The Ministry of Justice last night announced the decision to close seven of its district courthouses after testing in the wake of Christchurch's earthquakes.
The Dunedin courthouse is going through a detailed assessment to find its seismic rating. The results should be known in a few weeks.
The old Greymouth court building has also been closed, but was unoccupied anyway.
For up to the next 12 months Oamaru District Court hearings will be held in the Timaru District Court.
Balclutha District Court hearings will be heard in the Gore District Court, although the registry office in Balclutha, which is in a separate building from the courtroom, is not affected and will remain open.
Hearings at the Rangiora courthouse, which has been hosting many of Christchurch's hearings since the February 22 earthquake, will be redistributed across Christchurch.
Ministry of Justice acting deputy secretary for courts Robert Pigou said the buildings posed no imminent danger, but the safety of staff and court users was a priority so the ministry had acted on information received from engineering experts.
He said Opus carried out an initial review of the ministry's properties based on their age, construction material and seismic locality. As a resultof the report, 11 sites were inspected.
The six courts being vacated and the Greymouth court building were assessed as at a higher risk of partial or full collapse in a significant seismic event.
"None of our buildings are more risky than they were last week or 10 years ago, but we now have information from experts that quantifies the risk and the remedial work required and that this work can't be done while buildings are occupied."
The ministry would work with judges, Corrections, police, lawyers and other court users to make sure any disruption was kept to a minimum.
Current indications were the programme of remedial work would cost about $2 million and take up to 12 months to complete, he said.
The Opus report said the stone Oamaru court building was assessed as being a high risk.
The work required to bring it up 67% of the new building standard as recommended in the building code would be difficult and extensive and cost more than $350,000, the most costly of any court building.
The brick Balclutha court building was at high risk of collapsing completely in a significant shake, and the strengthening required would cost more than $165,000.
