All of James Cowie's good work restoring his van was undone yesterday when a retaining wall at his Dunedin home collapsed, taking the van with it.
The old brick and concrete retaining wall at the edge of the Iona St property Mr Cowie and flatmates Sam Smith and Craig Joyce rent in Mornington, came crashing down at 2.30pm, with only a few creaks moments before as warning.
Neighbour Larry Martin saw it happen.
"You could hear it creaking and groaning and then it just went bang, and the van went down."
Mr Cowie said he had been doing up the van on the property, but it was unlikely now it could be repaired.
The three flatmates were all home from work yesterday.
The house owner, Adam Hill, said he bought the property about two years ago, but was unaware there was extensive backfill "of all sorts of stuff" behind the retaining wall.
He had contacted his insurer and the Earthquake Commission, which covers damage from landslips.
Dunedin City Council roading and maintenance engineer Peter Standring said roading staff had cleared fallen trees from Iona St, and other trees threatening to fall.
A council engineer was on site, and a geotechnical engineer would also assess the rest of the property. It was too early to say what caused the old wall to collapse, he said.
Dunedin was hit by a 12-hour deluge of rain on Saturday night, during which the city received more than its average monthly rainfall.
