Mascot Towers owners vote to raise $7m to fix building defects
Mascot Towers apartment owners voted late last night to pay a $7 million special levy to fund remediation work on the cracked complex — but there are concerns the actual cost of repairs could soar to $20 million.
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Residents of Sydney’s Mascot Towers late last night voted to pay a $7 million special levy to fund remediation work on the cracked complex.
Residents of the complex’s 132 apartments were evacuated in mid-June due to cracking in the primary support structure and facade masonry, and have since been living in temporary accommodation.
At an extraordinary general meeting last night (Thursday) that lasted more than four hours, unit owners passed a motion to pay the $7 million levy plus GST, rather than a previously estimated $10 million which included a 30 per cent contingency fund.
The vote — which took place after 11pm — was not unanimous.
“The core outcome tonight was that the owners have voted to agree to a special $7 million levy plus GST as opposed to borrowed funds,” Mascot Towers Owners Corporation spokesman Patrick McGuire said.
He said that money will cover two of four stages needed to repair the building.
But there are fears the actual repair cost could double, with one real estate agent who oversees 12 units in the complex saying it could be as much as $20 million.
Unit owner Fabiano Santos, who had been living in his newly purchased unit for only two months when he was forced to evacuate, said they had to pay the money in 48 weeks.
He said the result was frustrating.
“It was deflating. Some people have the money but what about the young families and the elderly,” he asked.
It comes as the NSW government on Thursday confirmed it would extend an emergency assistance package for displaced residents for up to six months.
Residents were forced to flee the building in June when large cracks appeared in the basement — they are still unable to return.
The decade-old building is no longer covered under warranty for major defects, which expires after six years in NSW.
The $7 million spread across 132 units means each apartment would pay an average of $53,000.
But Mascot Towers real estate agent John Higgins said he believed the final cost would be in the vicinity of “$15-20 million”.
“It’s a big building,” he said.
“I think owners have to support the levy because the property has been vacant … if it’s true they’re not going to let us back in, they have to vote for it to get the works completed.”
Four stages of rectification works have been outlined — the first alone could cost up to $5.8 million, according to a quote from Sydney engineers Top Consulting seen by The Daily Telegraph.
This would include fixing general defects such as waterproofing and rectification work on an expansion joint and transfer beam.
The firm said the “lowest return tender” is $4.3 million but the work would “also attract a recommended contingency amount” of about $1.5 million.
The third stage, which involves rectification works to transfer beams on the first floor of the Southern Tower, could cost “$1.6 million to $4 million”.
No costs were detailed for the second and fourth stages.
Engineers also noted “some intermittent minor water entry into the basement through the … construction/expansion joint has been observed since about 2015”.
Before the meeting, Mr McGuire last night said there was “hope that some residents … might be able to return in the foreseeable future”.
He did not clarify an exact time frame but said it could be in early 2020 at the earliest.
Mr McGuire also said engineers were presenting their findings about causes behind the damage to Mascot Towers during the meeting last night.
In a letter to the Mascot Towers strata manager, Better Regulation Minister Kevin Anderson offered to extend an assistance package first announced in June to cover residents’ temporary accommodation costs.
“(We) appreciate the distress owners are facing given the ongoing uncertainty about the cause of the issues,” Mr Anderson wrote.
Owners were also expected to vote on a motion to launch legal proceedings against the adjacent Peak Towers building after complaints engineers were denied access to the site.
The motion is to “seek an access order … for the purpose of undertaking inspections, works and investigations relating to the damage to common property.”
A spokesman for Peak Towers developer ALAND confirmed a request for access from lawyers representing Mascot owners corporation was rejected 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 spokesman said ALAND recently invited Building Commissioner David Chandler to inspect Peak Towers and meet with construction staff.
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