A trip around the South Island with friends turned into a near-death experience for 24-year-old Fin Paddison, after the glass balcony railing he was leaning on shattered, causing him to fall three storeys. An engineer’s report found multiple issues with the balustrades, finding they posed a “serious risk”. The family is concerned no one will be held accountable due to the 10-year limit in the Building Act, Jaime Lyth reports.

Warkworth motorbike mechanic Fin Paddison has no memory of the accident that changed his life forever.

Touring the South Island in 4x4s, Fin and his friends were on the balcony of a Queenstown Airbnb townhouse they had booked on April 19.

“They were having some fun,” his father, Dayne Paddison says.

Overlooking the scenic Lake Wakatipu while having drinks before going out for dinner, Fin leaned on the glass balustrade that wrapped around the balcony.

And it collapsed.

“Fin leaned in the corner, as he was talking to his mate. He just leaned back, and the whole lot fell out.”

He fell about six metres from the third-floor balcony onto the concrete paving.

Fin suffered multiple severe injuries to his brain and spine. He was airlifted by helicopter to Christchurch Hospital in a critical condition, and put in an induced coma.

Dayne and Fin Paddison. Fin was left with brain and spinal injuries after the glass balustrade he was leaning on at an Airbnb in Queenstown suddenly gave way, causing him to fall. Photo / Dean Purcell.

“He went straight to surgery, and they actually had to drill into his skull and put a drain in, to let the blood out and the pressure.”

Dayne, who was in Wānaka at the time, desperately tried to get to Christchurch as he discovered over intermittent phone calls how serious the situation was.

“It just went on and on... I couldn’t actually fly out to Queenstown. Then I just kept getting phone calls from the doctors and the emergency department saying that [he] wasn’t good and I should get there.

“You survived. But to be honest, they didn’t think you were going to,” Dayne tells Fin.

Fin was in a coma for three days, and he was slowly weaned off the medication as he made progress, such as squeezing his family members’ hands and opening his eyes again.

Chairs sit in front of the damaged glass balustrade at the 495 Frankton Rd complex, where Fin Paddison fell from the balcony after the glass collapsed. Photo / Supplied.

He has had to re-learn even the most basic tasks. He only spoke for the first time after the accident in August.

“It’s good to be able to see properly, it’s not 100% but it’s getting better,” Fin says.

Seven months after the fall, he is now beginning to navigate life as a paraplegic at the Auckland Spinal Rehab Unit. He is expected to be discharged in mid-November.

In October, Fin had his first overnight stay at his Warkworth family home, just in time for his 24th birthday.

“It’s been a bit of a tough road, that’s for sure. He’s come a long way,” Dayne said.

Balustrades posed ‘serious risk’

Fin’s recovery has been nothing short of a miracle, but his family still want to know why the glass guardrail collapsed.

“They’re there to keep people safe, right, and it’s done the opposite,” Dayne said.

There are 17 privately owned units in the 495 Frankton Rd complex, all with the same glass railing around the balconies.

The complex was built in 1997, but the balustrades were demolished and replaced between 2014 and 2015, after being granted council building consents and code of compliance.

Fin Paddison was left with brain and spinal injuries after falling three floors from an Airbnb balcony in Queenstown. Photo / Dean Purcell.

After Fin’s accident, the Queenstown Lakes District Council issued dangerous building notices for the complex. All of the balustrades are now due to be replaced.

“As a result of that [building safety] assessment, Council issued dangerous building notices to the owners at the complex requiring them to restrict access to the balconies, which will remain in place until remediation is complete and Council is satisfied that the danger has been removed,” a council spokesperson said.

The owner of the townhouse where Fin fell, David Aitkenhead, also wants to know what went wrong.

“We used our own engineer to look at the balustrades, and they basically told us what we needed to know, which was that they were dangerous,” Aitkenhead said.

The engineer’s report by eZed Ltd, seen by the Herald, found “a number of deficiencies” with the balustrades, including that the corner glass, which collapsed and caused Fin’s fall, was installed incorrectly.

“It wasn’t just a single installation - it happened over a period of a year under multiple different consents, which tells me there’s a real sustainable problem,” Aitkenhead said.

Other issues included:

• The handrail posts were too far apart.
• The front sections of glass were not big enough to fit into the posts properly and could be pushed out.
• The glass was held into the posts by rubber gaskets, and some of these had been pulled out.

The eZed report concluded that “the balustrades do not meet the requirements to provide adequate protection from falling” and posed a “serious risk”.

The engineer’s inspection also found that potentially the wrong glass balustrade system may have been installed, compared to what was originally consented.

The Airbnb on 6/495 Frankton Road, Queenstown.

Council engineers also assessed the balustrades after the accident, but it wouldn’t provide the building reports to Aitkenhead.

Aitkenhead and the Paddison family are concerned there could be other dangerous balustrades around the South Island.

“Given the multiple flaws in the installation, it seems possible that there are numerous other dangerous balustrades around the South Island waiting to hurt someone,” Aitkenhead said.

Dayne wants someone to be held responsible if the railing was built or installed incorrectly.

“When you hear that it wasn’t even built to the plan, it just makes me so angry, to be honest.

“It’s been an accident waiting to happen, and it’s just taken the right person to lean in the right spot on it to cause this accident, and it happened to be Fin.”

The spokesperson said the council enforcement team is investigating the accident, but wouldn’t go into detail.

Fin Paddison and his girlfriend, Taryn Parrott. Photo / Dean Purcell

“Unfortunately, Council is unable to comment on this while that process is ongoing, aside from confirming that the investigation relates to the balustrades at the complex, and that the investigation is being carried out in accordance with Council’s duties and functions under the Building Act, and in accordance with its Enforcement Strategy and Prosecution Policy.”

The director of the Dunedin-based contracting company, which was named in the engineering report as having installed the balustrade, did not respond to Herald inquiries.

Despite the numerous issues with the installation, the Paddison family and Aitkenhead are concerned no one will be held responsible, as they were built just outside the 10-year limit in the Building Act.

The Act states no civil proceeding relating to building work can be brought more than 10 years after the building work was completed.

The Government announced this year the “biggest building consent system reform in decades,” but the policy changes do not impact the 10-year limit.

Auckland project and construction lawyer David Newport said the 10-year longstop in the Building Act is a “strict limit” on all claims arising from building work.

“While there are good policy reasons for limitation periods to exist, they can sometimes lead to harsh results.

“Particularly where, for example, defective building work isn’t discovered until after the 10-year limit and a claimant is left unable to pursue a civil claim.

“However, when time starts to run for limitation purposes is fact-dependent; for example, subsequent remedial work may have its own limitation period.”

Newport noted that while the Supreme Court has confirmed contribution claims aren’t captured by the 10-year longstop, this won’t assist a claimant who is not liable for causing harm to another.

Police told the Herald the investigation into the incident is still in progress, but didn’t provide further details.

An email from police to Aitkenhead, seen by the Herald, said they were assisting the council but wouldn’t decide whether someone was liable.

“Regarding accountability, there is a lot of work going on in the background as you can imagine. It is currently being jointly looked into by Council and Police with a teamwork and information-sharing approach.

“The decision on incorrect installation sits mainly with the Council and possibly another agency, but not with the police. We are assisting in supplying the necessary information for these regulatory bodies to inspect, but will not make the final decision ourselves as it’s not our speciality.”

WorkSafe confirmed it was notified of the incident and made initial inquiries, but it had not opened an investigation “as the local council and NZ police are best placed to respond”.

A Givealittle page for Fin and his family has raised more than $65,000.

Jaime Lyth is a multimedia journalist for the NZ Herald, focusing on crime and breaking news. Lyth began working under the NZ Herald masthead in 2021 as a reporter for the Northern Advocate Whangārei.