Five years of emails reveal the city council has been unable to force an overseas investor to take action over an abandoned Dunedin hospital.
Glamis Hospital, a former rest-home located at 28 Montpellier St, has been abandoned since 2011 and has become a magnet for vandals, illegal dumping and rats
The condition of the building has deteriorated severely, especially after two suspicious fires which gutted it in 2017 and 2018.
Other suspicious fires have been reported at the site over the years, most recently when furniture was set alight on November 21.
Nearby resident Grant Meikle said he wanted action from the owner and the city council to make the site secure, protect the safety of the neighbourhood and to prevent "constant trespassing and vandalism".
"I would like to see the building demolished and the site redeveloped," Dr Meikle said.
Another neighbour, who declined to be be named, said she saw the building as "a disaster waiting to happen".
The "eyesore" of a building had been an ongoing issue and on any given week there would likely be someone trespassing there.
On Saturday she noticed some young people walking around on the upstairs balconies and sometimes she heard glass being broken.
The site posed a fire danger to nearby properties and police attended regularly, which was a waste of their resources, she said.
Emails between the owner, overseas investor Leng Seak Loke, and the Dunedin City Council, obtained under the Official Information Act, show council staff first raised issues about the "abandoned, derelict building" in mid 2017, when shedding cladding came to the attention of staff.
Staff were advised of water damage by a neighbour, who said it was caused by neighbourhood children activating a sprinkler system.
The site was inspected, but "as the property is not directly impacting public safety (only those trespassing), the DCC does not have a responsibility to get involved", a complaint log entry said.
Emails exchanged with the owner’s agent showed he agreed to have the council shut off water in July 2017, after a conservation notice was issued.
Several complaints had been received about the site, which might contain asbestos, the letter said.
"I anticipate the most cost-effective way to deal with the building would be to demolish it," the owner was told and it was requested he contact the council about his plans to make the building safe.
The council was so concerned about the site that it arranged for barricades to be set up, but trespassers just climbed over them, the letter said.
In July 2020, a cleansing order was issued, after an inspection found "the premises are in a grossly insanitary state and in a state of serious disrepair" and were attracting rats.
Rubbish was being illegally dumped at the site and the owner was urged by an environmental health officer to board up the premises.
The council arranged a contractor after the owner got in touch three days after the deadline expired.
In June 2022, unlawful rubbish dumping was raised with the regional council as it was not attracting rodents and therefore did not meet the criteria for another cleansing order.
However, the inspector was advised that unless the rubbish had hazardous or contained contaminants, it did not fall under the remit of the pollution team, emails show.
The city council confirmed no resource consents have been lodged at the site.
Mr Loke has been approached for comment.
