Holdmark Property Group’s Meadowbank apartment ‘defective’
Residents of a 250-apartment complex built by developers Holdmark Property Group have been pushing for the company to fix ‘defects’ like rotting gyprock walls, leaking lifts and crumbling sandstone walls since it opened in 2018, it has been revealed.
NSW
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One of Sydney’s most prolific property development companies has been accused of failing to fix significant building defects 14 months after residents moved in.
Rod Jackson said he and fellow owners could face an enormous repair bill for a string of defects in Holdmark Property Group’s Harvard building in Meadowbank.
The defects are so bad NSW Builder Commissioner David Chandler has personally stepped in to try and help desperate residents get the problems fixed.
And the chair of NSW Parliamentary inquiry into building standards said the building’s waterproofing issues are indicative of the biggest defect issue facing apartment owners.
The 250-apartment building was completed in 2018 by Holdmark, the company founded by Sarkis Nassif — a developer worth an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars.
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Since 2018 Mr Jackson, who bought a two-bedroom apartment off the plan for $970,000, claimed the company has failed to fix rotting gyprock walls, leaking lifts, glue bleeding out of the external stairs, crumbling sandstone walls and a central water fountain that remains closed.
“These defects are a direct consequence of poor tradesmanship and shoddy building practice,” Mr Jackson said.
“The frustration is huge and it really gets me wound up.”
Mr Jackson claimed a 10m wall on Nancarrow Ave will soon collapse without some serious rectification.
“There is a staircase over there that has been barricaded for well over 12 months; you can see the wall is collapsing and the whole thing is moving.,” Mr Jackson said.
“Imagine the owners having to wear the cost of having to pull down this wall and then reconstruct it.”
A structural engineer, who did not want to be named, said “there might be some localised risk of dislodgement of small pieces of block or render — which even small pieces can be very dangerous falling from a height”.
“I can’t see anything in the photos that make me think there is a risk of global collapse but my observations are obviously limited to the photos,” the engineer said.
The Sunday Telegraph has obtained a copy of the strata committee’s annual general meeting held in January.
It shows exasperated owners have been forced to engage lawyers to get Holdmark to fix the defects, 14 months after residents moved in.
Mr Jackson said strata fees have increased 20 per cent between 2019 and 2020 to pay lawyers the initial $50,000 to get the case going.
NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler said he is personally investigating the matter.
“Concerns have been raised about defects in a residential apartment complex at Meadowbank,” Mr Chandler said.
“The NSW Fair Trading Commissioner has assigned a case manager for the matter who is assisting the parties involved to establish a pathway forward.
“I have met onsite with the developer who has committed to attending to the concerns raised.”
Holdmark also built Auburn Central shopping centre, a retail and residential development that has had fire safety issues.
A Holdmark spokeswoman did not answer a list of detailed questions, including why so many Harvard building apartments owned by the company remain empty.
“As the building you refer to has been handed over to the Body Corporate Association, your questions should be sent directly to them for comment,” she said.
“Holdmark is absolutely committed to maintaining an ongoing association with the body corporate for the building during the statutory warranty period.
“We will continue to work with both the body corporate and strata manager to efficiently and effectively resolve any issue that is brought to our attention.”
A spokeswoman for both strata manager Strata Real Estate Services and body corporate lawyers Mills Oakley declined to comment.
NSW Greens MLC David Shoebridge, who is chairing an Upper House inquiry into building standards, said the building’s problems are indicative of a wider issue, with owners potentially facing “financial ruin”.
“The extent of defects in high rise apartments are so widespread that I would find it difficult to believe any apartment constructed in the last decade is free of them,” he said.
“The most common, and often the most expensive, problem that keeps being identified is the failure of waterproofing.
“What we can see with this project, with a failing wall and widespread water penetration, is far from unusual.”