures just 8m by 3m wins high profile three-year legal battle with the government over rates and regulations.
Dall, originally from Scotland, has been engaged in a high-profile legal battle with the government and the local council for three years, after the council classified his tiny house a building, making it subject to the same building codes and consents as standard homes.
According to a recent Demographia International survey, New Zealand has one of the most unaffordable housing markets in the world. Over the past decade homelessness – defined in the country as “having no other options to acquire safe and secure housing” – has increased to more than 40,000 or one in 100 New Zealanders. Working families are also now feeling the bite, with some forced to sleep in cars, tents, and shipping containers despite being in full-time employment.
The Green party MP Gareth Hughes said the rate of council evictions from tiny houses was rising as they increased in popularity, and evicting anyone in the midst of a housing crisis made no sense.
Movable vehicle is not a building: Victory for tiny homes in landmark case Feb. 21st, 2020
A tiny homeowner in North Canterbury has won his landmark court battle and says the judge’s clear decision should help many others living small.
Alan Dall said it had been an incredibly stressful 16 months since the Hurunui District Council ordered his tiny home be demolished or comply with the Building Act.
He had applied for a determination from the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) to determine his caravan was not a building, but it sided with the council.
He appealed MBIE’s decision and finally got his day in court on Tuesday. By Thursday, he was celebrating the judge’s decision – that his home is indeed a vehicle.
Tiny home debate: ‘If it’s not secured to the ground it’s not a building’ Nov. 9th, 2019
building or a vehicle?
It’s a question that owners of tiny houses, councils, and courts are wrangling over, as small, movable dwellings are increasingly becoming an option for Kiwi house hunters.
From Motueka’s Nick Hughes – who has argued that his dwelling is closer to a caravan than a building – to Lower Hutt’s Jono Voss – whose case regarding his NZ Transport Agency-registered tiny home is heading to the Environment Court – they’re also getting their fair share of media attention too.
Tiny house maker facing uncertain future from Waimakariri District Council August 7th, 2019
The owner of a tiny house business says he will fight efforts from his local council to shut him down.
Colin Wightman started Eco Cottages in Sefton, North Canterbury, three years ago. Advertised as “the ultimate in space-saving homes” and “the Rolls Royce of portable homes”, the 25-square-meter spaces are designed for warm, dry and healthy living.
They are built from eco-friendly sustainable materials and help address housing affordability, Wightman said.
Tiny homeowners crying out for change to ‘perverse’ building rules October 28th, 2019
A Canterbury mother-of-two who opted to live in a house bus to make ends meet has appealed to the Government to introduce “common sense” legislation for tiny homeowners.
Charlotte Murray chose the alternative lifestyle two-and-a-half years ago for her and children Evan, 12, and Tessa, 9, in Leeston, about 30 kilometers southwest of Christchurch, after struggling to maintain a mortgage.
She has since been visited twice by the Selwyn District Council and now fears being evicted.
Evicted owner of tiny home says idiotic bureaucracy will force more people into homelessness July 27th, 2019
When his 16-year marriage broke down and he had to leave the family home, Paul Seymour’s only viable option was to downsize.
He thought designing his own tiny house would be the perfect solution, but it was the start of a living nightmare.
After a lengthy search to find a suitable site, he found a permanent place at a park-over-property in northern Christchurch.
A complaint was made, the Christchurch City Council got involved, and before he knew it his tiny home has deemed a building without consent and the landlord had no choice but to ask him to leave.
