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Warwick Smith/Stuff
The former police house at Foxton Beach, centre, was illegally occupied for about a year. It is next to the Foxton Beach police station at left.
The illegal occupiers of a Crown property in Horowhenua have been evicted after squatting in the house for almost a year.
Land Information New Zealand manages a former police house in Foxton Beach, which is next to a police station, and it became aware of a person squatting in the Ocean Beach Rd house in May last year. The person was evicted on April 19.
It is one of 16 Crown properties that were illegally occupied in 2021 and nine in 2022, according to the information released under the Official Information Act.
A spokesperson for Land Information New Zealand said the reason it took so long to resolve the Foxton Beach situation was because “extensive attempts” to get the person to leave were unsuccessful.
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“We follow a robust process when engaging with people occupying Crown property without authorisation, or when an eviction becomes necessary.
“We start by trying to engage with the occupier face to face in order to resolve the situation.
“If they refuse to speak with us, or we are met with hostility, the next step is to escalate the matter to the Tenancy Tribunal. This step is required regardless of whether the occupier is a legal tenant or not.”
Following the Tenancy Tribunal hearing, Land Information New Zealand must apply to the district court for an eviction warrant.
Warwick Smith/Stuff
The house that was occupied, rear, is next door to the Foxton Beach police station.
If this is granted, they work with a bailiff and police to carry out the eviction.
A Tenancy Tribunal hearing was held for the Foxton Beach house in January and the landlord, Colliers New Zealand, was granted possession of the house.
The notice of the hearing was posted to the house, but the occupier did not attend the hearing.
The house was undamaged and is now unoccupied. It will now go through the process to dispose of a Crown-owned property.
Land Information New Zealand figures show of the 1300 buildings in its estate, 16 were illegally occupied in 2022 and nine in 2021.
The organisation did not compile details of squatters in Crown buildings before 2021, its head of Crown property Sonya Wikitera said.
Of the 16 unauthorised occupiers in 2021, eight were in residential properties and eight were commercial buildings.
Two were in Northland, three in Auckland, two in Waikato-King Country, four in Taranaki, two in Bay of Plenty, one in Manawatū-Rangitīkei and two in Wairarapa.
Of the nine unauthorised occupiers in 2022, six were in residential buildings and three were commercial buildings.
Warwick Smith/Stuff
Some of the windows at the house have been boarded up.
One was in Northland, three in Waikato-King Country, one in Taranaki, one in Manawatū-Rangitīkei, two in Horowhenua and one in Wellington-Kāpiti.
Wikitera said Land Information New Zealand did not compile the length of each occupation as it only became aware of an occupation when they were notified of it.
Land Information New Zealand did not hold details about what damage was done and the cost because any damage to the properties may have happened before the illegal occupation.
The properties in Manawatū-Rangitīkei that were occupied in 2021 and 2022 were a house on Goldfinch St in Taihape and a house on Holland Cres in Bulls. The occupiers in both houses were evicted.
Of the two properties occupied in Horowhenua, one was the Foxton Beach house. Wikitera said they could not confirm the location of the second property for health and safety reasons, but the situation was unchanged.
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