It took Ursela Beasley seven months to decide Cambridge would be her “forever home.”
The born-and-bred Aucklander sold her Gulf Harbour house north of Auckland just before Covid hit in 2020 and travelled the country for seven months looking for somewhere to spend the rest of her life.
Ursela Beasley says the stress has impacted her health. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
A chance experience with a couple in the Briscoes Cambridge branch – “they actually spoke to me, nobody speaks to you like that in Auckland” – sealed the deal.
Cambridge News 24 April 2025
She decided to buy a house in Cambridge.
Even now, four years later, her view of Cambridge has not changed despite months of legal action culminating in the prosecution of Liam Walker – the man she bought her home from – at the Hamilton District Court earlier this month.
Walker was sentenced under the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayer Act for completing illegal drainlaying work on the house he sold to Beasley. He was ordered to pay her $4319 in reparation and fined $500.
The 69-year-old mother of two and grandmother of three was a successful business practitioner in Auckland when she made the move to Cambridge looking to take things a bit easier.
The house was the fourth she had owned in the last 20 years and because it was new, she did not get a builders’ report – a detailed assessment of a property’s structural integrity and condition.
The onsite wastewater treatment system Liam Walker installed which was only discovered when Ursela Beasley paid for a digger to do excavation work. Photo: Supplied.
It would not have mattered anyway, Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board (board) chief executive Aleyna Hall said.
“Sadly in Ms Beasley’s case a building report probably wouldn’t have shown the underground drainlaying work wasn’t up to code and the issues presented themselves slowly over time.”
“I’d worked hard all my life and I was going to be well off comfortably here in Cambridge. I was going to focus on me for the first time,” Beasley told The News.
Instead, the last four years have been spent on legal action – there is more to come and because it is currently before the court, she is unable to comment further.
The onsite wastewater treatment system Liam Walker installed which was only discovered when Ursela Beasley paid for a digger to do excavation work. Photo: Supplied.
The stress has had an impact. “Both my health and retirement have been stolen as I have to single-handedly deal with this.”
Walker built the house in Cambridge. The News is unable to reveal where for legal reasons.
A certifying plumber, gasfitter and drainlayer completed work at the property.
After they left, Walker installed an onsite wastewater treatment system, which involved putting in pipework from the septic tank into a distribution box that then split four pipes through two effluent fields.
Walker covered the PVC pipe work with drainage metal and covered that with a geotextile cloth before backfilling the pipework.
Only an authorised person can do that work, the board told Judge Nevin Dawson.
When she moved in, Beasley noticed issues with the wastewater system, the board said in a media statement after sentencing.
“I was not provided with any warranties, guarantees or manuals by Mr Walker. I obtained the property files from council and contacted the drainlayer who did the drainage plans. They confirmed the second plan with the additions was not done by them or submitted by them,” said Beasley.
The onsite wastewater treatment system Liam Walker installed which was only discovered when Ursela Beasley paid for a digger to do excavation work. Photo: Supplied.
She excavated the sewerage system to survey what work had been done, and discovered the set up did not match the plans.
The work Walker did posed a health risk to the next person the house was sold to, said the board. Judge Dawson considered the offending to be moderately serious given the health and safety risk the work posed.
“The effluent fields Mr Walker installed were deeper than the approved design. This compromised the wastewater system and risked untreated effluent entering the storm water system and being carried to the front section of the property, where members of the public could have been exposed to it. This is why only registered plumbers, gasfitters, and drainlayers should carry out this work,” said Hall.
Beasley alerted the board to the illegal work which successfully sought a conviction under the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayer Act 2006. Unauthorised drainlaying has a maximum fine of $10,000.
“It is great to see the board takes unqualified work very seriously,” said Beasley.
She does not regret moving to Cambridge despite what has happened. She has joined a couple of clubs and cherishes the friendliness of people she encounters everywhere she goes.
“This is where I want to be.”
Ursela Beasley says the stress has impacted her health. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
