The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) are to blame for a slip that has resulted in a Hutt Valley house almost teetering on the edge, the home owner says.
Kevin Jones rushed home from work at lunchtime Tuesday to find his house 10m away from the edge of a slip that blocked State Highway 2 at Te Marua, 6km northeast of Upper Hutt.
Nobody has been able to tell him whether his house is safe to go back to, but he planned to return with his wife and three of his seven children on Monday night, he says.
"(NZTA) is ultimately responsible for this slip and they don't seem to be very concerned at all, everyone else seems to be concerned about it - so I'm left a little bit in no man's land now."
NZTA owns the land that slipped and Jones says a concrete support across part of the hill should have been extended, which would have stopped the slip from happening.
"It's probably just a matter of time before there was going to be a problem and of course here we are."
He had tried to call the agency "for months" but nobody had returned his calls, he says.
Council engineers will now be following up the problem with NZTA.
The area is due for heavy rain on Monday night and Wednesday, which could endanger his house further, Jones says.
"Fingers crossed we'll be here tomorrow."
NZTA Wellington operations manager Mark Owen says Jones' concerns are being looked into and representatives had met with him on Tuesday to discuss the issues he had raised.
"We are considering what improvements can be made to stabilise the hillside and have specialist geotechnical engineers on site assisting. We will be in touch with Mr Jones when we have more finalised plans," Owen says.
