Wellington.Scoop » Squatter seriously injured after 3-storey fall in former Regional Council building

RNZ photo

Wellington. Scoop
Emergency services were called to an empty central Wellington building formerly known as the Regional Council Center this morning after a squatter fell three stories through a collapsed staircase.

The New Zealand Herald reported that seven ambulances, two police cars and two fire engines were outside Pringle’s house, near the empty Amora Hotel on Wakefield Street.

The injured person is now in a critical condition at Wellington Hospital.

Pringle House was the former headquarters of the Greater Wellington Regional Council, who purchased the building in 1987. The council moved after the building was damaged by earthquakes in 2013 and sold it in 2015.

RNZ reported that the company that now owns the building said it was under the control of its insurance company until recently. Prime Property’s Jason Dunn said the empty building had been cordoned off with security fencing and internal access had been blocked.

There were problems with people breaking in on several occasions, with fires being lit on the top floor.

“They were cutting through all the steel and all the shutters in the layer … So we pulled all of that down, sealed the building, put security fences against all the interior walls so that if they got into the parking building, they couldn’t get in .”

Dunn said he has gone through the building with five different police teams in the past three months to stop people from entering.

He told the Herald that in the past 90 days, his company has removed and issued violation notices to “probably 18” homeless people.

The deadline for building consolidation expires in 2027.

Report from RNZ
Locals said the building had been a magnet for rough-and-tumblers for months.

“They slept very often right in the alley, under the little shelter here, against the wall of the building,” said Anna Proc, who worked next door. But in recent months he had noticed fewer people outside.

Gabriel Heimler said his landlord’s garage, which shared a driveway with the Pringle House, had been broken into and lived in about two months ago.

“Since they closed this building, I’ve been here all the time, I think from Covid.”

Jason Dunn said that since Prime Property regained control of the building from the insurer in February, they had been doing their best to secure the building and rough-crossers had been doing their best to break in.

Feasibility studies are underway to decide what to do with the earthquake-prone building, he said.

Prime Property wanted Wellington City Council to help landlords stop criminals by cutting red tape, but council planning director Liam Hodgetts said securing buildings and preventing unauthorized access was the landlord’s responsibility.

“We are not aware of any ‘red tape’ preventing the owner from going up and fixing this building, and it is the responsibility of the owner to decide the future of the building, not the city council,” he said.

“We had a pre-application (resource consent) meeting with the owner in mid-April to discuss options and will continue to provide assistance if he chooses to proceed with earthquake repairs and strengthening.”