Opal Tower Crumbling

building industry is fked !

ive been to apartments where the gyprock doesn't meet in the corners and they used gap filled lol

another one which made me laugh the brought the glass for the showers from china and it was to short so they just installed it anyways.

in fact almost all materials for this site were brought in from china which means no Australian standards and you know how it got passed? private certification
 
chris_e_fresh said:
building industry is fked !

ive been to apartments where the gyprock doesn't meet in the corners and they used gap filled lol

another one which made me laugh the brought the glass for the showers from china and it was to short so they just installed it anyways.

in fact almost all materials for this site were brought in from china which means no Australian standards and you know how it got passed? private certification
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Private Certification is only good on houses as the Council are freaking hopeless. Example: My aunt put her building application in for her house in Strathfield back in 2017. It was taking some time for the council to get back to them. Anyway winter approaches, and they went on an overseas European Summer holiday. They said not to worry now, when they return home, it'll be approved.

They returned home, and nothing. It got to the stage where it was 6 freaking months and they had not heard back from the council. Mind you our cousin is a Senior Architect and done everything by the book, and their son who is a builder himself was going to build his own house. They all went down to the council office to find out WTF was going on, but as you'd expect the council were being Karmichaels to them, so they withdrew their application and got a private certifier to do it instead. Bang! Approved in 2 weeks.
 
Isn't private ceritification being killed off because of these issues? Wasn't it only brought in due to corruption of certifiers being bribed to overlook shit?
 
Wahesh said:
Private Certification is only good on houses as the Council are freaking hopeless. Example: My aunt put her building application in for her house in Strathfield back in 2017. It was taking some time for the council to get back to them. Anyway winter approaches, and they went on an overseas European Summer holiday. They said not to worry now, when they return home, it'll be approved.

They returned home, and nothing. It got to the stage where it was 6 freaking months and they had not heard back from the council. Mind you our cousin is a Senior Architect and done everything by the book, and their son who is a builder himself was going to build his own house. They all went down to the council office to find out WTF was going on, but as you'd expect the council were being Karmichaels to them, so they withdrew their application and got a private certifier to do it instead. Bang! Approved in 2 weeks.
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Penrith council took 14 months to approve my mates new house! the price went up 20,000 while he waited and the council picked the colours of most of it.
 
kungfuman said:
Penrith council took 14 months to approve my mates new house! the price went up 20,000 while he waited and the council picked the colours of most of it.
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What a bunch of Karmichaels.
 
...and now the blame game starts.

Some are blaming the airport train line which runs underneath the complex, others are blaming construction on the apartment next door.
 
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/aust...m-levy/ar-AAD4h8L?li=AAgfYrC&ocid=mailsignout

Sydney cracked unit owners to pay $1m levy

AAD4tVV.img


Owners of apartments in a cracked Sydney complex have been told they have just weeks to come up with more than a million dollars to cover emergency repairs and other costs.

Mascot Towers, in the city's south, was evacuated on Friday night after engineers became concerned about cracks in the primary support structure and facade masonry of the 10-year-old building on Bourke Street.

Residents in about half of the 122 units that were considered partly accessible have since been told they can briefly return to collect personal items under escort from management and security.


All of the other units fall in the non-accessible zone and cannot be entered at any time, along with car parks, recreational areas and some businesses.

A document from strata management company Strata Choice, formally advising owners of a meeting on Thursday, reveals they will need to pay a special levy of $1.1 million, equating to thousands of dollars per unit, by August 1.

The document breaks down costs, without GST, into $254,000 for propping, $250,000 for engineering, $176,000 for legal fees, $100,000 for the estimated cost of the evacuation, $70,000 for new carpets, $5000 for a media consultant and others.

Owners of 24 properties within Mascot Towers have also written to the management of their building to demand further access to the building and information from engineers.

An update from building management on Monday night reiterated that a claim on the building's insurance policy to fund temporary accommodation had been knocked back.

It's been reported that the building is too old for warranty cover.

Residents and owners will meet with experts and government officials on Thursday night.
 
For those in the industry - I understand that there is a "warranty" on the building, and that the building is now no longer covered under that agreement... but if there is proof that the current damage of the building is a direct result of negligent building practicing, surely the builders are then liable?

This just seems like a really sad story for me.
 
JayBee said:
For those in the industry - I understand that there is a "warranty" on the building, and that the building is now no longer covered under that agreement... but if there is proof that the current damage of the building is a direct result of negligent building practicing, surely the builders are then liable?

This just seems like a really sad story for me.
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The building company is liable for the first 6 years IIRC. They would surely still have some liability though depending on the warranty/contract. It all comes down to what is causing this structure to crack. If it the railway or the construction next door, then the building company isn't liable, however I doubt those factors can cause the kind of damage we're seeing here.
 
JayBee said:
For those in the industry - I understand that there is a "warranty" on the building, and that the building is now no longer covered under that agreement... but if there is proof that the current damage of the building is a direct result of negligent building practicing, surely the builders are then liable?

This just seems like a really sad story for me.
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Very sad. Can you imagine if you bought one of these as an investor? I think there’s an 8k immediate payment required, + rental income is gone.m (2-3k per month)... Farout. And then the strata levies you will be paying them off forever and you will lose a shit ton of value off your property which won’t even be worth trying to sell until 20 years on from now when the blows over... you are pretty much on the back foot for life now.

I’d declare bankruptcy and go overseas to be honest
 
BELMORE said:
Very sad. Can you imagine if you bought one of these as an investor? I think there’s an 8k immediate payment required, + rental income is gone.m (2-3k per month)... Farout. And then the strata levies you will be paying them off forever and you will lose a shit ton of value off your property which won’t even be worth trying to sell until 20 years on from now when the blows over... you are pretty much on the back foot for life now.

I’d declare bankruptcy and go overseas to be honest
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I'd get all the owners together at the next strata meeting... knock down, rebuild, sell. At worst they'll break even.
 
BELMORE said:
They won’t break even lol
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Why not? Those apartments cost SFA to build and they sell them for a fortune. What I mean by this however is obviously don't build the same structure, build a new one, taller, more apartments etc...
 
Wahesh said:
I'd get all the owners together at the next strata meeting... knock down, rebuild, sell. At worst they'll break even.
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It's around $30-$50 Mil for a knock down rebuild of that size
 
Developers get away with murder in NSW (and I'm assuming in other parts of the country).

Developers have so many loop holes and ways to avoid paying on defects.

In my building (i'm an owner in a 1.5 year old building), the developer has kept many apartments within her family which allows her to control voting at any AGM's or special meetings of the body corporate. Net result - if anyone (like me) wants any improvements to the building, or wants to take measures to avoid defects, the developer can vote you down.
 
Dawgfather said:
Developers get away with murder in NSW (and I'm assuming in other parts of the country).

Developers have so many loop holes and ways to avoid paying on defects.

In my building (i'm an owner in a 1.5 year old building), the developer has kept many apartments within her family which allows her to control voting at any AGM's or special meetings of the body corporate. Net result - if anyone (like me) wants any improvements to the building, or wants to take measures to avoid defects, the developer can vote you down.
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That’s fucked lol
 
BELMORE said:
That’s fucked lol
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It happens frequently.

Meriton were the ones who came up with the strategy (from what I've been told).

They hold on to 51% of the apartments until after the short term defects period is over (thus ensuring that fk all happens if there are any defects in the building).
 
Dawgfather said:
It happens frequently.

Meriton were the ones who came up with the strategy (from what I've been told).

They hold on to 51% of the apartments until after the short term defects period is over (thus ensuring that fk all happens if there are any defects in the building).
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Farrrrrkkkkkk. That would piss me off so much. Nothing you can do about it either is there...
 
Dawgfather said:
Developers get away with murder in NSW (and I'm assuming in other parts of the country).

Developers have so many loop holes and ways to avoid paying on defects.

In my building (i'm an owner in a 1.5 year old building), the developer has kept many apartments within her family which allows her to control voting at any AGM's or special meetings of the body corporate. Net result - if anyone (like me) wants any improvements to the building, or wants to take measures to avoid defects, the developer can vote you down.
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Brother, get out of there ASAP. If I was you, I'd move into either a town house, or one of those apartments that are 20-30 years old. All these news ones coming up are plasterboard boxes joined together.
 
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