A chunk of their 450sq m property gave way, leaving a large hole undermining the garage and sucking in land next to the house.<\/p>\n
The home was untouched and was yellow-stickered by Western Bay of Plenty District Council (WBOPDC) because of the threat of further slides.<\/p>\n
The du Plessis family were able to access the house to gather items but unable to occupy it, Sian du Plessis said. <\/p>\n
Since January, with more rainfall falling, the original slip has grown and swallowed the garage, and the council red-stickered their home. That designation means the family cannot access the house at all.<\/p>\n
Matt and Sian du Plessis’ Reid Rd home in P\u0101p\u0101moa sits precariously close to an ever-growing landslip triggered on January 22 this year. Photo \/ Mike Scott<\/p>\n
The couple have been advised that because the house itself is undamaged, their home insurance cover isn\u2019t triggered even though they cannot live there, Matt said.<\/p>\n
The Natural Hazards Commission (NHC) \u2013 formerly the Earthquake Commission \u2013 has accepted their claim and since the Herald first spoke to the couple, made a non-final offer of $128,277.<\/p>\n
The amount covered $59,700 for 82sq m of land \u2013 some lost already, some predicted to go within 12 months of the original slip.<\/p>\n
The remainder, $68,577, was for building damage including the lost garage and concrete pads.<\/p>\n
In the initial offer, the NHC estimated remedial work to stabilise the land at almost $290,000. <\/p>\n
Following its legal framework, the NHC will pay out the lesser amount meaning it will cover the land loss and building damage rather than the cost of stabilisation repairs.<\/p>\n
The couple dispute the repair price. Geotechnical experts who visited the property put it at least \u201chalf a million dollars plus\u201d, Sian du Plessis said.<\/p>\n
The couple had been told any repair work could be impossible on such a small plot and likely uneconomic but even if the costs ballooned, the NHC is legally bound to pay only for the lost land, leaving them with a large financial gap, she said.<\/p>\n
For the pair, it has been tough to accept. <\/p>\n
\u201cNot one part of that day [January 22] did I think we weren\u2019t sorted,\u201d Matt du Plessis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt we paid insurance, our levies go to NHC, we\u2019ll be walking away from this and the Government will look after us, we\u2019re not living in a Third World country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Losing their loved home in single devastating morning<\/p>\n
The du Plessis family moved to their Reid Rd home as first-home buyers with sons, Maeko du Plessis, now 10 and Tao du Plessis, 7, in early 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s certainly not the biggest or the best house on the street, but it certainly had potential for us,\u201d Sian du Plessis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just loved it here.\u201d<\/p>\n
In January, the family had taken note of the bad forecasts and weather warnings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took it with a grain of salt and was like, \u2019yeah, it\u2019ll miss the Bay\u2019 … I didn\u2019t prepare anything,\u201d Matt du Plessis said.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t miss. Rain hammered the tin roof through the night of January 21 and in the early hours, he woke to the sound of \u201cthunder in the forest\u201d.<\/p>\n
From the back door, he saw a landslide had run down the bottom of the hill.<\/p>\n
The couple gathered the boys to the roadside, while Matt headed downhill to inspect the property and Sian packed essentials.<\/p>\n
In the early hours of January 22, the family fled their landslide-threatened home, navigating numerous slips on Reid Rd before reaching safety. Photo \/ Mike Scott<\/p>\n
Behind the garage, large avocado trees and pines started to fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could hear it really loud, sounded like trees snapping and just going,\u201d Sian said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just looked like the earth was sinking down.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the boys in the car, Sian went to inspect the new hole to see how close it had come and then the earth crumbled before her.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt very, very quickly went from under me, and I ran back and then did not go back in the house,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Separated, the couple were both in a panic thinking the slide had swallowed the other.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy initial reaction was that Sian was gone so I was sprinting back up and was obviously relieved to hear her voice and the boys\u2019 voices screaming \u2013 they were thinking I was gone,\u201d Matt said.<\/p>\n
With the road below blocked by slips, Sian drove the boys to friends near the top of the road before a crowd of people yelled for her to reverse as another slip came down in front of the car.<\/p>\n
Matt was still down the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was probably the worst thing that I\u2019ve thought about since – like, how stupid are you to send your family off thinking that they\u2019re safe when you should have probably been there,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
When Matt had called 111, the emergency services operator asked if they could fend for themselves \u2013 \u201cwe\u2019ve got a lot going on at the moment, we\u2019d really appreciate you guys trying to help yourselves\u201d.<\/p>\n
Only then did the couple realise the devastation was region-wide and included the tragic loss of life in landslides on Welcome Bay Rd and at Mount Maunganui.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI was like, oh we totally can,\u201d Matt said.<\/p>\n It would take three days before the roads were cleared and the family could get out.<\/p>\n Reality sinks in<\/p>\n Matt assumed their insurance payout would be cut and dried. <\/p>\n \u201cThen reality started to sink in … that we\u2019re going to be left with a red-stickered house with a gaping hole next to it, that we can\u2019t live in, that we have to pay off still and there\u2019s almost no relief for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The du Plessis family scrambled to find temporary accommodation and keep their own concrete contracting business \u2013 Off The Wall Construction \u2013 running while seeking advice from a string of agencies. <\/p>\n At least three geotechnical or engineering assessments have been made \u2013 by the NHC, WBOPDC and the du Plessis family themselves \u2013 variously gauging the extent of the damage, its likely cause and the scale of remediation required.<\/p>\n Under the Natural Hazards Insurance (NHI) Act, the NHC provides the first layer of cover for a damaged home \u2013 generally up to $300,000 \u2013 with a home owner\u2019s private insurer covering anything above that.<\/p>\n The scheme also covers the land under an insured home, along with separate buildings, and the property within 8m of them.<\/p>\n \u2018Horror situation\u2019<\/p>\n The du Plessis family\u2019s insurance broker Isaac Mutu, a director at O\u2019Connor Warren Insurance Brokers, said that once the NHC\u2019s decision landed, the couple could accept it or challenge parts of it. <\/p>\n The family\u2019s next step was taking the NHC\u2019s conceptual design to a specialist retaining-wall contractor and an independent geotechnical engineer, to establish whether the land stabilisation work could be done at all, Sian said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just whether or not it could actually be built or find somebody who prepared to build it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The firm GeoPlus made geotechnical assessments of the 450sq m section both before and after the January 22 landslide.<\/p>\n The site\u2019s small size meant there was basically no room to manoeuvre the heavy machinery that would be needed to build retaining walls above an active slip, GeoPlus director Mark McDonald said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d struggle to turn the machinery round on the site with how tight it is.\u201d<\/p>\n Consent regulations have changed since the du Plessis\u2019 house was permitted and built in the early 1990s. A rural block must now fit a stable building platform, an on-site wastewater field sized to the number of bedrooms and a way to dispose of stormwater, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one would ever put that amount of money into the ground to form a stable platform to then build with such limitations … I\u2019ve never come across a property like it really.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a horror situation for them.\u201d<\/p>\n The couple believe a buy-out is the best solution and have proposed the WBOPDC use the land to manage the stormwater running off Reid Rd in order to protect the homes below.<\/p>\n WBOPDC general manager infrastructure Brad Singh acknowledged how \u201cchallenging and distressing\u201d the situation had been for the family. <\/p>\n The council had connected the du Plessis\u2019 with recovery services, relief funding \u2013 including $5000 from the mayoral fund set up to help home owners hit by the January storm \u2013 and rates remissions, he said.<\/p>\n However, direct financial assistance for private property was limited, and a buyout \u201cwould only be possible with support from central government\u201d, Singh said.<\/p>\n \u201cCentral government has confirmed it will not support buyouts for properties affected by the January 2026 storms,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Buy-outs for undamaged, red-stickered homes have happened before, Victoria University professor Ilan Noy \u2013 an expert in the economics of disaster and climate change \u2013 told the Herald.<\/p>\n After the large disasters of the 2011 Christchurch and 2016 Kaik\u014dura earthquakes and the 2023 North Island floods, red-stickered homes were bought back in deals typically funded by central government, often in partnership with local councils, Noy said.<\/p>\n However, the difference this time might be the smaller scale of the event, he said.<\/p>\n Noy had been part of an expert working group<\/a> that suggested legislation which would set consistent parameters for buy-outs for people caught in situations similar to that of the du Plessis family.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, neither of the two main parties seems keen to pass such an act that would clearly define the central government responsibilities in such cases.<\/p>\n \u201cThey both prefer an ad hoc system that allows them to step in with generous buybacks in large disaster events.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, this means that this \u2018uninhabitable but undamaged\u2019 limbo then arises in smaller events.\u201d<\/p>\nWhile there is sympathy for the du Plessis’ situation, they fear they will be left homeless with a mortgage to pay on a red-stickered house and remedial work they cannot afford. Photo \/ Mike Scott <\/p>\n
The home of Sian and Matt du Plessis sits near the edge of a large slip, red-stickered, unoccupied and so far undamaged. Photo Mike Scott <\/p>\n