In some respects it's reasonable to think about city council as being a kind of club.
Everyone who owns property in Wellington is a member of the Wellington Council club. The club levies itself to provide things that the club members want, and to cover off the cost of stuff that central government wants the club to provide that club members may or may not want. For some reason, renters were added as voting members of the club. But the debt that the club issues is ultimately backed by each of the club properties. We'll leave that messiness to one side for now.
The club finds that part of its infrastructure is in terrible shape - partially because of decisions of past club executives; partially because of a recent earthquake.
The club can choose to rapidly replace all of that infrastructure. That would be very expensive. But it would sharply reduce the chances of very bad outcomes where infrastructure blows out.
Or it could choose to pace itself in that infrastructure replacement. That will be much less costly. So much less costly that you could, at least in principle, compensate anyone who suffers from those infrastructure blowouts if it's really the infrastructure that's to blame.
The latter could be a very reasonable deal. Behind the veil, none of us know which of our properties is sitting on top of a water network pipe that will collapse catastrophically and destroy our home. But we'd all be bankrupted if we tried replacing all the pipes in a giant hurry - it's just impossible. So we're each better off if we all agree to take a more cost-effective path on the infrastructure refresh while compensating any club member who draws the short straw.
The alternative, with no compensation, is more like the club members agreeing to play a giant game of Russian Roulette. We don't know which of us will draw the short straw, but we hope to heck it won't be us because whoever it is will be ruined.
It could be that the numbers don't actually work out this way. But it seems a reasonable stylised example.
And in any particular case of blowout, you'd want to be sure that the club member hadn't contributed to the failure through their own negligence.
But if it were clear-cut, it shouldn't be a legal battle. It should just be compensation.
I mean, if a private company accidentally drove a bulldozer through your house and wrecked it, nobody would think it reasonable to force you to go to court to get them to compensate you. Everyone would pillory the company. There would be boycotts. Some Vic Uni quasi-academic might call for the company's chief executive to be hanged.
Wellington City Council is refusing to pay for repairs after one of its own burst water pipes triggered two landslides that has left two families facing bills of up to $600,000.
A council-commissioned geotechnical report found the Wadestown slips were “most probably” destabilised by a failed drinking water main, owned by the Wellington City Council and maintained by council-controlled organisation Wellington Water.
The 50mm pipe ruptured on August 4, saturating the embankment, and the slips forced both households to evacuate. Residents are still living in temporary accommodation.
I Am Not A Lawyer.
But it seems likely that the homeowners could sue council for nuisance, and win, and have costs awarded against council, but the costs won't likely be anything like what would be needed to make them whole as compared to council just providing compensation.
Council is not a good club.