Like everyone else in Wellington, our family woke early that Monday morning to earthquakes. We had been through it before, in Christchurch, and I did not like it.

It felt like September 2010 all over again. But this time we know there could yet be a February.

Unlike everyone else in Wellington who diligently worked from home during downtown’s shutdown, I took a day’s annual leave as a mental health day and did some spring cleaning. Our basement had accumulated a lot of clutter and that was about as much as I cared to deal to that Monday.

Wellington has accumulated a lot of clutter more dangerous than the boxes of books in our basement.

In May, the Initiative and Deloitte released a report on Wellington’s earthquake-prone heritage-listed buildings. You can’t beat Wellington on a good day. But on a bad day it can give you a lot to worry about.

Owners of earthquake-prone buildings can be in pretty difficult situations. Repair works can exceed the value of the building; bowling the building sometimes makes the most sense. But, even then, things can be a bit dicey if safer premises do not draw a commensurate premium.

But the situation facing owners of heritage-listed buildings is worse.

Strengthening works are complicated enough but simultaneously preserving heritage features makes the process more daunting and more costly. Low-income owners of heritage-listed apartments would have a difficult time coordinating repairs even without the extra cost of satisfying heritage rules. It is unsurprising that many buildings seem stuck in the process.

The most recent data say Wellington has 641 registered earthquake-prone buildings. Of those, 20 are Category 1 places listed by the Historic Places Trust and 44 more have Category 2 status. Another 62 are listed by Wellington Council but not by the trust.

These listings are their own kind of basement clutter.

Looking through our basement, I often had a hard time remembering why we had gotten some of that stuff in the first place. Looking through the heritage listings has a similar feel: buildings added to the list with little background documentation on how they ever got there.

It seems amazing that the Gordon Wilson Flats were ever heritage listed, despite their apparently rare status as a state housing high-rise built by a National rather than a Labour government. While I can throw out the ugly wedding present in the garage given by a long-deceased relative, it’s harder to get rid of heritage-listings on dangerous buildings. Appeals processes are still under way for the Gordon Wilson flats.

Those delays can be deadly. In Christchurch, the owner of a heritage-listed building on Colombo St wanted to demolish it after the September earthquakes. The council blocked demolition pending the right processes being undertaken.

Looks like Christchurch

February’s earthquake did not bother with consenting processes and killed 12 people in a bus outside the building without seeking the leave of any council official. The council staff who delayed demolition faced no liability for their choices.

Too many Wellington streetscapes look like the parts of Colombo and High Sts that collapsed in 2011. And while more strengthening works have been undertaken in Wellington, dozens of listed buildings still have not been made safe.

It is important to know why some of Wellington’s modern buildings failed. But heritage buildings have a simple first step: remove, or at least ease back, heritage listings. The Wellington Council, by the leave of no one but the appeals courts, could remove the heritage listing of the 62 earthquake-prone properties whose repairs are hindered by heritage listings. Owners then would face only the same, and not insubstantial, problem facing other owners of earthquake-prone buildings.

In August, Conservation Minister Maggie Barry allocated $12 million over four years in matching grants for strengthening Category 1 and 2 listed buildings. The council could help by providing the matching funding needed for central government grants.

But the council needs to prioritise. New Zealand governments devote far too few resources to trying to preserve too many older buildings: the $3 million a year will not go far. The consequence is a substantial stock of older buildings too expensive to make safe under the rules.

Owners of historic churches are especially burdened, told by government that they must provide an amenity for towns and cities that provide them with smaller and smaller congregations.

Buy them, fix and sell

The answer is delisting some buildings, putting money into others and compromising when economically viable repair strategies might affect heritage features. An even better answer could have councils buying these precious buildings, fix them, and sell them – though this would make the costs of heritage more transparent than advocates might like.

Councils must make these choices now. Before the earthquakes, delisting dangerous buildings was politically difficult. Today, the Royal Commission’s report on the Canterbury Earthquakes should have more resonance.

The commission says securing dangerous buildings “should not be impeded by the consent process and that life safety should be a paramount consideration for all buildings, regardless of heritage status.”

Building owners must be allowed to get on with the substantial job ahead. Until the Wellington Council unclutters its heritage registry, I will be spending a bit more time in my garage and a bit less time around all of Wellington’s beautiful, but deadly, heritage.