March 24, 2021
DOC road grant factor in Pataua occupation
A Ngāti Wai kaumatua is warning potential buyers off a Northland coastal property which is now being occupied.
Hori Parata says the sale by the Harrison Trust of the Pātaua subdivision is in breach of an agreement he had with the deceased owner for a right of first refusal.
He says access to the subdivision is over the land he lodged a claim to in the 1980s because it was taken from his whānau through a series of government policies and actions.
The Department of Conservation has vested some of that land in Whangarei District Council to create a road to the Harrison property but not to the Māori blocks behind it.
"We believe the process they went through with DOC and the district council, we don't accept it. That's why we decided to do a noho on the property. The catch cry for our noho is buyer beware. That property doesn't actually have legal access and the process you people went through to get one, we don't accept it for a whole lot of really good reasons," he says.
Hori Parata says the Harrison’s bought the property for $70,000, and current estimates put its value at over $8 million.
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