Opal Tower owners launch class action against NSW Government

The NSW Government is facing a class action launched by owners of Opal Tower units after the building was evacuated over structural concerns on Christmas Eve last year.

• Opal Tower chair: ‘This is going to happen again’
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Owners of units in Sydney’s notorious Opal Tower have taken a class action against the NSW Government and are expected to seek millions of dollars in compensation.

Earlier this year, the owners passed a motion to take legal action over structural faults in the building that was evacuated on Christmas Eve last year.

Opal Tower at Sydney Olympic Park after residents were evacuated. Picture: Dylan Robinson

Documents lodged with the NSW Supreme Court show owners of the western Sydney apartment tower are suing the Sydney Olympic Park Authority (SOPA), which owns the land the tower sits on, and it is a NSW State Government-controlled entity. This means the residents are effectively suing the government rather than the builder or developer.

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The lawsuit claims a breach of warranty and that the $170 million tower was not designed or constructed with “due care and skill”.

Damage on the 10th floor of the apartment building. Picture: Supplied

Residents were evacuated twice in one week. Picture: Supplied

It states this is a breach of the Home Building Act.

SOPA falls under NSW Government’s planning and public spaces portfolio.

Ecove, the developer of Opal Tower and Icon, the builder, is not the focus of the lawsuit but could be liable through cross-claims.

Figures released in June showed 155 out of 392 units at the 36-storey tower were unable to be reoccupied six months after the evacuation, prompting a warning from the chair of the building’s body corporate that building defects will happen “again and again”.

“I expected that Opal Tower would not be the only building that would see major defects structurally. You can’t have an industry that has gone the way it has and have one isolated issue,” Shady Eskander told The Daily Telegraph.

“This is going to occur again — I just pray that no one actually gets hurt in order for something to change.

“There’s been that much work, there’s been a shortage almost of people to build these things and when there’s a shortage you end up employing people with not as much experience.”

Residents from 14 more apartments were given the green light to move back into their homes on June 14 following the completion of remedial works to sky garden on level 4.