Opal Tower residents could be forced out of hotels for NYE
First they were forced to move out of their homes on Christmas Eve, and now some of the residents of Opal Tower may have to move again because some hotels where they are being put up are already fully booked for New Year’s Eve.
First they were forced to move out of their homes on Christmas Eve, and now some of the residents of Opal Tower may have to move hotels on New Year’s Eve.
Construction company Icon, the builder of the tower, is paying for those affected to be put up in nearby hotels.
But Bassam Aflak, director of development company Ecove, which is behind the tower project, said yesterday a small number of residents may have to move again because some hotels where they are being put up are already fully booked for New Year’s Eve.
“We realise this is another nuisance for those impacted and sincerely apologise to them,” Mr Aflak said.
“We are supporting Icon, which is working hard on solutions.”
With apartment owners now considering legal action to recoup some of their losses, stories of the hardship caused by the building failure have continued to emerge.
One owner in his late 20s, who asked to be identified only as David, told how he scraped together a deposit for the $750,000, two-bedroom unit he bought off the plan two years ago.
“I put in 50 per cent of my income before tax to scrape together the deposit, all of my life savings, and moved in around August,” he said.
“I borrowed the other 90 per cent.
“We still have to pay the strata fees, which are just over $1000 a quarter, and we could be slugged a further structural levy because of this.
“The builder has offered to pay our costs for 10 days but a lot of us are angry and frustrated.”
David, who is now living with his parents, said he was worried that his property investment might never recover in value from the damage caused to the building’s reputation.
“Our main concern is if we can’t rent our units or sell them after this has been plastered all over the news, yet we will still have to pay rates, mortgages and strata fees with no clear outcome,” he said.
“It’s the long-term ramifications and the reputational value of our properties that may be the basis of legal action.”
It is not only residents feeling the pain of the tower debacle. Nash Kent moved his bicycle business, Park Bikes, into the tower’s retail space three weeks ago and was forced to close on Friday for an indeterminate time.
Mr Kent said summer was his peak time for business and he still had five full-time employees to pay with no money coming in.
“It’s a very important time for the bike shop to be trading. It’s quite seasonal and summer is the busiest time. We can’t trade until further notice,” Mr Kent, 37, said.
“I can’t quantify how much it is going to cost us but we will be putting in a claim with the builder and we will try to be reimbursed.
“We spent a lot on the fit-out and put huge amounts of our own time and effort to build the shop.”
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Li Yang, 40, bought a one-bedroom property off the plan in Opal Tower three years ago.
His apartment on level 10 was not directly affected by the cracked panel but he estimates that about $100,000 has been wiped from the value of his property.
“We’ve lost some money,” he said.
“The owners will have a group where we may get together to start legal action. I bought it three years ago off the plan for nearly $600,000.”
Opal Tower resident Colette Jacobs is staying at the Pullman Hotel after being forced out of her rented apartment. She has been joined by her son from Wagga Wagga, where he serves in the Australian Army, who has also been given his own room in the hotel.
Ms Jacobs, originally from California, said she knew something was up when she felt something “like a mini-earthquake” on Christmas Eve.
“I felt the movement — it jolted me out of my seat,” said Ms Jacobs, who rents a two-bedroom apartment on the 15th floor of Opal Tower, where she lives with her pet dog Finn.
“Finn’s head popped up as well, he definitely knew something was wrong. The walls were moving.”
Ms Jacobs, in her 40s, said she was reminded of the earthquakes that she felt back home.
She said: “The feeling was not normal, it felt like a mini-earthquake. I also heard a cracking sound.
“Within a few moments we heard a voice on the loudspeaker saying, ‘evacuate now, evacuate now, evacuate now’. We all have speakers in our rooms.
“The movement out of the building was quite orderly.”
Ms Jacobs said police ushered residents out to the front of the building.
“When the police kept moving us back away from the building I was concerned that the building was going to collapse,” she said.
“I definitely knew that what was happening was not a false alarm.”
She said she was happy with the way she has been treated.
“I feel that the builders are being very fair to us,” she said.
“I am in five-star accommodation and they are covering my expenses.”
But the government employee added: “I am going to be putting in a claim for lost wages, however, because of what has happened.”
Father Danny Music, 35, lives in the Meriton building opposite Opal Tower and was evacuated with hundreds of other residents.
As the father of a 10-month-old girl preparing for Christmas lunch the next day, his plans were thrown into disarray.
After being evacuated at about 2.45pm on Christmas Eve, he was allowed back into his apartment with his family at about midnight. Mr Music said: “When everyone was evacuated there were a lot of families out on the street not knowing what was going on.
“There were a lot of babies crying. The problem was that emergency services didn’t know what was happening so we just hung around.
“It was very stressful the next morning running around trying to get everything ready for Christmas lunch. It certainly was not the Christmas we were hoping for.”
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