Fate of tenants’ belongings in fire-damaged Loafers Lodge still undecided

A “cursory” message to survivors of the Loafers Lodge hostel fire – saying their belongings would be dumped and the building pulled down – was sent without approval, a judge has been told.

The hostel fire in the Wellington suburb of Newtown on May 16 killed five tenants and made about 90 others homeless.

Most survivors escaped the building with few, if any, possessions.

The lodge was left fire and water-damaged and contaminated with asbestos.

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A judge at the High Court in Wellington was recently told that on June 20 a lodge property manager sent some tenants a text message “in relatively cursory terms” saying tenants’ belongings would not be returned.

“Instead they would be disposed of into a bin to be cleared daily to prevent ‘bin diving’,” the judge said.

“The message also indicated that demolition works would commence shortly,” the judge said.

The lawyer for the Loafers Lodge and Rehslew Investments companies had told the judge that the message was not approved to be sent.

It prompted at least two of the tenants to have lawyers ask the court for an injunction to stop demolition until steps had been taken to recover belongings if possible and return them to their owners.

So far the parties had been able to agree what could happen at the site, at least on a week-by-week basis.

For the first week investigators for the tenants were allowed into the building – which was said to be structurally sound – to assess asbestos contamination and the prospect of recovering tenants’ possessions.

Nothing was to happen in the building unless it was necessary to prevent deterioration that would cause an imminent health and safety risk.

Lawyers for the tenants were to be updated daily about the work to be done the next day.

In the most recent agreement about what was to happen next week, the judge said the parties consented to the current arrangement continuing with only minor changes.

The daily reporting of what work was planned for the next day was dropped so long as the type of work taking place did not change and nothing would be done that affected the tenants’ rooms or belongings.

The lodge companies might have to give a summary of work done.

The contents of two rooms could be shifted to another room to allow access to an external lift, and food could be removed from all levels, so long as care was taken not to damage or contaminate the belongings.

Lawyers for the lodge companies and the tenants were approached for comment.

Wellington City Council has issued a dangerous building notice.

A 48-year-old man has been charged with five counts of murder and two counts of arson.