"Property Purgatory"

Abstract

Climate change will place increasing numbers of homeowners in ‘property purgatory’, a state of financial insecurity arising from the foreseeability of eventual damage and uncertainty about means to recover their losses. The impacts of climate change-induced sea level rise and storm events are now certain, and exposed properties will likely incur insurance, mortgage and value loss. These effects could occur prior to physical damage, and existing inequities will be magnified. Current legal and institutional arrangements offer no clear pathway for those affected to recover funds in order to relocate themselves. We position property purgatory as an immediate practical challenge for those affected seeking to recover their losses, and as a legal question regarding undefined responsibilities of central and local government.

Climate Adaptation Law Reform: a lot of argument still to come

“…Zealand Productivity Commission report on local government funding stated that a national legal framework for climate change adaptation was urgently required and stressed the need for central government funding for adaptation measures (Productivity Commission, 2019). Under the umbrella of New Zealand's National Science Challenges, more detailed research has been conducted into the operation and evaluation of laws relating to EQC insurance (James, Iorns and Watts, 2019), adaptation decision making and options under the Resource Management Act (Iorns and Watts, 2019), managed retreat and other ways of dealing with existing uses (Grace, France-Hudson and Kilvington, 2019;Tombs and France-Hudson, 2018), and the overall equity of the sharing of risks (Ellis, 2019;Tombs et al, 2021). All of the recommendations focus on the need for better decisionmaking rules, standards and processes for adaptation to climate hazards in Aotearoa.…”