Crooks in the Building Trade !

People living in high rise apartments in Sydney have every right to feel nervous.  Buying the home where they expect to raise their family is probably the biggest financial transaction they will make in their entire lifetime and now questions are being asked about the integrity of the very buildings dotting the Sydney skyline.

It all started last Christmas eve when hundreds of people were forced to vacate the newly built Opal Tower when wall cracks began to appear and safety concerns became paramount.   Then a similar situation occurred at Mascot and it was discovered that another entire new multi apartment complex was standing vacant because it failed to be certified as meeting the necessary building standards.

Now a new scandal has driven confidence in the building trade to an abysmal low.  A council is considering taking action against the company that constructed a major apartment complex in Euston road, Alexandria.   It seems the building varies from the original consent plans to the extent that work was ordered by the Land and Environment court in 2017.   This has been ignored and the building was illegally cleared for occupation by a " private certifier  ".

The building trade complained about delays in processing certification by councils and the government granted permission for building approval completion to be signed off by private certifiers.   It seems that this was a grave mistake.   It removed the distant, third party role of the council to certify that construction complied with the building code and placed that in the hands of a person hired by the builder.

As well as defective buildings, we also have a huge problem where several hundred Sydney buildings have had their exterior surfaces clad with a facing of aluminium and urethane panels which do not meet fire safety regulations.   Two years ago we were horrified when the media carried live news reports that showed Grenfell Towers in London become a flaming torch that killed over seventy residents when a similar cladding fire engulfed the building.  Work on replacing that dangerous material is stalled as the cost responsibility is decided.

The sheer insanity of home price inflation resulted in a boom in apartment buildings in Sydney in recent years.  Many apartments were sold "off the plan " and the end result was very different from what was originally envisaged.  Now owners are starting to worry about whether their home in the sky meets the integrity and safety concerns that are required under the Sydney building code.

It is very much a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, but it is obvious that all is not well in the Sydney building industry.   Developers - and builders - have taken a cavalier approach to building standards in the search for quick profits and it is obvious that the building standards need to be tightened.   The use of private certifiers raises obvious questions.

What remains unknown is just how many - and where - further examples of high rise towers that fall short of the standards required will appear.   That is a nightmare Sydney residents will have to learn to live with until their apartments pass the test of time without incident.