Offers of help have poured in for an Oamaru family whose home has been ruled unfit to live in.
Last Saturday, the Otago Daily Times reported on the plight of Oamaru couple Carl and Toni Dock-Walshe and their two children, Jamie (10) and Michael (3 months) who bought their dream home on Thames Highway, only to have that purchase become a nightmare.
A LIM report and building inspection by a contractor on the $182,500 home before they bought it cleared it.
However, since then they have had myriad problems, including rotting timber and floors and dampness underneath causing mould and fungus.
The Waitaki District Council earlier this month banned them from living in it. For the past four months, the family of four have been crowded into an attached sleepout.
Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean took up the couple's fight and, since last Saturday's story, offers of help have come in.
Her electorate agent, Charlene Napier, said yesterday the help ranged from Christmas gifts for the family to free legal aid by a Dunedin lawyer who was a specialist in handling construction issues.
There had been two offers of free housing - one in Kakanui and another in Oamaru - for the couple while their problems were sorted out.
An Oamaru supermarket had also made up a grocery hamper for the family. A retired Oamaru carpenter had volunteered his labour to help with the home.
Mrs Napier had also approached Oamaru building suppliers and contractors to see if they could help, but did not expect to hear back from them until after the Christmas break.
The Dock-Walshe family shifted to Oamaru from Christchurch to start a new life after a string of family tragedies.
The Thames Highway house had been redesigned and newly renovated by an Oamaru property developer before they bought it in November 2006.
Only days after they moved in, the problems started when their bed fell through a rotten floor.
There have been subsequent major problems since, including having to replace the renovated kitchen.
Committed to a large mortgage on the property, which has fallen in value because of the problems, they cannot afford to investigate legal action nor themselves pay to put the extensive problems right.
