Annette Sharp: Council steps in after neighbours complain about barrister Guy Reynolds’ properties

Two decaying houses belonging to a well-bred Sydney barrister have brought the residents of an eastern suburbs community to the brink, writes Annette Sharp.

A persistent unattended alarm at one of the Edgecliff homes has disturbed residents for months. Picture: Supplied

Christmas came early to a community of sleep-deprived homeowners in a tiny Edgecliff street in Sydney’s east yesterday morning.

Following an item by this writer in The Saturday Telegraph relating the sorry state of a couple of derelict properties owned by prominent Sydney barrister Guy Reynolds, there was suddenly a hive of activity outside Reynolds’ spooky and dilapidated properties.

First to arrive was a mature gentleman carrying what appeared to be a large industrial sized bottle of a commercial weed killer.

He looked to have his work cut out for him.

Soon after a white van bearing a logo suggesting it belonged to a security company pulled up.

Barrister Guy Reynolds.

The pool at one of the properties.

Neighbours peered over hedges and through curtains praying the van’s driver was going to finally disconnect an alarm-system that has been going off randomly and for hours on end for many months, disturbing their sleep.

Reynolds, the big brother of former adman Siimon, is currently overseas, or so we’ve been told, so may have dispatched a squad of workers to attend to the unloved properties.

The two properties, which are separated by one house, have sat empty for years, except for a thriving population of rats, cockroaches, mosquitoes and the occasional squatter.

Earlier this year neighbours were forced to take their complaints to Woollahra Council after failing to alert the owner of their plight.

One of the two homes has been in the Reynolds’ family since 1959.

Neighbours have complained about the derelict state of the properties.

Neighbours complain that the once-grand houses have been overrun with vermin.

During this columnist’s recent streetside inspection of the two homes, neighbours were eager to recount their frustrated attempts to have the alarms at the properties silenced and the two shabby piles cleaned up — but so far to no avail.

According to local legend, in a story that has echoes of Great Expectations, the rundown white rendered second property, with its peeling mouldy paint and weeds growing in gutters, was Reynolds’ childhood home.

It’s believed the barrister, who is described by friends as “peculiar” and “reclusive”, bought his three siblings out with some romantic undertaking to one day restore the home to its former glory. That was clearly some time ago.

The house was built in the Spanish mission “(Leslie) Wilkinson style” in 1959 for Reynolds’ father Tom, a former Woollahra mayor and Supreme Court judge.

Reynolds himself lives in grand style in a Macquarie St sub-penthouse apartment bought in 2007 for $5.4m.

It seems the barrister, whose clients have included Eddie Obeid, Mick Gatto, Peter Dutton and Man Haron Monis, is a patient man.

The two units that comprise the first property, were bought almost two decades apart.

The first was purchased in 1992 for $698,000, while the second was acquired for $3,050,000 in 2019 following a sort of showdown with rival bidders, or so we hear.

Adman Siimon Reynolds is Guy Reynolds’ brother.

Complaints from neighbours to Woollahra Council about the state of the properties went ignored until a fortnight ago, when acting director planning, Rosemary Bullmore, made it her business to address the issues.

Council’s communications manager, Justine Henderson, on Friday confirmed council had now requested three things from Mr Reynolds.

The first of these is confirmation of the procedures he has set in place to manage the alarm system, the second is a request for a pest inspection report, the third is that a pool at the second property be drained to address concerns about a potential mosquito infestation.

Reynolds is said to have confirmed he “believes” the pool has now been drained.

He has indicated that he will soon forward a pest inspection report to council.

“We are yet to receive a response regarding the alarm, but we are alarmed at the idea neighbours have been putting up with this for an extended period of time,” the Woollahra Council spokeswoman said on Friday.

Reynolds was approached for comment, but had not responded by press time.