After five rental properties in 10 months, Bri Soper, her husband Brayden and their 5-year-old son Henry have settled in an Abbotsford home well above the high-water mark.
"When we moved in, [Henry] was like, ‘Mum, do we have to move again?’," Mrs Soper said.
"And I was like, ‘not for a long time, buddy’."
Their Surrey St property, the couple’s first home, and 90% of their belongings were damaged in last October’s flood by dirty water from a wastewater pipe.
Almost 10 months later, and only after the Sopers went to the Ombudsman, their insurance company agreed to fully pay out on their insurance for the damaged property, Mrs Soper said.
"But in [that period], we were in five different rentals and didn’t have any sense of stability. And it was a pretty hard time."
"We thought it’d be safer for our family to sell the property as is and take the loss and move out of the flood-damage zone," she said.
"The council are looking at different options, but none of them are a quick fix ... I think it was just a no-brainer to get out of South Dunedin."
The property sold for $150,000 - half what the Sopers’ paid for it.
Mrs Soper said she had been uncertain if the property would sell, but understood the new owners had the means to renovate it.
The couple also paid a mortgage of over $100,000, but "it was better just to get rid of the property".
"Over the last year, it’s been a hell of a time, but things are finally on track," Mrs Soper said.
"I’m just happy I can go to bed at night and if I wake up and it’s raining, I don’t have to worry that our house is going to end up under water."
If she and Mr Soper had not pursued their insurance company, they would have been financially "ruined", she said.
"I think there’s a couple of other people in the Surrey St area that, last year when their houses did get damaged, they didn’t get insurance coverage like they should have.
"And so they’ve just been stuck in places like that with nowhere to go."
