A whole derelict house was dumped on a vacant South Auckland site in the night

There was a property boom on Manuia Road in south Auckland’s Takanini on the weekend of November 18-19.

But it wasn’t the sound of the auctioneer’s hammer dropping on a record South Auckland house sale.

It was the sound of a derelict house crashing down on a vacant site recently cleared for development.

Northbridge Properties Group development manager Rod Bray says he found out about the house when a client called to ask if the company’s commercial development was still on track “given that we’d put an old dump on the site”.

The company also owns neighbouring land at 108 Great South Road that has been cleared for the development of a 30-unit retail centre early next year.  

Bray says “I had no idea there was a house on the site. I thought ‘this is a surprise, I’d better have a look’.

“Someone has arranged to have a derelict house – a whole complete house – dumped on our site.

“This is a whole house which has no salvage value and which patently no one even wanted to take away for free. 

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“So a developer or homeowner somewhere has paid a house mover to dump it on our site for us to demolish and deal with.”

Bray estimates it will cost his company at least $NZ20,000 ($18,164) to demolish it properly and move it away.

Which is why the developer is offering a $NZ1000 reward to anyone who provides information that leads to a prosecution.

Alternatively, if the company which put the house there “wants to come and remove it, we would be willing to take no further action”.

Bray says “it’s a level up from the old mattresses and household refuse people have been dumping.

“It’s the first time I have seen a whole house dumped.”

Bray hopes someone recognises the house and can shed some light on where it’s come from.

“They move houses in the middle of the night, so it would have been done in the early hours,” he says.

“Given it’s a whole house and would have taken a truck to move, someone would have seen something.”

Anyone with any information can contact Rod Bray on phone +64 09 912-2512 or email rod@northbridgeproperties.co.nz.

his story was first published at Stuff.co.nz