Council planning team leader Ann Rodgers said development company RP and AP Investments had not obtained the necessary consent approvals from the council.
"It is fair to say that there are some engineering issues with the property which the consent-holder needs to work through. It [Quail Haven] always has been and always will be a difficult site," Ms Rodgers said.
Before consent holders can apply for title the council has to sign off section 224C of the Resource Management Act (RMA).
"224C is council's certification that all of the conditions of consent have been met. Basically, where we are at is no engineering approvals have been given for the physical works of the subdivision . . . building consents have not been obtained for the retaining structures," Ms Rodgers said.
RP and AP Investments director Steve Grevatt said there had been some misunderstandings between people initially involved in the subdivision.
"We are quite happily working along with the council and doing what they have asked us to do," he said.
Quail Haven received resource consent from the council in May 2005, and in April 2007 the subdivision plan was signed off, or certified, under section 223 of the RMA.
The council asked RP and AP Investments to commission a geotechnical report on the site in 2004 before granting consent.
In December last year, the CODC asked the developers to commission Opus to produce another report, this time confirming all infrastructure of the subdivision had been undertaken in accordance with recommendations made in the original geotechnical report.
"We needed the confirmation in the absence of engineering approvals. We hope the report will go some way to helping clear up this process," Ms Rodgers said.
