Our Evolution
Over the past five years we (John Gray, Roger Levie and our team in the name of Lighthouse NZ Ltd) have provided independent guidance and support to hundreds of home owners as we have grappled with issues associated with leaky and defective homes. At the same time we have continued to develop our wider vision of a membership organisation that represents and protects the interests of home owners and buyers and grows into a movement of empowered citizens who take charge of their homes and communities. That organisation is HOBANZ - The Home Owners and Buyers Association of New Zealand Inc.
Our homes are at the centre of our wellbeing – they provide us with both personal and financial security and they are the foundation of our communities. Housing stock makes up over 70% of net household wealth in New Zealand and this is quickly being eroded. Older homes are damp and mouldy and many new homes are still being built with defects and without consideration for their environment. We must act now to change New Zealand’s housing future!
Very soon Lighthouse Ltd will be subsumed into HOBANZ to become the service delivery arm of the organisation. We are developing a range of services in various areas associated with homes and modelling a new, more equitable and ethical industry where the home owners' interests are core. One of our most important next initiatives will be the development of an accreditation programme setting standards well beyond what has become acceptable today, with the appropriate mechanisms to monitor performance and address issues if they arise. As the enterprise and service arm of the HOBANZ organisation grows it will generate surplus income which we will apply to support various charitable, common good, initiatives related to housing, homes and communities.
The leaky home experience provides a good example of much that is wrong with our society today - right from the time when deregulation was the catch-cry of the day and change was driven by the might of industry, to the ducking and diving as the blame game started. The true story of how this country got itself into a situation where our homes are failing around us has remained untold ... until now. The fact that many of our homes leak is just a surface symptom of a bigger systemic problem where our homes have been built, valued and treated as commodities, and only designed to survive the short term. New Zealanders and industry professionals have come to accept this as our norm. If we are to thrive as a nation, then it’s time we upped our game for the sake of our future generations.
