[ad_1]
Supplied
Krissy Bain and her children Liam, 6, and Olly, 5, planned to live in their new little house in Wānaka, but the owner denied them access to their workplace to remove it.
A Wānaka woman says the small $ 70,000 house she is building for herself and her two young children is being held hostage.
But the landlord says he will deliver the house to you as soon as he pays two outstanding bills and fixes the section.
Krissy Bain has been building her little home for the past five months on a Luggate property owned by the parents of local contractor Daniel Taylor.
Two weeks ago, she decided to move house because she was worried about Taylor taking over the project and she couldn’t afford to keep paying him. Then she found out that the door was locked and she couldn’t move her house.
READ MORE:
* Architect’s $ 150,000 Modular Home on Leased Lot Could Offer Path to Market
* Tiny house village gives hope to the homeless when they need it most
* Couple build their own little house helped by friends, strangers and YouTube
Bain said he visited the site with police, who told him they couldn’t get involved because it was a civil matter.
They helped negotiate a meeting between the couple to resolve the situation, but Taylor called it off.
She said that she wanted Bain to pay what she owed and sign a letter absolving herself of any responsibility for the little house as it was not finished and confirming the end of their verbal agreement. He expected to finalize the agreement with his attorney on Friday.
Bain said she was happy to sign the document, order the section, and pay the outstanding $ 2,200, but only after she had her little home.
“Obviously there is no trust anymore. I’m not disputing money at all … I want to give them what they think is owed to them. I just want my house, ”he said.
Things
Tired of renting, this Auckland couple pooled their resources and built a small house from scratch, with lots of help from friends, family, strangers, and YouTube.
Taylor said he would not turn over the small house until the $ 1,241.43 owed to him was deposited into his bank account.
“I don’t want the reddish house here. Unfortunately, things don’t happen overnight just because a person wants it. “
Contactor Bruce Borgden was also owed $ 1018.19 for roofing and siding work and said he could not understand how his bill had been involved in the dispute.
“I don’t know what the big discussion is about. It has nothing to do with me. I only want [to be] paid, ”he said.
Bain said he would pay Bordgen as soon as he had the cottage.
She was building the little house with money from the settlement after their recent separation.
“This should be the beginning of our new life, and now I have nothing, plus every week that passes I am paying more money to rent,” he said.
She was also unemployed, having lost her job as an Airbnb property manager due to Covid-19.
Taylor said Bain did not raise any concerns until two weeks ago and that the decision to move the house was “a punch to the stomach.”
He believed they had made a verbal agreement that he would not charge rent to build it in his garden while he was working on the project.
Bain questioned that, saying that she was building it herself as it was “the only avenue that could allow me to go down.”
“He wasn’t really meant to work on the project, but he offered his help. Of course, I was going to accept help, but it was my project. “
Bain said he would take the matter to the Dispute Tribunal if a resolution could not be found.
Taylor’s father, Graham Taylor, owns the land and said he had tried to reconcile with Bain.
“I’d like to get that thing off the property as soon as possible but on our terms.”