A director who has gone bankrupt in Australia has been ordered pay Queenstown's council over a leaky building scandal.

But it is unclear just how much he will have to pay.

The High Court case relates to the 11-unit 4.5-star Alta Apartments in Thompson St.

In early 2015, they were revealed to have weathertightness issues.

The body corporate and the owners of eight of the 11 units, along with the owner of a 25% share in another unit, took the Queenstown Lakes District Council and Rilean Construction to court.

Rilean Construction was placed in liquidation shortly after.

In April 2017, the council paid out $1.3million to settle the claim.

The council also sought claims against several people, including Darren Crisp, a director of development company Cadex Finance Ltd, to recover some of that settlement.

Justice David Gendall this week released his judgement on the council's claim against Mr Crisp.

According to the judgement, Mr Crisp has been bankrupted in Australia.

However, because he had not been declared bankrupt in New Zealand, that had no bearing on the council's claim.

Justice Gendall found Mr Crisp instructed the development's architect to issue a certificate of practical completion for the apartments, even though he knew they were not weathertight.

He also released a $50,000 retention to Rilean Construction without ensuring the defects had been fixed. At no point did he inform the owners of the defects.

Justice Gendall found all of the defendants, including Mr Crisp, were concurrently liable for the council's settlement.

About 80% of the $1.3million should be recovered by the council, he found.

The other three parties had already paid their share, he noted.

The parties involved requested the amount of settlement sums be confidential.

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