Nineteen of the homeowners affected by the Bella Vista Debacle will are seeking legal action against Tauranga City Council.

The announcement comes after two families have already said they were going to sue the council.

The homeowners met outside the affected properties in The Lakes near Tauriko on Wednesday.

They were joined by members of the public and media outlets as they made the announcement.

Tauranga City Council mayor Greg Brownless and other elected council members were also invited to the meeting, but homeowners say they declined the invitation.

During the meeting, homeowners said they "are exhausted and hoped it wouldn't come to this".

"It's a decision that hasn't been made lightly."

Nathan Smith has been appointed as the lawyer as homeowners proceed with the legal action.

The news comes amid council's plans to prosecute the developer involved in the Bella Vista debacle.

Tauranga City Council chief executive Garry Poole says council has made an offer to purchase the properties at Lakes Boulevard/Aneta Way.

He says legal proceedings have also started against the developer.

The whole Bella Vista saga began when 21 houses in the Tauranga development were deemed to be dangerous and were evacuated in March.

Since then it's been revealed the houses, some which had code compliance certificates, were shoddy and unsafe.

Garry says council are prosecuting the "developer" as there are "clear breaches of the building act".

"There's evidence that fundamentals of the building were not being complied with."

Garry says he accepts that council inspectors should not have missed these lapses in the Building Act.

"That's why we are in negotiations with homeowners. When a developer has not gone under about 80 per cent of responsibility is on them and 20 per cent is with the council.

"They still have responsibility."

Developer Danny Cancian has challenged the council to take him to court.

"I want to go to court," he says.

"I welcome the chance to expose the council for what they are in a courtroom"

Homeowners have repeatedly said that market value is the only outcome they will accept but Garry shot down this idea.

"It's [the offer] is not market value," he says. "It's going to give them back to what they spent plus some other kind of incidental costs.

"We believe this is the appropriate settlement."

Garry says they received legal advice which suggested their proposal would be what a court would order if a case proceeded.

He says the buyout costs would be worn by insurers.

"One of the reasons this took a while is we had to take our insurers with us."