Whitehorse residents that have found gaping holes, cracks and sunken holes in their driveway are hearing choruses of 'there's nothing we can do.'

Copper Ridge resident Tricia Leggett told the Star she and her husband Robert recently finalized a sale on their Aquamarine Place home. Days after the sale was closed, Legget said she found a crack in her driveway.

'We fixed that, but then a big hole appeared.'

She said she didn't want to disappoint her buyers by leaving them a cracked, hole-filled driveway, but didn't think she should have to pay for the repairs, either.

'It's the principal,' she said. 'We didn't know about it until it was too late.'

When she asked city officials to step up and pay for the repairs, she was told, 'there's nothing we can do.'

The holes, cracks and sinkages can appear suddenly, and are a result of soil settling beneath the surface around water and sewage piping, said Wayne Tuck, the city's senior engineer.

Tuck said the causes behind each driveway can depend on a few specific factors.

'Soils behave differently with gravel and sand, they settle faster than silts, or clay,' he said. 'Over time, water freezing and water movement through voids in the soil consolidate, and everything on top settles.'

This is a natural process that contractors and homebuilders are aware of, but they haven't always taken proper steps to prevent the resultant driveway cracking. When driveways are finished with concrete, the contractor needs to ensure it is properly compacted so that the voids beneath the surface are filled, and not left for further settling and movement, said city planner Mike Gau.

'Simply put, some contractors weren't compacting it properly,' he said.

When the city began hearing complaints of cracked driveways, it came up with an inspection system to avoid further problems.

'Starting Aug. 1, 2006, we started inspecting for that, requiring engineers to come and certify the compacting,' said Gau. Geotechnical firms EBA Engineering consultants Ltd., and J.R. Paine & Associates Ltd. are contracted by the city to certify contractor's driveway work. Since this system was implemented, there have been no problems reported with new driveways.

Residents with houses purchased before Aug. 1, 2006, however, are finding more problems and fewer answers. Since the problems are occurring on private and not city property, the city has passed off all responsibility.

'The property owner and the contractor need to sort out who will fix it and pay for it,' said Gau. This can be a problem for homeowners who were not the original occupants of a home, and don't know how to get in touch with the contractor.

Those who do, Leggett said, often find they have to wait up to a year for any remedy, as contractors are busy with other projects.

Real estate association president Mike Racz said homeowners are left with no recourse from the people responsible.

'I don't know what the heck they can do, but they have to deal with it,' he said.

Leggett said she will reduce the cost of her house to make up for what her buyers will have to pay to have the driveway fixed.

'I can live with it, but what about a young couple that comes to buy their first home, and then they're faced with all these costs to fix it, and they don't know where to go,' she said. 'That's not fair.'

A Skookum Asphalting operations worker, who wished to remain unnamed, said he has seen driveway cave-ins in many of the city's subdivisions, notably Arkell. He said it is not the compactors fault, but the original plumbers who laid the water pipes.

'Now when we put in a driveway quote, we include a section that says we are not responsible for retrenching the soil or damage caused by land settling,' he said. This leaves Leggett and others in her situation fewer places to turn for recourse to a problem most homeowners aren't aware of until it is too late.

Over the years as land settles, a resident could be faced with replacing the driveway any number of times a costly nuisance, with driveway resealing or renovation costing at least $1,000 each time.