For the first time, a Dunedin company has been fined for adding extra rooms to a North Dunedin property without council consent.
County Cork Investments Ltd was fined $12,150, plus court fees of $130 and legal fees of $113, in the Environment Court at Dunedin yesterday.
The company was fined for exceeding the number of bedrooms per square metre allowed in certain zones under the Dunedin City Council district plan.
The offence concerned the company's property at 147 Forth St, which had 12 bedrooms when it could legally have only 11, the extra added without obtaining prior resource consent.
DCC planner Simon Pickford said he hoped the sentence would ''send a clear message that it's really important people comply with the rules''.
The case is the fourth brought in relation to North Dunedin properties in the past year, but the first in which it was a company - rather than an individual - that committed the offence.
Fines under the Resource Management Act 1991 are stiffer for companies than for individuals - a maximum of $600,000 rather than $300,000 - but the fine imposed by Judge Brian Dwyer yesterday was similar to fines for individuals convicted of similar charges in the past year.
Judge Dwyer reduced the fine 25% from a starting point of $18,000 for a prompt guilty plea, and 10% for returning the $5000 in rent money earned as a result of the breach, which the judge said was a ''significant mitigating factor'' that demonstrated remorse.
Plus, the extra bedroom had now been removed, he said.
The company's lawyer, Len Andersen, said it had been ''stuck between a rock and a hard place'' when it ''breached the rules''.
The company had expected to acquire a small piece of adjacent land that would have increased the property's square meterage enough to allow the extra room, but that ''didn't go through in time'', Mr Andersen said.
''It could've breached the tenancy agreement, or it could've breached the rules, and it breached the rules.''
Mr Pickford said Dunedin had ''a lot of pressure in terms of accommodation, and pressure for developers to squeeze more out of investments''.
''If an investor is squeezing more rooms into investments, they can get a lot more money from the investment, and it creates an unfair situation.''
• Patrick and Maree Crowley, the directors of County Cork Investments, have pleaded not guilty to a charge against them as individuals.
They deny adding extra rooms to
another North Dunedin property, at 99 Clyde St, without resource consent.
Prosecutor Jackie St John said the next ''procedural step toward trial ... towards a jury trial'' for that charge would be in early September, but the developers would not be required to attend.
Mr Pickford said in that case, ''we believe we have the evidence to proceed, but it's before the courts, and the courts will ultimately decide''.
