Earthquake repairs required under urgency due to changed family situation.
Canterbury
My fiancée and I are fortunate enough to be able to live in a home that my future father in law worked hard to pay for. My late mother in law passed away in 2016, but it was their wish for their daughter to be able to live in a family home and we have been able to do so since we moved in together.
The home currently sits in a family trust and has not had a dwelling insurance policy (this is not a decision we had any input on). Fast forward to September 2010 and February 2011 and the devastating Christchurch earthquakes hit. The home sustained severe damage (loss of brick veneer cladding, floors 160mm out of level, collapsed chimney, raked walls etc.) and unfortunately due to the lack of insurance, we have had to pay all maintenance and repairs to the home ourselves, (some $25k+ and counting) as the trust and trustees have no funds to contribute. Again, the lack of insurance was not a decision we were able to influence as we are not trustees of the trust (and therefore not current owners of the property).
My fiancée and I have been together 8 years and engaged for 5 years, while happily living with our 3 cats. We had been trying to save for our wedding for 4 years while also trying to make repairs to our home along the way. It hasn’t been easy by any means but we have struck our biggest road block yet and this is why we are looking for some support.
August 2017 and with two hours notice from The Ministry for Vulnerable Children (Oranga Tamariki), we became caregivers to two girls. There are two 9 month old twins also part of that family, however we were unable to take on all four children at once as our home wasn’t ready for this type of situation. Without going into too much detail and out of respect for the family’s privacy in this area, the four kids were removed from their parents home due to it being deemed uninhabitable by inspection. After four months, their living situation hasn’t changed or improved significantly so it is predicted that we will be having the twins join their two sisters in our home by the end of January 2018.
With our repair budget savings being used to get our home as child ready as we could, we have lost our wedding fund and cleared out the bank. We have an estimate repair bill of $340,000 which the bank will provide us a mortgage for, however it doesn’t include the costs for architectural design, engineering inspections and reporting, consenting and other professional fees. It is the replacement of our savings for these costs alone, that we are seeking help with.
We aren’t asking for you to pay for our house for us... we are asking for support to have these professional fees covered so that we can complete the plans and consents to take to our bank to get the mortgage we desperately need to repair our home and to get code of compliance and home insurance.
6 months ago we had no idea our lives would have been turned upside down like this. We want to provide a loving and happy home for the four children, but we also want to provide a safe and completed home for them to grow up with happy memories.
Please donate whatever you can, it means the world to us.
Funds will be used for Consent documentation, Firm-Fixed-Price quote (for mortgage) and residual to reduce mortgage amount.
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