NEWS

Residents forced to evacuate their homes on Albany Highway have been dealt a double blow, with thugs breaking into the vacant properties and stealing precious belongings.

The three houses are uninhabitable after an August 25 storm in which 50,000 tonnes of dirt on their sections gave way, leaving a view of the neighbouring suburb, Unsworth Heights.

Glyn Alsop and Cheryl Coats were given three minutes to grab everything they needed and get out of their newly renovated brick house.

The slipping land took their water tank several metres down the bank, and they have not been able to retrieve it.

Ms Coats said her home had been broken into about four times since the slip, with the offenders taking an awning from the back deck and several tools from underneath the house.

On one occasion, the burglars entered by throwing a concrete pot plant through a large rear window.

The couple have since removed the stairs attached to the deck to try to stop it from happening again.

"They know the place is empty," Ms Coats said. "There's no power on - we can't have lighting around the place. It's just been really horrendous."

Ms Coats and Mr Alsop met the Earthquake Commission last week and are working with their insurance company to decide who will pay for retaining walls to stop the land slipping further.

The back deck will also need to be demolished as it is too close to the slip. The couple need to find out if they are able to switch to town supply water.

The couple, who have been staying with friends in Mairangi Bay, are unsure when they will be able to return home.

Their former next door neighbour, builder Scott van Tuyl, bought a house in the nearby suburb of Coatesville after he had to evacuate.

A portable toilet and trees that used to line the section he rented are still down the bank.

A large container with tools inside was left teetering on the brink after the storm, but Mr van Tuyl used a truck to transport it to his new home.

His house was also broken into several times, with burglars stealing two children's bikes and a set of six, hand-carved dining chairs that belonged to his grandfather.

But Mr Van Tuyl said the slip was a blessing in disguise as he had made an offer for the house last year but was out-bid by his former landlord.

"I'm lucky I didn't get it, otherwise I would have been in a bit of an annoying position right now. I'm quite happy where I am now."

Meanwhile, two units on Mulberry Place in Glenfield will be demolished after storm-caused cracks in the road forced evacuations on August 1.

North Shore City Council spokesman Howard Read said stabilisation work had been completed, but the council had commissioned a new geotechnical report to see what, if any, additional work may be required.

In the Waitakere region, two houses remain vacant as their owners work to stabilise the land.

Council spokeswoman Sonya Leahy said the owners of a house on Birdwood Rd in Swanson, which was close to a 30m-deep slip, and one on Huia Rd west of Titirangi evacuated their tenants after cracks appeared in the road in August.