Setting a " Precedent " !

An interesting question that all apartment owners living in tower blocks will be asking themselves ?
If a building fault developed that forced them to vacate, could they manage to pay a repair bill of somewhere between five thousand and fourteen thousand dollars per month - for the next  nine months  ?

That is exactly what the owners of apartments in Mascot Towers in Sydney are facing and there is the added impetus that if this work is not carried out before the heat of summer the situation will worsen.  The engineers are warning that summer heat will exacerbate the existing problems and further increase the repair costs.

The obvious answer would be for the government to arrange a low interest loan so owners can spread the cost of repairs over a nominated period of time, but the government is wary because this problem at Mascot Towers could be just the tip of a building fault iceberg,  Once a precedent is set owners faced with a similar problem will expect the same remedy to apply.

From the legal point of view, this Mascot Towers problem is a complex can of worms.  The building has been in place for a number of years without incident and this shifting only commenced when work started on a site next door.  It is yet to be established whether the problem is caused by ground movement or if the material used in its construction has developed a fault.   That is unlikely to be identified in the short term and finality will only occur when it is determined in a court.

The owners of apartments in Mascot Towers are the usual cross section of Sydney society.  Some have had the good fortune to be able to purchase their home outright while others have scratched together a deposit and are committed to repay a loan to a bank over a period of time.  If these repair cost payments are agreed by the body corporate and individuals fall short in meeting their obligations they will be forced into bankruptcy.

There is the very real prospect that some people will face financial ruin by a problem which is not their fault.  In many cases age will prevent them amassing the necessary deposit to start again and they will be forced to rent for the remainder of their lives.   This is a threat hanging over the heads of all who live in high rise apartments.  The latent fear that a fault may develop that imposes a financial burden beyond their ability to meet rectification costs.

Unfortunately, just such a situation is both evident and real for the people who live in tower blocks clad with the type of material that caused the Grenfell Tower disaster in London in June, 2017.
That fire escaped from a burning apartment and cascaded up the face of the building, resulting in the death of seventy residents.  Similar cladding in use around the world needs to be removed and replaced, but that will run to millions of dollars and it seems that apartment owners will be the ones to foot the bill.

It is a sobering thought in an age when a conventional freestanding home is beyond the financial reach of many families and the only option is high rise.  It seems that Mascot Towers is about to set a precedent.   How this situation is resolved will set in stone the expectation that will apply to the high rise industry that is certain to become the main form of housing in crowded Australian cities.