Mascot Towers residents cop council rate increase amid crisis meeting

Mascot Towers owners say it is “bordering on criminal” that Bayside Council would jack up council rates by 13 per cent next month when many residents are heading towards bankruptcy.

The big four banks and Bayside Council are being urged to lend a hand to financially crippled Mascot Towers owners after the government called a crisis meeting.

Mascot Towers owners corporation chair Gary Deigan said it is “bordering on criminal” that Bayside Council would jack up council rates by 13 per cent next month.

Residents of the trouble-plagued tower block will have to find on average another $300 per year for council rates for properties that they are not allowed to live in.

The rates increase – which will go to 30 per cent within a few years – is despite 34 of the 141 property owners still owing $32,000 to Bayside Council.

“If we can’t even live there why would they be charging us rates in the first place,” owner and mother of four-year-old Eamon, Treacy Sheehan, said.

“It is just abhorrent.”

1-5 Bourke St, Mascot in June 2019 when it was first evacuated.

The rates increase comes as Greens MP David Shoebridge, chair of the NSW Building Standards Inquiry, called on the big four banks and government to offer relief to owners.

CBA, Westpac, ANZ and NAB between them hold over 90 per cent of the mortgages relating to Mascot Towers.

“For the banks any net debt after sale will of course be unsecured and a subset of owners may be forced to enter into bankruptcy with such large unsecured debts,” Mr Shoebridge said in a letter to Better Regulation Minister Kevin Anderson this week.

“A fair settlement would see the State Government make a financial contribution, the banks

agree to a partial reduction in the mortgages and the owners themselves meeting the shortfall.”

“We are in the process of convening a roundtable with the Australian Banking Association, financial institutions and the owners corporation to discuss next steps now that the decision has been made to sell the building,” Mr Anderson told The Sunday Telegraph.

Treacy Sheehan, pictured with her four-year-old son Eamon, is under real financial stress after buying a unit in Mascot Towers. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Owners are already paying $1500-$3500 per month in strata fees on top of their mortgages.

Residents are in the process of voting on collective sale to a property developer which would see them lose up to $700,000 each.

The building was evacuated in mid-2019 after cracking was discovered.

ABA CEO Anna Bligh said “the banks understand the distressing situation for owners and have made specialist teams available to them”.

“Mascot Towers owners can speak directly with these specialist teams about their unique circumstances,” he said.

A Bayside Council spokeswoman said they have been deferring rate payments and waiving interest on any outstanding rates as well as waiving any waste collection charges.