The fire has compounded the stress of events of a month earlier, which remain raw for owners Novia and Dawson Bliss.<\/p>\n
Novia was cooking when Hastings District Council compliance officers arrived at the door with police on the morning of November 26.<\/p>\n
She said she and all tenants were asked to leave the property about 9.30am on a near 30C day, and were not allowed back inside for about six hours as authorities picked through the lodge and cabins one-by-one.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them I wanted to go back inside to turn off my stove, and they didn\u2019t let me,\u201d Novia claimed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said they would do it, but they didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we came back, the stove had caught fire,\u201d Dawson claimed. <\/p>\n
Hastings District Council disputes this part.<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman said they had executed a search warrant at the property under the Resource Management Act and the Search and Surveillance Act, investigating suspected building and activity-related offences.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson said an officer responsible for searching the Bliss residence had advised that the stove was turned off during the search.<\/p>\n
Dawson and Novia claim tenants should not have been required to remain outside the property from about 9.30am to 3.30pm, without access to their rooms, toilets, vehicles, food or medication.<\/p>\n
Tenants were kept outside for six hours without access to rooms, toilets, or medication, Farmhouse Lodge owner Dawson (left) said.<\/p>\n
Many of the residents, they say, have mental health needs and some are placed there by government agencies, including Corrections and probation services.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were sitting under a tree, hungry and thirsty,\u201d Novia said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome needed medication … Some were crying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dawson said the way the search warrant was carried out was particularly distressing for tenants with mental health issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no support person present during the execution of the warrant.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pair claim several tenants were prevented from re-entering their cabins to use the bathroom or take medication, and that some doors and private caravans were forced open during the search.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey broke into some cottages. Probably about five … Why didn\u2019t they ask for the keys from us? They just smashed the doors open,\u201d Dawson said.<\/p>\n
A council spokesperson said a locksmith was on site to open locked doors. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf locks were broken, they were replaced once the search was completed,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
A damaged door at the Lodge after the Council search.<\/p>\n
Novia said she felt she was \u201ctreated like a terrorist\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was crying. I was screaming. I asked them: Why did you bring so many cops in here? Am I a criminal? Am I a murderer? And they said it was because we had a lot of people living here. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it means they were insulting my tenants. My tenants are not dangerous. They are nice people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dawson claimed he was given no prior warning of the search and that he and his wife had received no updates from the council since.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just arrived completely out of the blue, and they\u2019ve never told us what it\u2019s actually for,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no communication. They never told us we were doing anything wrong since 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n
Novia said if there was something wrong with the property, the council should tell them, so they could fix it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen they check again, and if it\u2019s still not fixed, they take action.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Hastings District Council spokeswoman said residents were asked to leave the building or room they were occupying during the six-hour inspection for safety reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cResidents were not detained and were free to leave the property to seek any services or support they required.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe property was revisited on December 2, 2025, when information was handed to Mr and Mrs Bliss regarding the search. <\/p>\n
\u201cMr Bliss was asked to put his questions in writing. No correspondence has been received.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council compliance manager Sam Hayes said information gathered during the search was still being assessed, with no decision yet made on whether further action would be taken.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe warrant was in relation to suspected offences under the Resource Management Act, relating to buildings and other activities,\u201d Hayes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cInformation gathered on the day is being collated, and that will determine if any further action is required. No decisions have been made in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fire has compounded the stress of events of a month earlier, which remain raw for owners Novia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1975,5205,7557,13915,4522,132569,5194,305,2273,66042,13840,173,3180,111,43,139,69,132570,9769,814,11923,86258,17292,8445,1361,8229,23505,132571,12025,6923],"class_list":["post-220288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-at","tag-council","tag-district","tag-farmhouse","tag-feel","tag-fume","tag-hastings","tag-have","tag-houses","tag-inspection","tag-like","tag-lodge","tag-near","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-overzealous","tag-owners","tag-property","tag-raid","tag-sixhour","tag-tenants","tag-terrorist","tag-that","tag-they","tag-treated","tag-unjustified","tag-wellknown","tag-what"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}