South Auckland homeowners claim construction work to widen the Southern Motorway is damaging their houses.
Now they're demanding compensation from the New Zealand Transport Agency.
The motorway upgrade is supposed to offer efficiency, but for some residents it has been a nightmare.
Residents of Takanini's Conifer Grove along the edge of the Southern Motorway say vibrations from machinery are creating cracks in their walls and floors.
Conifer Grove homeowner Gayleen Smith showed 1 NEWS cracks in the outside walls of her home. She said the cracks are fairly new and "they're absolutely everywhere".
"The problem is huge. There's an estimate of 500,000 repairs. My house is falling apart," she said.
Homeowners have been dealing with it since work began two years ago.
"We've felt it. We've sat there and it's been like an earthquake, to the point that we've at one stage wanted to grab the babies and just get out," Ms Smith said.
Another homeowner, Mark, lives down the road and said things used to rattle in the house "at all sorts of times of the day".
Since then cracks have shown up in his concrete too.
1 NEWS has spoken to at least five other Conifer Grove families who say their lives have been upset by the motorway development but they've been too frightened to speak out. Now members of the community are considering legal action against NZTA.
NZTA says it's taking the allegations seriously.
Chris Hunt of the agency says it has started to carry out some building assessments, "and once they're complete we'll be working with the individual property owners".
And compensation could be on the cards.
"All we're wanting is someone to take responsibility," Ms Smith said.
But there's at least another year of construction before it's all over.
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