That’s a high level of ignorance

Stuff reports:

Television presenter Miriama Kamo and her husband Michael Dreaver have admitted carrying out illegal work on their Waiheke home. 

Kamo and Dreaver entered guilty pleas at the Auckland District Court, in relation to four charges jointly laid under the Building Act. 

Charge sheets showed the pair had made adaptations to the property including installing a pot belly stove, a “yurt”, a second storey sleeping area, a verandah, and turning a shed into a reading room.

None of the renovations had building consent and the offences dated back to 2009, with the most recent renovation carried out last year. 

Kamo and Dreaver have spoken to women’s magazines about their renovation plans for the five hectare property, boasting about installing two Mongolian yurts -huts- on the land.

The pair were married at the Orapiu Rd home earlier this year, and on Tuesday Kamo admitted the pair had been so distracted by their wedding plans that they hadn’t paid attention to the lesgislative requirements of their DIY work. 

“I hope that proves our ignorance rather than our intent. If we have intended to break the law, we wouldn’t have talked about it in magazines,” she said. 

If the changes were just putting in a pot belly stove, I can imagine you might not twig you need consent. But how can you not know that adding on an extra storey to your house would need consent?