Want to buy Penny Bright's house? She says 'forget it'

Saturday, 21 April 2018

Auckland High Court is forcing the sale of veteran activist Penny Bright's home due to unpaid rates.

Veteran Auckland activist Penny Bright has a message for anyone hoping to buy her house: 'Forget it.'

Last month the High Court ruled that her Kingsland home — bought by Bright nearly 30 years ago — would be sold by tender on April 24 to recover more than $34,000 of unpaid council rates and penalties dating back a decade.

Bright has refused to pay the rates in protest at various transgressions she alleges against the council — all of which have been rejected by the council and courts.

'High Court Sale' reads the Trademe listing of perennial protester Penny Bright's Auckland home.

She told the Barfoot and Thompson real estate agent charged with the sale that no potential buyers would be allowed inside to view the property.

Nevertheless Stuff understands that at least one offer had been made on the house, which has been listed for sale by Tender on Trademe for exactly one month.

Penny Bright is sticking to her morals - risking house and home - because 'who will if I don't?'

* Penny Bright's defamation suit against Auckland Council chief dismissed

* Rates rebel faces forced sale of Waikato properties

* Auckland woman forced to pay $68,000 over first rates arrears case**

Bright, a 2016 mayoral candidate, had been in a stand-off with Auckland Council over rates since 2007; she has maintained she won't pay up until the council makes public how its rate money gets spent.

Amidst the 'investor's dream' and 'private peaceful paradise' Trademe listings for her area, Bright's property was titled 'High Court Sale'. The ad featured a photo of her three bedroom house with cats on the roof, furniture cluttered on the deck, and tarpaulins tethered by ropes to its railings.

The white weatherboard house has sash windows, a bright red front door, and a second storey beneath a sharply sloping roof. It's valued around $1 million.

Bright said she would be 'urgently seeking' yet another interim injunction to halt its sale before the April 24 deadline, as she didn't believe the council had followed due process in forcing the house to be sold.

She declined to speak about what would happen if she failed to get an injunction and her home was sold - refusing to confirm if she would try to remain in her home, preventing any new owner taking possession.

While Bright refused to compromise on her transparency demands from council, she said the process had taken a toll on her health and that she had spent six days of the last fortnight in hospital.

'I've now got two guillotines hanging over me — that the house will potentially be sold, and that I may have ovarian cancer,' she said.

'[My stand] is a sacrifice and nobody's making me do this, but I do have a strong sense of what's right and what's wrong … and who will do it if I don't?'

She said she was motivated by 'all the good' that would come out of the council making its spending and contracting decisions public, if she succeeded.

'Come hell or high water, that house will not be sold,' the self-described scrapper said.