PHOTO: Canterbury Home Show organisers say this year smaller homes have been the biggest draw. Source: 1 NEWS
By Katie Todd of rnz.co.nz
Tiny house owners are accusing the government of hypocrisy, amid fierce debate if their dwellings are legally vehicles or buildings.
While the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) insists tiny houses must comply with the building code and owners can’t put their houses on wheels as a way of saving tens of thousands of dollars, it’s ordered its own batch of emergency residential units on wheels.
Ten of the self-contained, one and two-bedroom houses will be distributed around the country for people to live in after a civil defence emergency. MBIE obtained an exemption to the building code so the houses could have wheels – and said they’ll still met the building code’s other requirements, and wouldn’t be towed on the open road.
But the fact the houses will be on wheels hits a nerve with tiny house owners like Amberley man Alan Dall, who was told by Hurunui District Council, and then by MBIE, he needed to make his tiny house building code compliant as a fixed-foundation structure.