High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The leaky homes crisis is an ongoing construction and legal crisis in New Zealand in which many thousands of newly constructed houses and apartment buildings built from 1994 to 2005 suffer from severe weathertightness problems. Due to the very humid climate of most of the country, many houses have become unhealthy to live in or, in extreme cases, are decaying at dangerous rates. The repairs and replacement cost that could have been avoided were estimated in 2009 to be approximately $11.3 billion.