Government to extend emergency assistance for Mascot Towers
Displaced Mascot Towers residents will receive further relief after the government moved to extend its compensation package as the building’s owners face a massive $10 million bill to fix structural cracks that forced its abandonment.
NSW
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The NSW government will extend an emergency assistance package for displaced residents of Sydney’s Mascot Towers as owners face a massive $10 million bill to fix cracks in the building.
Better Regulation Minister Kevin Anderson wrote to owners yesterday informing them the state government was willing to extend the package “for up to a further six months”.
“(We) appreciate the distress owners are facing given the ongoing uncertainty about the cause of the issues leading to the evacuation and the unknown course of action for remediation,” Mr Anderson wrote.
“We are hoping this allows sufficient time for the owners to determine how best to remediate the building and pursue liable third parties for associated costs.”
The NSW government first announced it would fund an emergency assistance package in June to reimburse residents’ temporary accommodation costs.
It’s understood less than $500,000 has been spent so far.
Residents were forced to flee the 132-unit building in June when cracks were discovered in the basement — they are still unable to return.
Owners will attend an Extraordinary General Meeting tonight where they will vote on whether to pay $10 million as part of a contingency fund.
They have already agreed to pay $1 million special levy towards the cost of repairing the decade-old building, which is no longer covered under warranty.
Mr Anderson also said it was his understanding owners will also vote to “take legal action against the owners of the adjacent building to gain access for further technical assessments”.
He added that “legal proceedings … against a former Building Manager for alleged negligence” were also afoot.
There has been speculation that construction of Peak Towers — which is adjacent to Mascot Towers — led to the defects in the neighbouring building.
However developer ALAND has vehemently rejected those allegations and claims issues at Mascot have been “known for a number of years”.
Some Mascot owners also claim ALAND has resisted their engineers coming on site.
An ALAND spokesman said a request for access from lawyers for the Mascot owners corporation was denied because it “did not demonstrate a genuine need from an engineering perspective as to why it was required”.
“The information sought could either have been obtained from plans and associated reports relating to Peak Towers, or bore no relevance to the access that was requested,” he said.
“The building has also been tenanted … it is not reasonable that residents’ enjoyment of the property should be continually disturbed unless a genuine need for access can be demonstrated.”
The spokesman said the developer had co-operated with all requests for information concerning Peak Towers in connection with the NSW government's building inquiry.