The inquiry into NSW building standards, which was set up last month after major faults appeared in apartment buildings such as Mascot Towers and Opal Tower, continues to hear reports of apartment owners facing financial ruin after being left to foot repair bills to bring their faulty towers back to code:
Apartment owners in the cracking Mascot Towers in Sydney are facing being thrown into decades of crippling debt and some are worried they may die before the situation gets resolved.
Residents occupying the 132 apartments were forced out of their home in June after cracking was found in the primary support structure and facade.Almost 300 people have had to scramble to find other accommodation, causing considerable emotional and financial distress.
The owners have been told the first of four stages of repairs alone could cost $10 million dollars, a bill which they will be locked in to pay back over 15 years.
Last night the owners came out in force to demand answers from the state government and warn putting this financial burden on the homeowners would set a “very dangerous precedent”…
“I am 74 and I will be 89 by the time the 15 years is up. So we face the next 15 years of financial hardship after spending all our lives doing the right thing by the government,” Ms Clifton said.
“It is the end of our lives. We will be dead by the time it’s all over and we will just have to leave the problem to our children…
The owners are calling for Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Better Regulation and Innovation Minister Kevin Anderson and new building commissioner David Chandler to attend the meeting on August 22 where they will vote on whether the $10 million first stage repairs will go ahead.
As I keep saying, this is likely only the tip of the iceberg given the unprecedented boom in high-rise apartment construction over the past decade:
According to the ABS, around 200,000 high-rise apartments were approved across NSW over the past decade, a significant chunk of which will likely contain significant faults.
The cost of rectification will be massive and will likely fall on both apartment owners and taxpayers alike, with most developers getting away scot-free.
Although more than six months old, the below report from 60 Minutes gives a good idea about the types of problems now being uncovered:
