This is despite dozens of alerts for potentially unsafe buildings being lodged to Invercargill City Council in recent years.
In June, a council report said there had been 70 reports or complaints about such buildings between 2019 and 2023 - residential and commercial ones.
But the number that met the criteria was much lower than that. Just 14 were given the status, and only three remain on the list.
All of the properties were located on Invercargill’s Dee St - an empty building at number 155, Coco Bella next door, and the old Briscoes building which was fire damaged in 2023.
Coco Bella has been issued an insanitary notice but can still operate because the engineer's report only prevents access to the first floor of the building.
Council manager planning and building services Anne Duncan said her organisation was working with owners to have issues rectified.
That included liaising with owners of all properties, with weekly engineering inspections being undertaken at the Briscoes building.
Determining whether buildings were allowed to be partially occupied was done on a "case by case" basis by risk assessment, she said.
Other buildings had been resolved through a variety of measures, including foul sewer repairs, cladding repairs and demolition.
“We can confirm that none of these buildings are council-owned and council has not seen an increase in the number of buildings identified as dangerous or insanitary,” Duncan said.
In June, the council adopted a draft Dangerous, Affected and Insanitary Buildings Policy for public consultation.
The policy would replace two separate existing policies - the Dangerous Buildings Policy 2018 and Insanitary Buildings Policy 2018.
A panel made up of councillors Darren Ludlow, Ria Bond, Lesley Soper and mana whenua representative Pania Coote has been established for hearings and deliberation on August 13.
• LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
