WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 14 2011
MAINLAND PRESS
FREE1
EDITION
PROUDLY LOCALLY OWNED Dux Live opens in Addington P3
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 14 2011
See Friday’s edition for our interview with city council CEO Tony Marryatt
Free tickets to Kaikoura Roots Festival P22
All I want for Christmas.... Samantha Early
ALL Marta Treskonova wants this Christmas is a decision on her two white-zoned Sumner properties and relief from her mortgage and rates bills. Ms Treskonova had sold her Wakefield Avenue home and was packing to move into a new house she built on the sunny side of the valley, for which she had been saving for 23 years. The February 22 earthquake struck the week before settlement date of March 1, sending rocks slamming on to her property and turning her plans “to custard”. Ms Treskonova saw the cliffs crumbling towards her and fled – her sleep-out and garden were covered in 25 large boulders. The sale fell through and she was left with a large mortgage, after borrowing against the old house to build the new one. Both houses were given red stickers, deemed unsafe because of rock fall risk. A 30-metre long protective barrier three to four metres high, with a ditch at the back, was built at Wakefield Avenue in May. She is paying rates on the two properties and her bill is overdue for the first time in her life, despite the 40-percent concession given to red-stickered residents by the Christchurch City Council. Earlier this month she told councillors her story at their first special earthquake meeting, asking them to consider rates relief. Other red-stickered Sumner residents also asked for rates to be removed on their properties and councillors are due to decide on that at a meeting tomorrow. Ms Treskonova said she was told in February a decision on whether the land had to be abandoned was Still waiting: Marta Treskonova at her property this week. Inset: Ms Treskonova inspects the rock fall damage on her property hours after the Continued page 2 February 22 earthquake. Main photo: Samantha Early about four months away.
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PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
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CITYWIDE Ray White New Zealand Property Manager of the Year 2011
More pro y needed properties urgently Ph 331 6755
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