Tenant falls into sinkhole after Ka¯inga Ora fails to

AVICE Ewington has been left feeling ‘‘trapped’’ in her home for weeks.

A burst water pipe under the backyard of her Papatoetoe social house has eroded away her garden and created ‘‘chesthigh’’ sinkholes – one of which she fell into while trying to cross the submerged lawn in the night.

‘‘It took me half an hour to pull myself out of the mud, I’m nearly 70 years old and I just couldn’t believe it. There was nobody here to help me.’’

But social housing provider Ka¯ inga Ora – her landlord of nearly 20 years – has not fixed the issue, she said. ‘‘I was really frightened all the time.’’

Ewington said the problems started just before Christmas, when Auckland had a day of heavy rain. Initially, she thought the flooding was because of the dry ground not absorbing water properly, but when the flooding didn’t subside, Ewington realised the problem was more serious.

Ka¯ inga Ora sent over a plumber, who told Ewington the building’s old pipes were ‘‘full of holes’’ . . . He dug up a bit and said, ‘Oh this is a major job and I can’t do anything here until we get permission from Ka¯ inga

Ora.’ And off he went. I never heard anything back.’’

The smell of stagnant water was starting to come through the house and there were concerns the water may be damaging its foundations, she said.

A Ka¯ inga Ora spokeswoman said it was notified of the leak on December 22. Maintenance teams said the level of work required to fix the leak could not be done before Christmas so a temporary fix was put in place, with work on a permanent fix scheduled for January 24, but the temporary fix failed over the holidays, the spokeswoman said.

Ewington has since rung the housing agency more than 10 times to no avail, trying to get the issue solved ASAP.

‘‘It’s just got me trapped. I feel really super depressed, and I can’t do much about it except make calls, but they don’t even answer.

‘‘I’ve been living here nearly 20 years and, honestly, no word of exaggeration, the whole system of Ka¯ inga Ora is collapsing. Nobody is doing the jobs.’’

The experience had also left Ewington feeling like a ‘‘social outcast’’ on her street, because neighbours have started complaining about the mess: ‘‘They are thinking that I’m not doing anything, but I am doing everything I can possibly do.’’

Ka¯ inga Ora said maintenance crews visited on Thursday and would return on Friday to provide a semi-permanent fix to the leak, with the replacement of exterior pipes scheduled for next week.

‘‘We acknowledge that this issue may have caused our customer stress.

‘‘The work has been attended to urgently, and we’re satisfied our maintenance partner has done the right thing, but to solve the problem properly it needed a complete replacement of the pipe that could not be done straight away.’’

‘I’ve been living here nearly 20 years and, honestly, no word of exaggeration, the whole system of Ka¯inga Ora is collapsing. ’ AVICE EWINGTON