Tonight ` GUN POPS, CRACKS An explosive stoush in the Waikato... I just need your signature on this as a concerned local. ...ends with Garth parking a Port A Loo at the Waikato District Council. Help yourself if you need to before you go into your meeting. I'd prefer not to be filmed right at the moment. Plus ` flattery or forgery? I felt sick. We go in search of those forging a fake art in NZ. Just thought, 'How`? How could you?' Like, 'Who's doing this?' And ` I actually really enjoy flat-pack furniture. There are the lovers and the loathers. I'm like you. Give me a high-five. Is the stress of DIY flat-packs really worth it? Holy <BLEEP>. OK, so, that's those two things, and then we need` Oh! Welcome to Fair Go. Now, land disputes are nothing new to us. We've had to referee some explosive battles over the years, but nothing quite compares to this case. What would you do if your council went to your neighbour and got your neighbour's signed authority to trash your property? And then the council refuses to fix it when you complain? Too unbelievable to be true? Not in Waikato. Here's Garth. MILITARY DRUMS BEAT Rangiriri, Waikato. I've always wondered what it'd be like to have a crack with one of these. POP! In November 1863, this was the site of one of the biggest battles in our nation's history. CRACK! It's also the scene of one of the weirdest modern-day land wars I've ever come across. In 2008, the Waikato District Council turned this property into a bit of a tip. They removed topsoil, installed drains, dug ditches and made quite a mess. I nearly lost my friend's car in the hole as I came through. And it was all done without Neil and Deb Ryburn's permission. I can see the distress in your face now. Yes, it was very real. It made me angry. It made me angry. Back in 2008, the couple were living in Australia and only found out when Deb made a chance visit home to discover Waikato District Council occupying their land. All the portacoms and machines were sitting here, and I didn't know what was going on. Did you tell the council it was OK to dig up your land like that and put the sewers here? No, definitely not. No, I was never asked to be able to tell them. The council claimed it had authority. They said they acted in good faith, by having a neighbour of our property sign the, um, agreement to come on to our land. So a neighbour signed for you? A neighbour signed on our behalf without our knowledge. How can that be OK? Well, I don't think it is OK, but he's not talking ` he's long-gone. Do you think that's OK? It's not OK. Waikato District Council's own form lays out what should happen ` two copies to the owner for signing, one to return to council and one for them to keep. The law says a council can actually go ahead without consent but must give notice in writing of its plans to the owner and allow a month to object. The Ryburns say none of that happened. They want the land fixed, and they want compensation. After an eight-year battle back and forth, this was the council's latest shot. POP! They've said, 'Take it up with the gentleman who signed the form,' because it's between us and him, not the council. I just can't understand how legal people could come out with that sort of silliness. We haven't bothered trying to track down the mystery neighbour ` it seems a bit beside the point, which is ` just how far can you push this thing of a random stranger allowing you to do stuff on other people's land? So, sir, I just need your signature on this as a concerned local, I suppose. Just, um` Apparently, anybody will do, you know? Yeah. (CHUCKLES) If you could just tell me there, uh` write your name down, so it's all nice and official. Cool. Thank you very much for that, sir. No worries. Thank you for helping us. We'll see if we can get to the bottom of it, eh? Absolutely. Yes, do it. Kia ora, my man. OK, thanks. Thank you. Authority granted, it's time to find out if I can now park my mobile sewage scheme on the council's doorstep. Feel free to, um, help yourself if you need to before you go into your meeting. Timing is everything, and our timing happened to coincide with the council's monthly meeting. ...their land, and they` I'd prefer not to be filmed right at the moment. Do you think you've done your job right? I know that we are working through a process. We need to talk to the top brass. You need the chief executive. I'll get him for you. OK, great. We can wait. We'll park up round the back. Here's the chief executive now, but he's a bit camera-shy. If you would please move your vehicle. Of course. I don't wanna hold anybody up. I just would really` I know you've given me a statement, but I would like` Thank you. So you've got nothing further to add to that at this point? Excuse me, sir. You're with the council, aren't you? What about this gentleman over here? Mr Baddley? There's a flag of truce... and the elected officials make a break for it,... Mr Fulton, have you got a minute? ...leaving the mayor to answer for the council's actions. Look, it came as a shot out of the blue to us. Somebody rep` uh, supposedly representing them signed off the documentation with us. < Does that happen very often? It's the first time I've heard of it happening. < It's pretty shocking. Well, shocking` If somebody's overseas ` you can't contact them ` and somebody within the community, um, mentioned that they represented them` You say you can't contact them, but these are the rates notices that the council was sending them to their addresses. Yeah. These were finding them fine. That's contact. Yeah. But back` back then` At the time` I can pull back, and we can find ones from 2008. < So, the rates were finding these guys very easily. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you can send` you can send a letter, but you can't contact people. Now, we had been trying to contact them, and they weren't contactable. Hmm, I thought a letter was a form of contact. Anyway, the mayor seemed to think the council had done the Ryburns a favour by dragging this out so long. I think they'd be a lot better off now, knowing where land prices are back eight years ago and where they are now. I think they'd be a heck of a lot better off ` far better than $50,000 better off. < You've done them a favour ` is that what you're saying? Oh, I'm saying we've done them a favour, all right, if that's the way you wanna look at it. But there was a peace offering of sorts. But if they want the pipe removed tomorrow, we'll remove the pipe. < So, tomorrow, that could happen? So what's the issue? < Tomorrow, that could happen? That could happen tomorrow. But that's all? You're not gonna pay any kind of compensation? The trouble is I can't talk about that because we've had to actually notify our insurers around this because of that side of it. The Ryburns are furious. As for the mayor's offer to fix it tomorrow, more than a week has passed ` so far, no sign of an army of diggers returning to the field. We are staggered that Waikato District Council has fought this for so long. Eight years ago, Neil and Deb say they were desperate to sell the land to meet some big dairying debts. And remember, the mayor reckons the council's done them a favour because the land is worth more now. If that's a joke, we say it's a pretty bad one. We say sort this out, Waikato District Council. Don't force the Ryburns to go to court. It's going to cost Neil and Deb and all the other ratepayers more money. Surely there is a better way. Question ` when did the consumer become part of the production line? I mean, improvisation, isolation and adaptability gave rise to our number eight wire mentality. But is Kiwi ingenuity a thing of the past? Have we been outwitted and outsmarted by the rise of the flat-pack? Every year, thousands of us, millions, even, have our self-esteem shattered by something so commonplace, I bet you've got one in your house right now. Flat-packs ` you know the things that have got, like, I dunno, 70,000 screws, instructions you can't read, and you spend hours trying to build something that you've bought from the store? Holy <BLEEP>! Does that say six or nine? Yep, hate them. In fact, I would rather buy the one that's been sitting on the shelf for three months than to have to build something myself. It doesn't fit in there! You put that in there like that, do you? Oh. (SIGHS) Have you ever gone to a store and bought, like, a set of drawers or something that you've had to take home and build yourself? Yes. < Did you enjoy it? I did, actually. Did you? Yeah. I'm gonna predict that I think that you enjoy it. Am I correct? Yep. I actually really enjoy flat-pack furniture. But, like, all the pieces, the instructions that are always really hard to read? Oh, I don't bother reading the instructions. Oh. Yeah, just` just make it up. You'd rather buy something from the shop and get someone to deliver it? Let them assemble it, yeah. Yeah, I'm like you. Give me a high-five. OK. Yeah, good. Look, some of those people might find it easy, but I don't, and I'm sure there's plenty of you out there in the same boat as me. I don't know. That doesn't make sense. Put that in there, maybe? That goes in there. (HIGH-PITCHED) Yes! Yeah, buddy! Guys, this is so much fun. (CLAPS, GRUNTS) Right, I feel really good now. I just` Don't` Don't get too cocky. OK. SCREWS RATTLE Oh, you <BLEEP>. You absolute... Shut` just, no. Oh, it usually takes an extraordinary crisis for Brodie to speak like that (!) Exactly how long did it take her to assemble that bedside table? We will be back with Brodie at the end of the show. I will warn you now ` there is some beeping. We will follow her progress from 'go' to 'whoa'. It is fair to say I have never seen her quite so frustrated. We're also on the trail of some outrageous copycat artists. Is imitation really the sincerest form of flattery? This is Melissa's painting. Renaissance Art. Melissa, Renaissance. Melissa, Renaissance. You get the picture. People would talk to me in my shop, and they would say, 'Oh, I've seen your stuff on Trade Me.' And I'd say, 'No, I haven't got any of my paintings on Trade Me.' 1 Welcome back. We're on the trail of those forging a fake-art market in NZ. If imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery, well, somebody forgot to tell Melissa Wallace. She's seething after she found cheap copies of her paintings on Trade Me. Here's Mark. FUNKY MUSIC A dab of paint,... Every single painting I do, I do it with pride. ...the stroke of a brush. I love my art. Yeah. Melissa Wallace's original paintings draw inspiration from her home town, Taupo. The feel of the town and the lake I was brought up with and` I mean, what else can I paint? And the only place you can buy one... Yeah, they're all my works. ...is in Melissa's Taupo gallery ` or so she thought. People would talk to me in my shop, and they would say, 'Oh, I've seen your stuff on Trade Me.' And I'd say, 'No, I haven't got any of my paintings on Trade Me.' So imagine her horror when she went on to Trade Me and saw these. All together, nine in a row. And I just` I felt like I was` I was just` couldn't. I felt sick. There, online and on sale on a Trade Me store called Renaissance Art were what she reckons were copies of nine of her artworks. This is Melissa's painting. Renaissance Art. Melissa, Renaissance. Melissa, Renaissance. You get the picture. Yeah, I just thought, 'How`? How could you?' Like, 'Who's`? Who's doing this?' Melissa's paintings can sell for up to $2000, but online, these artworks were going for a $1 reserve, buy now, for $89. They're not exact mirror images, but take this one of Lake Taupo and the mountains of the central plateau. Well, on Renaissance Art's Trade Me store, it was titled 'South Island Oil Painting'. The same bottlebrushes ` six here. And then there's six here, exactly the same places. And the fish hook ` exactly the same, all out of my head, recopied. Now, remember, no images of these paintings had been online. Are these copies of Melissa's work? Well, it's` They look very similar. We took them to Dr Peter Shand, the head of the Elam School of Fine Arts and an expert in copyright. So, you then look at, specifically, clusters of cherries. So this little pyramid of four, a little pyramid of four. Over to the right, a pear, a pear. Nine very similar paintings ` highly unlikely it could be a coincidence, says Dr Shand. In fact, he says it looks like Melissa's copyright has been breached. When you add all these things together, it begins to look as though she would have a legitimate claim of infringement. Melissa went back on Trade Me and gave Renaissance Art a good dose of the old Anglo-Saxon. Melissa got extremely abusive, repeatedly voicing her anger and frustration online. There is no phone number, no address. Uh, Trade Me won't disclose who they are unless I go to civil court. Renaissance Art boasts many happy customers who've bought cheap art off Trade Me, but there is no information about who they are or how to contact them. And sometimes, trying to find out these things is like disappearing down a deep, dark hole. And after some digging, we've discovered that Renaissance is part of a company known as Sino Success Ltd. Well, this is where we've ended up. It appears to be Auckland. This is their registered address ` not easy to find ` down a North Shore alleyway. No signage, but look through the frosted windows, and you can see what looks like boxed paintings. (KNOCKS) But no signs of life. Time to dig a bit deeper. Sino Success has two directors ` one in Hong Kong and one in NZ. And this is where the trail ends up ` on a suburban street in Auckland. We're looking for Kam Siu Man. (KNOCKS) Hello, Mrs Man. It's Mark from Fair Go. This was my second meeting with Mrs Man, and she asked me in. Can we do an interview? Thank you. Mrs Man's English isn't fluent, so she phones a friend called Peter to help interpret. Yes, it's Mark Crysell here from the Fair Go programme. 'Mrs Man imports most of the art she sells from China, 'but we want to know how Renaissance Art ended up with copies of Melissa Wallace's paintings.' That's right ` two Indian gentlemen found the ` as we now know ` notoriously hard-to-find warehouse where Renaissance stores its art and gave them the paintings to sell. They sold one of the works, and that went for $1.50. The two Indian men allegedly reappeared after Melissa had complained on Trade Me and took the art away. OK, this sounds` this sounds very convenient to me. ON PHONE: Yes. Do you understand? I mean, if two mystery men came and dropped off the art and then picked it up, and you can't give us the` Mrs Man now says she sees herself as a victim in this matter. It's time to leave. Thank you very much. OK, OK. Yeah. Have a pleasant evening. But Mrs Man has reason to be worried. Renaissance took down the pictures, but Trade Me accepted that Melissa's copyright was breached and issued them with a warning. As for Muhammed, we're still none the wiser about his whereabouts. I'm painting original artworks. People that have seen their paintings on Trade Me, and they thought they were buying an original. So it's not fair. So if you know of two Indian men selling art, one of whom might be called Muhammed, please, let us know. In the meantime, remember, beauty might be in the eye of the beholder, but the copyright, with the odd exception, remains with the person who made it. Now, are you wondering how Brodie is coping with our flat-pack challenge? It doesn't fit in there. Frustration... That doesn't make sense! ...and fury. This is crap. Use a tape measure. (GROANS) Brodie discovers a burning loathing of DIY. I'm going to make an executive call and say that we don't` we don't need those. And there's been quite a buzz about our story on the effectiveness of fly spray. There's no one-shot kill, and in this case, there's no kill at all. Welcome back. Baffling, irritating, confusing ` flat-pack furniture leaves many of us scratching our heads. Some have even called it 'the ultimate relationship tester.' I actually quite enjoy the challenge. (CHUCKLES) No. But is the DIY stress really worth it? And how hard are those easy-to-follow instructions? I've had an absolute shocker on that front. We decided to put Brodie's DIY skills to the test and get her to assemble a bedside table ` complete with seven pages of instructions, 14 major components and get this ` 342 nuts, bolts, washers and screws. 'Right, so here we go.' I'm sweating already. 'As you can see, I already have the patience of a saint.' Holy <BLEEP>. OK, so that's those two things, and then we need` Oh my God. 'Overwhelmed by, I dunno, 30 million parts, the swearing has begun.' Oh, that doesn't sit <BLEEP>ing right, does it? It doesn't fit in there! You put that in there like that, do ya? Oh. 'Now I'm talking to myself ` A sign of the plot being lost.' That doesn't make sense! We put that in there, maybe. That goes in there. (HIGH-PITCHED) Yes! Guys, this is so much fun. (CLAPS, GRUNTS) Right, I feel really good now. I just` Don't` Don't get too cocky. 'Cos remember, Brodie, you're not that good.' SCREWS RATTLE Oh, you <BLEEP>. You absolute... Shut` just, no. 'But look ` sheer determination is just getting me through.' It's always good when you've got a bit of momentum going again after a little` little meltdown. 'Didn't last long, though.' This is crap. Use a tape measure! (GROANS) I don't know what that means. I'm gonna make an executive call and say that we don't` we don't need those. Jesus. Oh, I just` Everything about this is so ridiculous. Get in! Tell you what, she ain't gonna be pretty. She can go in the back room. Don't even care. Don't even care. Oh my God. I can actually see the end. 'This is actually painful to watch.' (SIGHS) I would never do that again. 'That's one way to ruin an afternoon.' Oh, Brodie! It took her one hour and two minutes to assemble the bedside table. She's only just recovered. It does seem sturdy enough, but the surface is a bit scratched, and there is the small issue of this bag of extra pieces, including one quite large screw. That looks a bit structural to me. Now, as you'd expect, she's copped a fair bit of flak around the office. Number-one offender ` Sam the weather man from Breakfast. So he will test his skills next week. The flat-pack challenge is underway. If you have a flat-pack horror story and know of a piece of furniture or item that is guaranteed to frustrate the champions of DIY, we would love to put it to the test. Now, holy moly! After our fly spray tests last week, we couldn't believe how many of you were in the same boat. We got hundreds of emails and messages and tips. Here are some highlights. JUSTIN BIEBER'S 'SORRY' FLIES BUZZ Free yourselves. (CHUCKLES) Lynne Davis reckons I'm wasting my time with fly spray. 'She's big on an agricultural product called Fly-Ax, and, oh my God, you should see it work.' Flies are literally drawn to these little blue beads, and once they land on it, they keel over and die in seconds. Sorry, fellas. FLY SPRAY HISSES Bevan Edson says he's got the ticket ` carnivorous plants. The sundew is his favourite, and he says they are able to eat heaps of flies and have a lifespan of over a year. FLY SPRAY HISSES Surely they're in a bad state now. 'Abe's a bit more extreme. He reckons you should swap the fly spray for hair spray.' One good dose, and it sticks like glue, paralysing them. Ooh! 'A few of you said the fly spray can is way more effective when you hit the fly with the actual can.' 'I love it.' Aargh! See? He was playing tricks on us. He was playing dead. And perhaps my fave is this ` the Bug-a-salt shoots out salt, letting you enjoy the thrill of the hunt. Awesome! Go free! (GIGGLES) 'The bad news is it's not in NZ yet, but cheers for all the suggestions, guys.' So, all of a sudden, catching flies looks like it could be quite a bit of fun. How cool is the Bug-a-salt gun? My boy would love that. Anyway. (CHUCKLES) You'll be one of the hard-core households soon. That is the show. We will be on Facebook for the next half hour to answer your questions. Our programme is all about your problems, your thoughts. Please, do contact us. We're on Facebook. Email us... Write to us... And next week ` How much faith do you have in online reviews? Basically for everything. Mainly, just restaurants. So, would you trust a review from a man called Jesus? When I'm in Auckland, my first stop is the Outhouse. Or this woman? I went to the nice cafe the Outhouse and had amazing milkshake. We review the review business... It is an entire industry of lying. ...and show you why you should be wary of online reviews. So, this is the Outhouse. It's a public toilet. That's next week. Goodnight. Copyright Able 2016